Alkis Kourkoulos scored the fish-of-a-lifetime with Captain Fico on January 30. This monstrous Black Marlin was no match for this Clearwater, FL-based angler.
Safely handled and released by new Mate Elias.
Wonderful work by the barroom brawlin’ super panga Explorer!
The Explorer finished of the month with a hot streak of great catches. This Marlin scored by Tyler Hawes is clearly the leader of the pack:
Then the barroom brawler started racking up Sailfish releases by the bunches.
It’s wasn’t just trophy releases being scored by the Super panga; Captain Carlos and Mate Kevin also filled up the icebox with Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna:
Also, local diver Gustavo Villalobos Jimรฉnez took a quick ride out of the bay and dove down for a pair of tasty Langostas (lobsters):
Fantastic action from the baddest 26-foot boat in the country!
The mighty Wanderer delivered the goods for Gary Pickel and his family with a MASSIVE Black Marlin release:
This beast hit the hook just after 9am and put up a 30 minute fight leading to a safe release.
After the safe release by First Mate Alex, they scored a nice pair of Sailfish:
Then they backed up the monster billfish with a slew of big Yellowfin Tunas…Captain William knows that you follow the birds and the porpoises to the land of giant Yella Fellas:
Great fish-hunting by Master Captain William and the flagship Wanderer.
Sometimes it’s best to let the anglers do the talking…here’s a review from angler Andre Carbo of their recent trip:
After reading an article in Florida Sportsman a few months back, 3 of us booked a 5 day trip with Nosara Paradise Rentals. We flew into Liberia airport on May 28th and took the 2 1/2 hour drive to Nosara. It is a very remote resort with the last 20 miles being a slow drive due to gravel pot hole ridden roads. Each day we woke up at 6am to a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, cereal, yogurt an fruit. We came back to a clean house and washed/folded laundry.
We did a 3 full day offshore trip on the Wanderer, a 31′ T-craft, with William and Alex. I couldn’t be happier with the experience we had with those two. On day 1 they picked us up at 615am and drove us to the bay. We took a small craft out to the Wanderer where we headed out each day. We went out to the fishing grounds where they looked for schools of bait, dolphins feeding or floating debris.
The first catch of the day was an 80 or so pound Sailfish that I hooked into. What a great way to start the day out. We came across a piece of debris and caught numerous small yellowfin tuna as bait. A little while later, BAM!! A Blue Marlin. After a good 45 minute fight we landed him.
The rest of the day we caught numerous small YellowFin which made great boat side shashimi and dinner that night.
On Day 2, we headed out at the usual time and headed out looking bait fish. Soon, we found a huge pod of dolphins and birds feeding. It was a sight worth seeing. So, we trolled live bait and ballyhoo and caught 3 30-40 pound yellowfins at the same time. A TRIPLE HOOKUP!
A little later we had a double hook up that resulted in the biggest tuna I’ve ever had on a line. About 10 minutes in it shook the hook. I was a little disappointed but, it was a big change from what we usually catch from kayaks here in S. FL. The rest of the day was spent catching small tuna which resulted in seared tuna and shashimi for dinner the next two nights.
On the final day, we headed out and slammed a 100-120 pound spearfish. Which is one beautiful and colorful to see coming up from the water. We later found some dolphin feeding and spent a couple of hours catching eight 10-15 pound yellowfins.
We started heading in for the day and Alex spotted a log floating that was covered in bait.
They went out of their way to try to land us another Marlin. After we caught a few tuna, we rigged them up and trolled for Marlin. About 40 minutes in we hooked a 400 plus pound Blue Marlin. It was some of the most magnificent jumps I had seen in a while. After a brief 20 minute fight I landed the biggest fish yet.
A perfect end to a amazing offshore trip. A big thanks to Alex and William for a memorable experience.
It’s unusual for us to get an email from a client mere minutes after they get back to shore, but Roy Jackson hit us up with the email titled: Awesome Day!
“4 sails and one 400 lb marlin. Got some great HD video of the marlin on the gopro. That was a long 45 minutes to land it.“
Now let’s enjoy some photos from this fight:
The rest of the day had strong action for Roy and the whole family.
The kids really put on a show with a Double Sailfish release, expertly coordinated by First Mate Alex.
It’s always great to see youngsters posting such great results. Fantastic fishing day by the Jackson family and the mighty Wanderer!