Joel & Carie from Michigan joined us aboard GOOD DAY yesterday & we’re hoping to tick some new species off their Bucketlists. Each of them released their first ever Sailfish, we caught 2 Sails, lost a 3rd and missed a 4th. (5 raised in total). On the way home home we decided to try for Joel’s Dream Roosterfish, after 1/2 an hour we hadn’t had s bite, the swells were large and the water was really murky. Just when we were going to throw in the towel, we started getting bites on our large Bonito livebaits. Joel caught a stunning Cubera Snapper and we lost/missed what looked like 3 Roosterfish during a frantic period. Eventually we ran out of live bait and headed home, Joel will have to wait for his Roosterfish but was pleased to get Sailfish & Cubera Snapper ticked off his list. Catch Report 2 for 4 Sailfish 1 Cubera Snapper All fish were tagged & released for Gray FishTag Research

SATELLITE TAGGING ROOSTERFISH! During Friday’s trip aboard GOOD DAY here in Costa Rica we set out on an Inshore Fishing expedition & travelled 25 miles down the coast to the Dominical/Uvita area. Thomas, Brooke, Scott, Michael & Conor from Georgia joined us, we were going to target some Roosterfish and hopefully find some time to target Snook/Snapper also. During the ride south, we encountered some huge swells and the beaches/rivermouths did not look too favorable so we focused our time on the rocks & islands slightly offshore. After a slow start we finally found some action & hooked a nice Roosterfish which unfortunately broke the leader after some solid runs. We didn’t have to wait long before we hooked up again with Thomas & Conor soon fighting a double. 10 & 20 minute fights played out and during this time a 3rd Rooster was hooked. We tagged & released both fish, est. in the 20-24lb range but the 3rd fish looked in a completely different league stripping tons of line & the reel was right down to the backing. A long battle persued & when we first got sight of the fish, we knew Scott had hooked something special. I had spent time earlier in the day explaining to the guys the 2023 Roosterfish study and that we had a Satellite tag aboard which we wanted to deploy in the right fish in the very near future. Last year we collectively Satellite tagged 4 Roosterfish and around 65 fixed green spaghetti (non Satellite) tags out of Quepos but our efforts are focused on making 2023 our best year ever in terms of Roosterfish tagging to continue to further our understanding of this iconic species. Scott kindly agreed to jump on board with our 2023 Roosterfish program & help co Sponser the Satellite tag, we now had the small task of taking this beast which continued to empty the reel every time it caught sight of the boat. A huge thanks to all of our sponsers & supporters for making the Roosterfish study possible. Fish Seaguar Flurocarbon PENN Fishing Rods & Reels Seaguar Fluorocarbon Fin-Nor Sunglasses Simrad Yachting American Fishing Wire Gray Taxidermy Starbrite and everyone else who has supported our program Gray FishTag Research, The Ramiro N. Ortiz Family & Marina Pez Vela have gone above and beyond to further our Roosterfish study, aboard GOOD DAY we get to do the fun part of targeting & tagging these amazing fish, but behind the scenes it literally takes a village to pull all of this together continue to raise the funds (thousands per Satellite Tag) to make this possible. Roosterfish have been targeted in this part of the world for a long time but there is a surprising lack of scientific data to evidence their behaviors, movements & migratory patterns. Hopefully we are playing a small part in furthering this understanding & making the information public. After a grueling battle on light 40lb SEAGUAR Flurocarbon Scott finally got the Roosterfish boatside. It measured 55” in length, it was a really chunky fish which we estimated at 60-65lbs. After a quick photo & tag deployment we sent this stunning fish on its way with a 3 month pop off Satellite tag attached and cannot wait to see where this fish travels to over the coming months. Catch Report 3 for 4 Roosterfish And Huge congrats to Scott for the fish of a lifetime….on his 1st ever day of Saltwater fishing! ???

It was such a pleasure to have our great friends George Scholes, Peyton Ann Thompson Wells, Jerry Wells & Keith back aboard GOOD DAY yeserday. It’s been a while since Peyton’s Pirates sailed the high seas with us & it was such a great day on the water in stunning weather & flat calm conditions. We caught 2 Sailfish which we tagged for Gray FishTag Research & were unlucky to miss a Marlin. We found a nice Tuna school but they had lockjaw & no luck on that front. Catch Report 2 for 3 on Sailfish 0 for 1 on Blue Marlin Inshore Roosterfish hunting today, wish us luck!

2023 Marina Pez Vela Open starts now, TEAM LUCKY, wish us luck!! ???

2 Sailfish & 1 Dorado for Chris & Amy from Texas aboard GOOD DAY today. Nice to get another Sailfish tagged for Gray FishTag Research & huge congrats to Chris & Amy with their 1st ever Billfish of 100” & 105” respectively! We seen some cool Marine Life today including a good sized Hammerhead Shark swimming on the surface, jumping manta rays, plenty of dolphins, turtles & some free swimming Sailfish. Back out there tomorrow with our friends from N.Carolina! ??

Nice Inshore trip today aboard GOOD DAY with Chris & Amy joining us from Texas. The Roosters were biting good & the guys caught 5 nice Roosterfish in the 35-40” range, the best fish going around 25lbs caught by Amy after a 20 minute tussle! Great to get a couple of tags deployed for Gray FishTag Research & great news of a Roosterfish tag recapture just 2 days back by Capt. Roy Zapata, looking forward to finding out the details of where that Roosterfish travelled!