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				“The Roosters of Dominical” Saltwater Fly Fishing By Phil H. Shook Out of nowhere the dark shapes of roosterfish appear at the surface, thrashing and boiling behind the hookless plug that I am frantically retrieving from a jagged sculpture of wave-washed rocks off Dominical Beach, Costa Rica. "Hear they come," I yell, as I watch these brilliantly-marked bullies fight each other to get at the darting teaser lure. At my side on the cockpit rail, Lindsay Sharpe, my fishing partner, holds a 12-wgt. and waits for me to draw them into casting range so he can drop a big popper in the melee. I am excited, riveted by the sight of the charging roosters and caught a little off guard. After all, this was our first stop and my first cast with the teaser plug on a day-long visit to these roosterfish lairs on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. I didn't think it would be this easy. Largely overlooked by fly fishers drawn each year to the Pacific sailfish and yellowfin tuna migrations in the bountiful waters off Quepos is this exciting nearshore action for roosterfish. On this spring trip, fishing under a new moon and a gentle Pacific swell, we enjoyed a day full of action, finding rafts of roosters, jacks and snappers holding on a dozen different rocky haunts off Dominical's beaches and there wasn't another boat seen the entire day. To get to these rocks, we made the 45-minute run southward down the coast from the Quepos docks, past the shorelines of the spectacular Manual Antonio National Park to Dominical, a tiny town whose remote jungle and striking shorelines also lure gypsy surfers as well as Sports Illustrated swimsuit models and their entourages of photographers. Just off the Dominical beaches are a series of rock outcroppings that are home to an entrenched population of graphite-testing, tippet-straining roosterfish, cubera snapper and bluefin trevally. James Smith, our Costa Rican captain, says he has taken roosters up to 40 pounds and cubera snapper to 50 pounds off these rocks. During the dry season, flyfishers also prospect the river mouths in the area for Pacific snook, which run to 40 pounds in this area. A flyfishing trip to Dominical's shores usually starts with a stop in Quepos harbor to take a turn with the throw net and fill the live well with sardines. These will be used along with the big, six-inch-long surf plugs, to tease the roosterfish into fly casting range. For this roosterfish expedition, Lindsay and I and veteran Houston flyfisher Frank Budd chartered the Sea Lady, a 34-foot Crusader in Smith's skillful hands. The sleek, fast, Quepos-based sportfisher is a veteran of many billfish campaigns. It is ideally suited for the close quarters maneuvering required for casting to roosterfish around the wave-washed rocks that lie about 2 miles off Dominical's beaches. Known as aggressive feeders and powerful fighters, roosterfish would seem to be a cinch to hook on a fly once they are teased into a feeding frenzy. But previous attempts in other prime Roosterfish waters off La Paz in the Sea of Cortez and along Mexico's Pacific coast had shown me how difficult it can be to take these extremely wary and instinctive predators on a fly. Predictably, on the Dominical rocks it was one thing to get an immediate response from big roosters usually in pairs or trios, boiling and exploding on the teaser plugs. But it was another thing, once they were drawn into range, to hook one of them. It meant timing a long cast with a bulky fly or popper and then deftly beginning the strip almost before the fly landed in order to impart the action needed to draw the strike. After all three of us took a turn casting at the rail, often watching incoming fish bail out at the outer limits of our casting range -- 70- to 90 feet from a pitching deck -- we knew our work was cut out for us. "Some days the roosters will stay on the teasers longer than on other days," Capt. Smith reminded us. But despite frequent near misses, each roosterfish episode was a memorable experience for everyone in the boat. Taking a turn with the teasing rod to draw the big roosters in ran a close second in excitement to getting a strike on a well placed popper or streamer. After awhile, when the roosters began to ignore the teaser plugs, we teased them up with live offerings and went deep with sinking lines and weighted flies to reach them. From his vantage point on the fly