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02/01/09 Light and Lively, Casa Vieja Style
February 2009
Sport Fishing Magazine
FOR THE RECORD
Light and Lively, Casa Vieja Style
By Tred Barta
After fishing four decades with ultralight tackle, I’m still learning, still making colossal mistakes and stupendous miscalculations.
But amazingly, not on this trip. My wife, Anni, and I just returned from our fourth trip to the Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala. I fished with one of my favorite captains anywhere — Chris Sheeder — on a 40-foot Gamefisherman called Buddy Boy. Anni fished aboard Release, a 37-foot Merritt, with the Turner family that owns the lodge. I targeted sails and marlin on light tackle, while Anni went after sailfish and dolphin on fly. Casa Vieja operates six Hemingway-esque boats: two Merritts, a Rybovich, a Whiticar and two Gamefishermans — and every one of them raises fish like crazy.
My goal was to exclusively fish 4-poundtest tackle for big Pacific sailfish and 16-pound gear for blue marlin. Let me share with you the hookup techniques I’ve found work best when using circle hooks pinned to small and medium ballyhoo on 4-pound-test. Believe me when I tell you it’s been a painful learning process!
Chris and I trolled only hookless teasers — standard bait-and-switch procedure. For our teaser lures, we used Mold Craft flatheads on both short and long riggers. Chris controls the long riggers from the helm via electric reels. The two mates work the left and right short riggers manually with teaser rods. And we leave the middle of the s p read empty and uncluttered for a potential drop-back on 4-pound line.
Upon raising a sail on a long rigger, the captain reels in the lure — with the sailfish following it — until it comes up even with one of the shortrigger teasers. The fish either transfers its attention to the short teaser or continues to follow the long as it moves closer to the boat. Either way, the fish is lured ever closer to the transom. I prepare to fire back a ballyhoo on a circle hook, tied to a 4-foot piece of 40-pound fluorocarbon leader and 15-foot section of 50-pound monofilament wind-on leader. I wait till the short-rigger lure almost lifts out of the water to fire back my bait. Ideally, the sail eats the bait no more than 25 feet off the transom — barely beyond the wind-on leader.
If things go as planned (ha!), the sail inhales the bait, and I free-spool for the drop-back. Interestingly, we do something very different at this point: Chris backs down while I drop back. (Of course, calm seas are key here.) When it’s time to try the hookup, I reel in the slack line. Just before my wind-on leader goes back on the reel, Chris pulls the throttles back into neutral, and we just drift forward. Most of the time, with only five feet of line in the water, I have virtually no line stretch to deal with. Hopefully, the quiet, unsuspecting sail feels nothing. This allows me to use thumb pressure to increase my normal strike drag from 3⁄4 of a pound at strike to almost 3 pounds to establish a hook-set. In other words, the main trick to using 4-pound-test line while fishing for big sails is to get really, really close on the initial hookup — hopefully with the boat hardly moving.
We all know what they say about the best-laid plans. Well, during my first day we went three- for- three on sails on 4- pound and two-for-two on blue marlin (one about 200 pounds and the other around 280) on 16-pound-test. They provided spectacular fights, making for ultralight tackle fishing at its absolute best.
Sometimes on ultralight tackle, the mere action of a billfish trying to regurgitate the bait after it feels something is wrong helps to lodge a circle hook properly in the corner of the mouth on the way out. But setting up on a quiet, unsuspecting billfish only 15 to 20 feet from you usually re q u i res you to move the rod tip at right angles to or opposite the direction the fish is moving for the most effective hook-set.
Sometimes, continued learning confirm s what you knew in the first place. Three for- three on 4-pound constituted a good reminder: Tease ’em up, get ’em short and back up.
Till next Tide,
Capt. Tred Barta
Sport Fishing Magazine
FOR THE RECORD
Light and Lively, Casa Vieja Style
By Tred Barta
After fishing four decades with ultralight tackle, I’m still learning, still making colossal mistakes and stupendous miscalculations.
But amazingly, not on this trip. My wife, Anni, and I just returned from our fourth trip to the Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala. I fished with one of my favorite captains anywhere — Chris Sheeder — on a 40-foot Gamefisherman called Buddy Boy. Anni fished aboard Release, a 37-foot Merritt, with the Turner family that owns the lodge. I targeted sails and marlin on light tackle, while Anni went after sailfish and dolphin on fly. Casa Vieja operates six Hemingway-esque boats: two Merritts, a Rybovich, a Whiticar and two Gamefishermans — and every one of them raises fish like crazy.
My goal was to exclusively fish 4-poundtest tackle for big Pacific sailfish and 16-pound gear for blue marlin. Let me share with you the hookup techniques I’ve found work best when using circle hooks pinned to small and medium ballyhoo on 4-pound-test. Believe me when I tell you it’s been a painful learning process!
Chris and I trolled only hookless teasers — standard bait-and-switch procedure. For our teaser lures, we used Mold Craft flatheads on both short and long riggers. Chris controls the long riggers from the helm via electric reels. The two mates work the left and right short riggers manually with teaser rods. And we leave the middle of the s p read empty and uncluttered for a potential drop-back on 4-pound line.Upon raising a sail on a long rigger, the captain reels in the lure — with the sailfish following it — until it comes up even with one of the shortrigger teasers. The fish either transfers its attention to the short teaser or continues to follow the long as it moves closer to the boat. Either way, the fish is lured ever closer to the transom. I prepare to fire back a ballyhoo on a circle hook, tied to a 4-foot piece of 40-pound fluorocarbon leader and 15-foot section of 50-pound monofilament wind-on leader. I wait till the short-rigger lure almost lifts out of the water to fire back my bait. Ideally, the sail eats the bait no more than 25 feet off the transom — barely beyond the wind-on leader.
If things go as planned (ha!), the sail inhales the bait, and I free-spool for the drop-back. Interestingly, we do something very different at this point: Chris backs down while I drop back. (Of course, calm seas are key here.) When it’s time to try the hookup, I reel in the slack line. Just before my wind-on leader goes back on the reel, Chris pulls the throttles back into neutral, and we just drift forward. Most of the time, with only five feet of line in the water, I have virtually no line stretch to deal with. Hopefully, the quiet, unsuspecting sail feels nothing. This allows me to use thumb pressure to increase my normal strike drag from 3⁄4 of a pound at strike to almost 3 pounds to establish a hook-set. In other words, the main trick to using 4-pound-test line while fishing for big sails is to get really, really close on the initial hookup — hopefully with the boat hardly moving.
We all know what they say about the best-laid plans. Well, during my first day we went three- for- three on sails on 4- pound and two-for-two on blue marlin (one about 200 pounds and the other around 280) on 16-pound-test. They provided spectacular fights, making for ultralight tackle fishing at its absolute best.
Sometimes on ultralight tackle, the mere action of a billfish trying to regurgitate the bait after it feels something is wrong helps to lodge a circle hook properly in the corner of the mouth on the way out. But setting up on a quiet, unsuspecting billfish only 15 to 20 feet from you usually re q u i res you to move the rod tip at right angles to or opposite the direction the fish is moving for the most effective hook-set.
Sometimes, continued learning confirm s what you knew in the first place. Three for- three on 4-pound constituted a good reminder: Tease ’em up, get ’em short and back up.
Till next Tide,
Capt. Tred Barta
