NOTHING LIKE IT

Few things compare to the thrill of hooking a blue marlin on a fly.

I was standing at the stern of Tuna Trappe, a 57-foot Island Boat Works captained by Chris Sheeder. Behind me, a 300-pound blue marlin was tail-walking, completely out of the water, for maybe 20 jumps. This adventure was born more than a year ago when Sheeder posted a photo of his boat’s 26 marlin releases over a three-day trip to Costa Rica’s fish aggregating devices 70 to 130 miles into the Pacific. I’d heard about these FADs perched on seamounts, and when Sheeder had a cancellation last year, Rufus Wakeman and I jumped at the chance to join him.

I also had heard horror stories about melted drags and broken rods, and charter captain Jake Jordan insists that the only fly reel that can tolerate a blue marlin is a Mako 9700, which I do not own. Wakeman, who has been catching marlin on the fly for years, was bringing three Temple Fork billfish rods and Nautilus Monster reels, so all I packed was my Nautilus Monster and my cameras.

We arrived at Marina Pez Vela, the lodge in Quepos, Costa Rica, in time for a late lunch. Shortly thereafter we were heading for the FADs. The plan was to run off shore at night and start fishing at daylight. We would fish from dawn to dusk for three days. Our destination was a half-dozen seamounts that rise