Carlson’s Sailfish Photo Assault 5

If you look closely you'll see three 35 mm SLR's and a Sony compact in his beard. Or is that leftover pizza? It's hard to tell from this angle. 

Nelson and I had the distinct pleasure of working with fishing photographer Collin Carlson from Finpusher.com on the Outdoor Line Billfish Bonanza trip last week in Costa Rica. Three weeks before we left I had mentioned to the fellars over at Outer Escape that we were looking for someone to snap photos in Costa Rica. They gave me a name and less than a minute later Collin and I were chatting on the interwebs and he had agreed to join us. His quick decision to join our Costa Rican may-lay gave me a high level of comfort. He was a fishing freakazoid just like us. Sailfish, sunshine, rum…I'm in!

Carlson's a Utah native that's spent his entire life catching and photographing trout, muskies, and anything that swims in his home state. Photographing saltwater speedsters would be a new gig for Carlson, but after checking out his portfolio I was more than confident he could pull it off. 

Outside of his mad skills on the lens there are other attributes to this fine man. At any given moment he could pull something out his beard. Combs, belt buckles, bottle openers, shoe laces, flip flops, sunscreen, nail files…hundreds of useful items conveniently located right there within his wooly beard. It's like a built in carry-on luggage bag right there on his chinny-chin-chin. Ingenius!    

Carlson ended up with 2,700 images from the Billfish Bonanza and these are just a handful of the smoking hot sailfish photos he bombed me with yesterday. I wanna go back!

Carlson got dangerously close to the bill on this one. The bill is covered with 80 grit sand paper that shreds skin easily. I got lightly brushed by one of these pokers in Panama several years ago and it gave me a nice scrape similar to a road rash.  

Sailfish possess freakish speed and the aerial displays can take your breath away. They are the perfect specimen for the camera.

30 pound high-vis mainline, a Bimini twist, and 15 feet of 130 pound leader are all that holds this bad boy.

Coming in hot! I guess when you handle bills for a living you get a feel for their movements and are able to avoid that pokey thing on their yapper. They always freak me out a little when they are boatside. In the late 90's I met legendary Kona billfish captain McGrew Rice, who had a deep scar from his temple all the way across his chin. As a teenage mate on his dads charter boat he was handling a large blue marlin and he zigged when he should've zagged. The marlin's bill slashed McGrew's face deeply and he bears the tell tale scar to this day. 

Incoming! Carlson snapped this photo as a 120 pound sail went schizo when the mate grabbed the leader. 

Sailfish stun their prey with their bill before clamping down on it with their hydrodynamic mouth. At 50 plus mph there's enough pressure to flush any mildly stunned baitfish quickly and decisively down their throat.

The huge eyeball lets them see great distances in vodka clear water.

Thus the name. You'll see them basking on the surface with their sails held high. Here's some Sailfish Video Footage of just such a thing.

Take me to your leader!

The very second a sailfish comes out of the water the vibrant blue color on their flanks becomes a golden brown.

This one's ready for the X Games!

I'm amazed by fish in general, but the bluewater species simply blow me away. To survive in the crystal clear waters near the Equator a fish has to be lightning fast. Sailfish are thought to be one of the speediest fish in the ocean and experts believe they can swim at speeds well beyond 50 miles per hour. Having been involved with countless sailfish I would have to agree.

Carlson, the lifelong trout bum, was so touched by these spectacular fish that he wouldn't stop talking about his next bluewater adventure in search of these speedsters. When he does go I can only hope he'll grace us with a few of his photos!

I'll be posting a photo barrage from the trip right here on my blog and over on the Outdoor Line Forums. Stay tuned…there's more where this came from! 

Rob Endsley
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com