Although we were trolling in Nicaraguan waters, we could still see Cabo Santa Elena, a prominent headland in northwest Costa Rica that guards the entrance to the Gulf of Papagallo, lying about 15 miles to the south-east.  Anglers fishing out of Costa Rican ports such as Ocotal and Flamingo rarely see the west face of Cabo Santa Elena, as it marks the border with neighboring Nicaragua.  We were right where we wanted to be - 35 miles off-shore on a southwesterly course from San Juan del Sur that would bring us to the edge of the continental shelf.

With four softheads working nicely in the spread, our confidence was high, especially since one of the boats was already working on a marlin.  At the 42-mile mark, we started running out of surface activity and decided to work back on an easterly heading. When we began flushing flying fish from the bow and noticed a few more birds feeding over schools of black skipjack, we started to troll a box pattern around this oasis of life in an otherwise vast desert of water.  This pattern put us on three dorado to 35 pounds, but by 11 a.m. we were still waiting for a marlin strike.  As Fernandez turned the 23-foot SeaCraft into the chop, the starboard rigger loaded up and popped with our first big strike on a blue. The blue ate a chartreuse-

and-white Moldcraft Super Chugger before getting up on its tail for a stroll around the boat. After 45 minutes the fish began to tire, but it managed just one last violent head shake that secured its freedom right at the transom.

     Estimated at 300 pounds, the blue hit the average mark for these waters where a 500-pounder is considered large.  In addition to this blue, our small "fleet" accounted for three more blue marlin that day estimated at 250, 450, and 500 pounds, as well as several sailfish, yellowfin tuna to 80 pounds, dorado to 38 pounds and a wahoo.