bridge, Capt. Smith frequently pointed out groups of roosters and cubera snapper up to 40 lbs. cruising beneath us in the turbulent but clear water around the rocks. Dropping a blue and white Clouser Deep Minnow pattern down in the current Lindsay got one of the most savage and powerful strikes I have ever seen on a flyrod. He lurched forward when the fish struck and then he was jarred again when it accelerated and took line deep into his backing. The fish, which we speculated was a big rooster or perhaps a cubera snapper, never slowed down before cutting him off on the rocks. On the way back to Quepos, we reflected on a day filled with excitement and opportunity and many lessons learned on the Dominical rocks. Our scorecard for the day showed dozens of roosters teased to the boat, one 25-pound roosterfish and one 18-pound blue trevally landed and released, and all of our tackle still intact. I recalled the sound advice that my friend Stan Lushinsky, an outfitter with Ixtapa Sportfishing Charters, gave me before I made the trip to Quepos. He has guided flyfishers on many successful roosterfish adventures from La Paz in the Sea of Cortez to the waters around Zihuatanejo, Mexico and he offered some valuable tips for teasing roosters into flycasting range both from the surf and around rocky outcrops. "The casts are long and the retrieve must be very fast," Lushinsky says. "Speed is the key to top water teasing and the coordination between the mate, the angler and the captain." Normally a teased roosterfish will be accessible to the fly for about three to five seconds and then it will be gone, he says. "In that amount of time, the captain has to put the boat in neutral, the mate must pull the teaser out of the water and the angler has to make his cast in front of the charging fish." Sometimes everything falls into place. He told of a recent trip off Zihuatanejo guiding a novice flyfisher. "I told him how difficult these fish were to catch and how he should not get discouraged if the fish didn't come into the strike zone or if he did not make a timely cast. Lushinsky patiently explained to the beginner that the fly fishing they were about to do was among the most challenging in the sport. "If we get one successful transfer and hookup, then we should consider the day a success," Lushinsky told him. On his first cast with the teasing plug, Lushinsky says a rooster charged the boat, the novice made the cast, hooked the fish and landed a 37-pounder after an hour long fight. Ten- to 12-weight fly tackle matched with intermediate or full sink lines or shooting heads is a good choice for combat with roosterfish around the rocks. Scientific Anglers' 120-foot striper lines or Orvis' Slyline intermediates are good choices for the roosterfish grounds, as are Cortland's 280-grain Shooting Taper, Airflo's density-compensated Delta Taper lines, and Teeny shooting heads. Reels should have the capacity to hold 250- to 300-yards of 30 lb. backing and short--three to six foot--leaders should include a 50- to 80-pound bite tippet. Flycasters should take a selection of fly patterns that will closely approximate the pencil poppers and live bait used for teasing, which includes Clousers, Deceivers and baitfish patterns in sizes from No. 1 all the way to 6/0 tandem hook sailfish patterns. Russ Hampton's Saltwater Sythetics poppers and ALF flies, Nick Curcione's Big Game Fly and Trey Combs Sea Habit are good choices around the Dominical rocks. Before our trip to Quepos and Dominical's roosterfish havens, we purchased a supply of teaser plugs, bent back the treble hooks and spent a few practice sessions casting them with spinning tackle. Taking along sturdy, well-balanced, smooth-casting teasing tackle is a must for making the necessary long casts with the heavy plugs around breaking surf and shoreline rocks. Roosters have been known to run 100 yards with a hookless plug so a stiff, travel-friendly spinning rod like the G Loomis 3-piece, 7 ft. GL3 matched with a high capacity spinning reel like the Diawa 5500T Emblem X reel loaded with 50 lb. test braided line will stand up to the task. The 6-inch long red and white or black and chrome Cotton Cordell pencil poppers are the teaser lures of choice for roosters up and down the Pacific Coast. After our trip, I thought seriously about designing two new roosterfish flies specifically for the Dominical rocks-- the HTC (Here They Come) and the MSQ (Must Strip Quicker). April/May 2002