If you have spent any time on social media in the last few years, you have likely stumbled across some insane fly-fishing content from Mag Bay. Chances are that clip involved a marlin slashing through a bait ball or chasing down a fly. Magdalena Bay has built quite the reputation in recent years as a world-class angling destination home to incredible numbers of striped marlin for portions of the year. Knowing this, Costa initiated the Marlin Fly Project to learn more about this incredible fishery to protect these fish and local communities for the long term.
Late in 2022, dozens of Costa Pros and scientists traveled to Los Locos, Mag Bay to deploy 15 satellite tags into fly-caught marlin. The Costa crew successfully deployed all the tags in two days and made history with the first recorded billfish research campaign using exclusively fly fishing tackle.
We recently sat down with Costa’s Conservation and Community Manager Joe Gugino to learn more about this awesome project–follow along for more on the Marlin Fly Project and some great stories!
Flylords: Before we get into the genesis and impact of this project…I’ve got to ask you first what everyone is thinking: “Marlin on the fly?! How epic and borderline insane is this idea?”
Joe: Yeah. Marlin on the fly. It is as insane as it sounds. You see all the epic photos and videos and you know it is going to be awesome, but I promise, it is even better than you think. I’ve heard stories of people doing this sort of thing around Mag Bay, but it seems like the boys of Los Locos have really put it on the map. It’s something everyone should experience in person.
The fishery itself is incredible, and one that’s appreciated by so many, from divers and sportfishers to those crazy enough, like us, to pursue it on the fly…and from a panga! The visuals are amazing, but it’s the full experience. You run miles and miles (hours) on a panga out of Mag Bay and into the open ocean looking for the swirling vortex of frigates. Once you find them, you’ll start seeing the marlin slash through the water. Throw your fly in, get tight, and watch the acrobatics while line is just peeling off your reel…the whole thing is insane. And it doesn’t feel any more real once you get the marlin boatside. Your adrenaline is pumping and you’re just there reviving it and admiring its beauty before safely releasing it back…yeah, you gotta do it.
Flylords: Tell us a little bit about how the Marlin Fly Project came to be.
Joe: If you’re a fly angler who’s spent any amount of time on social media, chances are you have seen the awesome photos and ridiculous videos of the scene in Mag Bay. Naturally, we were drawn to it and wanted to experience it for ourselves. We didn’t want to exploit the resource or use the opportunity to just create epic content. We wanted to do something bigger, but we weren’t quite sure what that looked like. So our initial goal was to go down and see what might even be possible, because at Costa we’re always looking for ways to involve community and conservation in everything we do.
Our first thought was maybe we could put on a Costa Marlin Fly Tournament to help call attention to the area, and have the proceeds benefit a conservation partner. Capt. Cody Rubner and I worked on the idea and brought Costa Pros Capt. Brandon Cyr and Capt. Nick Labadie, who are familiar with fishing tournaments, down with us. And thanks to the recommendation from the Los Locos team, we also brought photographer Nick Price to document the experience and help us promote our plan that would come out of this mission.
From the outside, it seemed like the pangas were a cool set-up to possibly have teams of two anglers, competing in a multi-day format. We thought it would be awesome to pair up Costa pros with unique connections (either similar fisheries or regions) to come down and compete and help bring awareness to the area, while connecting it all to a cause. It wasn’t completely formulated in our heads, but that’s why we went…
As expected, we fell in love with the fishery. But even more so, we fell in love with the town and the community surrounding Mag Bay. In the days and weeks that followed, we all sort of knew that a tournament wasn’t the answer here…it was going to be some sort of conservation mission, and the community piece fit right in line with that.
Not sure where to start, we began to have conversations with our partners at the Billfish Foundation and the International Game Fish Association to see if having data on this striped marlin population would be valuable. We were happy to learn at that point that any science we could get would be crucial, as little to none is really known about this species in this area of the world.
And that’s when it clicked for us – what if we helped ensure the health and future of this Mag Bay fishery? We would go down and catch these fish, just like the Los Locos team, and deploy satellite tags to help fill some crucial data gaps. Given the Los Locos operation, it was important for us to catch fish on the fly, just like they do, as part of the study to help them prove they aren’t putting any more stress on the fish than the sportfish boats do.
Flylords: You guys went down to Mag Bay to study this population of striped marlin. What are you hoping to learn, how did you embark on this mission, and how can you leverage this science to protect this incredible resource?
Joe: We wanted to find the best opportunity to learn as much as we could about them. We wanted to get satellite tags to have the most information possible, but satellite tags aren’t cheap.
Costa was able to purchase eight tags from IGFA and TBF. Next thing we know Peter from the Billfish Foundation offers to donate an additional seven tags to bring us to a total of 15 satellite tags for the expedition.
The first goal was to deploy all 15 tags, and after that an additional amount of spaghetti tags as well. The satellite tags will give us valuable information on post-release survivability, where the striped marlin swim, what depth, and what the water temperatures are.
We aren’t entirely sure what will come out of this science, but the ultimate goal is to start to get a baseline on this fish, to be able to set up and protect these species down the road.
Flylords: This project was no small feat, can you tell us more about the partnerships/team that made this possible?
Joe: This project was a big lift from start to finish and required the utmost amount of coordination and planning from a year out, to during the trip, and bringing the story to life after the trip.
In addition to all seven science and community partners we brought along the trip, plus the whole team at Los Locos and the San Carlos Community, we had over 40 people as part of the mission and even more supporting that. The core Marlin Fly Project team consisted of Cody Rubner, Hannah Trotter and myself.
Before we went down, and after successfully securing the tags, we had to figure out a way to transport all the tags and tagging equipment into Mexico. That was all in addition to coordinating 20 people’s flights, from around the country into Baja, transporting everyone 5+ hours north from Cabo to San Carlos, lodging, fishing gear and scheduling.
Cody was the main force behind all the logistics and communication between the scientists.
We had an insane two days of travel for the entire team but once everyone was actually in San Carlos, the next big task was to find the fish, catch the fish and get the tags in the fish. The amount of coordination it took to make sure every boat was set up with the right combination of anglers, scientists and our content team to be set up for success while scattered across the ocean on pangas was no easy feat.
Good news: We got all fifteen satellite tags deployed in just two days of fishing!
Before leaving San Carlos, we celebrated the mission with our whole team and more people from the town at Mar Y Arena, the lodge we were all staying at. The Travel Creel team put out an awesome spread, and we all ate and danced together.
After coming back from the trip, the hard work continued. Cody, Hannah and I worked closely with Perrin and Wiley to put the film together to accurately share the fish-stoke as well as tell the story. Hannah helped take the lead with all of our internal and partner comms to make sure we were aligned with a launch strategy, and eventually executed all external comms.
This trip was a full team effort, but would not have happened or been brought to life the way it was without Cody and Hannah!
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