steveo955
12-14-2013, 06:21 PM
recently back from a trip to quepos, costa rica. we were there from nov 10th to nov 23rd, the rainy season was supposed to be over, IT WASN'T! it rained for 13 days with a few sunny breaks. we got out fishing twice, once off shore with franklin on the big eye II (recommended by elnino54) and one day with capt. john on the stress reliever II.
I guess I should start by saying that there is a big difference between a good Captain and a poor/average one. a poor/average Captain will catch fish when the fishing is good and a good captain will catch fish when the fishing is poor!
I have been on way too many unsuccessful boat rides because I cheaped out and went with a captain that was a better price. Captain franklin was at the higher end of average price at $1200/day but thankfully my wife talked me into using him for a day instead of the stress reliever II at $800/day. we ended up fishing with franklin for a day and him and his crew were awesome. we fished with john for a day inshore ($500/day) and it was terrible. we just did circles around the same rock outcrops close to the dock until I pulled the pin at 14:00 3 hours early. we had caught 2 mackerel and didn't see anything close to a rooster.
this was our day with frankly:
we were on the water by 7 headed out to the blue water. mates coco and Jackson were very attentive and talkative. they knew their jobs and never had to be told by franklin to do anything, very calm atmosphere. I've been on lots of boats where the captain is always yelling at the mates, by 7:45 we had the teasers and a couple dead baits in the water. it was probably only 5 min before the first fish was in the spread, then it was chaos until lunch time. we had 14 sails into the spread before lunch and had hooked 10 of them! we landed all 5 that stayed on long enough for the mates to hand off the rods to us.
time for lunch! we then switched gears and started chasing dorado. we hooked quite a few and landed 5, we managed 3 tuna as well. one was a small yellowfin that Jackson quickly cut up nice and thin and mixed up some soy and wasabi for us, it doesn't get much fresher than this!
just at the end of the day, we decided to try for a couple bottom fish and hooked into a 40# amberjack, wow are they tough fighters!
Again, thanks to elnino54 for the hook up with Franklin! anyone going to that area to fish wold be crazy not to fish with the big eye II.
here are a few pics, hope they come through.http://s1345.photobucket.com/user/stevethistle/media/IMG_3722_zps8f2005f6.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2
I guess I should start by saying that there is a big difference between a good Captain and a poor/average one. a poor/average Captain will catch fish when the fishing is good and a good captain will catch fish when the fishing is poor!
I have been on way too many unsuccessful boat rides because I cheaped out and went with a captain that was a better price. Captain franklin was at the higher end of average price at $1200/day but thankfully my wife talked me into using him for a day instead of the stress reliever II at $800/day. we ended up fishing with franklin for a day and him and his crew were awesome. we fished with john for a day inshore ($500/day) and it was terrible. we just did circles around the same rock outcrops close to the dock until I pulled the pin at 14:00 3 hours early. we had caught 2 mackerel and didn't see anything close to a rooster.
this was our day with frankly:
we were on the water by 7 headed out to the blue water. mates coco and Jackson were very attentive and talkative. they knew their jobs and never had to be told by franklin to do anything, very calm atmosphere. I've been on lots of boats where the captain is always yelling at the mates, by 7:45 we had the teasers and a couple dead baits in the water. it was probably only 5 min before the first fish was in the spread, then it was chaos until lunch time. we had 14 sails into the spread before lunch and had hooked 10 of them! we landed all 5 that stayed on long enough for the mates to hand off the rods to us.
time for lunch! we then switched gears and started chasing dorado. we hooked quite a few and landed 5, we managed 3 tuna as well. one was a small yellowfin that Jackson quickly cut up nice and thin and mixed up some soy and wasabi for us, it doesn't get much fresher than this!
just at the end of the day, we decided to try for a couple bottom fish and hooked into a 40# amberjack, wow are they tough fighters!
Again, thanks to elnino54 for the hook up with Franklin! anyone going to that area to fish wold be crazy not to fish with the big eye II.
here are a few pics, hope they come through.http://s1345.photobucket.com/user/stevethistle/media/IMG_3722_zps8f2005f6.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2