Fishing Nicaragua: Six miles northwest of Costa Paraiso

After a three mile run and coming into about 200 feet of water, we decided to deploy the spread. I wanted to mix it up a bit as the country had been mixed up a bit a few days prior as Sandinista Daniel Ortega was elected President. I was looking for something in the tackle bag and came across a black and red Islander.

Its not uncommon for us to have an Islander in the spread, but the black and red had only been part of the spread a few other times since we began running charters about 3 years ago, though I’d had great luck with it before as we hooked a sail, just north of San Juan del Sur, over near Brito Point. The black and red flag of the Sandinista party would represent this day and its new regime as a special guest in SANCHO’s lineup.

We all enjoyed it a bit and shouts of – “vive Daniel” and “vive Sandinista” rang out as the red and black was rigged in front of a ballyhoo and put out on the left outrigger. It had been fishy the week before with nice size dorado and sail sightings offshore and big mackerel inshore. We were hoping to get my wife her first sail this day. We had hooked one the day prior, but it wasn’t on for long before it jumped and spit the hook. We had been trolling lines for about an hour and there wasn’t much activity on the water. It was a 3-4 swell with winds at about 10-15 knots. We we trolling with the current and winds, so it was a nice and calm when our mate, Blads and I saw some whitewater around the billy bait that was on the left flat. Neither one of us could see what it was, but it wasn’t a big strike, maybe a bonito or small dorado, then about 10 seconds later Blads yelled, “vela” and as I turned around the big fish was moving from the teaser, straight back off center to the billy bait on the right flat.

Then the fish dropped back and hit the right outrigger which was rigged with an Islander sailure, pink and white. I grabbed the rod as line started to peel off, but then she was gone and over to the left outrigger, the red and black. Line was ripping off the Penn 30TW as I engaged the drag and set the hook. It was rough enough that earlier in the day I had to tighten the outrigger clip as it had kept popping out as we worked our way through the chop. I had been worried that if a smaller dorado hit that it might not clip out. After engaging the drag the line ripped down from the outrigger and line continued to rip off as Jonathan dropped the boat down to first gear and Blads got the belt on Julie and she made her way to the back of the boat. As line continued to pull off – she was about to have a shot at her first sail. Shortly after hookup Julie was on the fish as it continued to pull line and then began to come up for its first jump. As it greyhounded at least 5 feet out of the water maybe 50 yards behind the boat, we all got a glimpse of the monster black marlin for the first time. I looked at my mate and yelled “marlin” and he was looking at me yelling the same thing. “oh my god” came from the captains chair. Julie was hooked in as the marlin ripped line and then resurfaced for several more vertical jumps on the starboard side. This would be the last time we would see the fish for over an hour. The line was ripping off so fast that it was forming a 90 bend. Julie held on for another 10 minutes as line continued to rip off.

We have carried a Braid 2 piece harness on the boat for just such an occasion and had just bought a replacement part.. As she was fighting the fish we scambled to get the harness ready for action.

We had it somewhat put together when Julie decided she had had enough and wanted me to take the fish. I told her it was her fish and she needed to keep it but she insisted. Once she had seen this fish, she had decided that she didn’t want any part of it. I got the harness on and took the rod from my wife. We then got the belt transferred from her to me and began to adjust the rod straps and get the harness working. It wasn’t on right, but did help, so we decided to leave it and focus on the fish. By this time there wasn’t much line left on the reel and we needed to get some of it back. We tried to back down for a bit, but it was tough with the wind and seas so we turned and came along side. For the next hour I slowly began to gain the line back.

We had been rigged for sails that day, so the Penn International II 30TW and Star rod we were using was getting a real workout. We really weren’t expecting anything bigger than than a 150lb sail. Our standard setup is a 30TW rigged with 30lb test and 8 feet of 80lb Ande mono pink leader. We had just put new line on the 30TW. Earlier in the day the captain had pointed out that we needed more 30 lb test line and that we had used 40 lb mono instead of the usual 30. It was filled up and we laughed about if there was too much line on it and didn’t you hate that when you had a fish on and didn’t guide the line right it stopped the reel and your fish dead in its tracks. We both had been there before as we reassured each other that it had been a long time ago. The question of if we had too much line had been answered. We had just enough.

About an hour and a half into the fight, the fish resurfaced about 50 yards behind the boat. It was much larger than we had ever expected and the new estimate was pushing 450lbs! It came up and shook its head at us before making another run. About 2 hours into the fight, we had her right next to the boat as Blads reached out and grabbed the leader. It was official – SANCHO had just caught her first black marlin! We regrouped and tried to piece together what we had just witnessed. We decided to head back to Costa Paraiso Resort. On the troll in we caught several nice dorado, with which we had an amazing dinner.

“Vive Nicaragua and here’s to the red and black!” “May this be a sign of the things to come”