Bob Stearns

I used to fish both coasts of Costa Rica quite often in the late 1970s and early 80s. Back then I found superb fishing for big snook and tarpon on that country’s Caribbean coast and for sailfish and marlin in the Pacific.Although nowadays one can choose from many excellent lodges and resorts with knowledgeable captains, I recall with a lot of fondness those less-complicated earlier years when many local guides eagerly learned how to fish us fly anglers.

Even then, IGFA world records on billfish were already being established on a number of tippet classes – some deliberately, others incidentally. During a Costa Rica trip in August 1979, while employing the now-standard bait-and-switch teasing technique, I unexpectedly connected with an unusually large Pacific sailfish. Purposely targeted or not, I suspected this could be a new world record on 16-pound tippet.

I succeeded in boating that fish, and we excitedly returned to the dock for the weigh-in. Unfortunately, the only scale present had never been previously used for world-record purposes, and IGFA rules specified that in absence of that, a known weight would first be needed to ensure its accuracy.

Knowing the precise weight of my slim wife, Shirley, we put her on the scale and thus determined it was right on the money. The fish weighed 117 pounds, 8 ounces. After complying with the other procedures for a world record, I submitted it. A few weeks later Elwood Harry, then the president of IGFA, called to ask how I had calibrated the scale. When I told him, he must have laughed for 10 minutes. And I got the record.

With the 16-pound tippet record on the books, my thoughts immediately centered on another record when IGFA established a new 8-pound tippet category several years later. Back to Costa Rica I went that August with several friends to the same camp on the Pacific coast just north of Flamingo.

At first, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I hooked four fish on the first day with the 8-pound tippet, losing the first via a wild series of jumps, another when the sailfish made a sudden turn during a deep drive, and the hook pulled on the third. That afternoon in rough 6- to 8-foot seas, I hooked a fish over 100 pounds and fought it for 3 1/2 hours. I finally brought the stubborn sail alongside and the mate, using a 6-foot gaff (since the boat didn’t have an IFGA allowable 8-footer), missed and instead hit the leader. Everyone’s heart sank as we watched the big sailfish revive and slide into the depths.

Redemption came the next morning as we boarded the camp’s 25-foot diesel boat with the same crew, this time determined to make it happen. Again using a Loomis 12-weight rod, a Seamaster reel, Scientific Angler medium-sink line, an extra-long leader to allow more stretch and 24 inches of 8-pound tippet, the first fish of the day was a frisky 66-pound sailfish that nailed my large blue-and-white popper. I boated it in 30 minutes; this time the mate waited patiently until he could get his hands on the bill and we landed it without a gaff.

That record stood for many years, even despite another effort on my part to better it. But soon my own enthusiasm for establishing records began to wane. I couldn’t expect fishing buddies to stand idly by for hours at a time while I played a potential record – after all, they paid for their trips and wanted to fish too. At the same time, I have no beef with those who charter their own trips to pursue world records or the angler who gets lucky.

Eventually both of my records were beaten, but that’s what records are for. Nonetheless, I’ll never forget being the first to set the mark for Pacific sailfish on 8-pound tippet off the great country of Costa Rica.