My wife and I just returned from a trip to Cabo San Lucas Mexico. It was a wonderful trip and all of that blah blah blah, but what I was excited about was my offshore trip. I try and get offshore a couple times a year, but this was my first since last June, so I was really excited. I am on a quest to catch a member of all the billfish family and knock them off my "bucket list" and I am proud to say I notched another one off. It was my first time fishing out of Cabo, but not my first in the Pacific.
The day started off before the sun rose. I met the crew at the boat, and we headed out with a quick stop at the marina for lunches to go and then meeting a "bait man" right before we left the inlet for a 5 gallon bucket of mixed live and frozen bait. Shortly after we were rounding the famed "lands end" and we were off. Best part about Cabo is the closeness of Blue water. A mere 150 meters off shore and it is blue. To get the depth we cruised another maybe 10 mins and lures were in the water. Within the first hour we hand landed a "schoolie" sized dorado and a bull. A nice bull at that. The the excitement started......
Pimi the captain starts yelling in Spanish something I could not understand and chaos erupts. A marlin was near the surface and the live bait rods were ready to be pitched. The deckhand throws one and then I throw one. We circle the marlin and he disappears. In what seems like an eternity, maybe 20 seconds, the deckhand gets bit. I hastily reel in and get the lures reeled in while he clicks the spool on his reel. He hands the rod to me, and gets the rest of the rods reeled in as I began to see an aerial show like out of the movies. Not a great fight, in means of time and strength, but a fun one with multiple jumps and runs before she? tires and comes to the boat. My first Striped Marlin. Around 120lbs or so and after a quick attempt at de-hooking, she was gone. I was a little sad that I didn't even get a picture, but at the same time, happy she swam free.
Not too long afterwards the action restarts, as another Striped Marlin comes and hits a lure. The fight was on. This one did not jump out of the water as much but did stick her head out a couple times. We managed her to the boat quickly and was able to get the hook out and actually a quick out of the water pic(which didn't turn out so well, as I wanted her back in the water faster). This one was about 90lbs or so, and I am happy to say she swam away just fine.
We got into a school of smaller dorado after that landing another 13 before I asked to head back towards the area we caught the marlin. After all, I was in the "Marlin capital of the World". As we headed back to that spot, we rose a sail in our spread and after pitching to it, she was gone. I was a little upset because I would have loved to catch both in one day, but it was not to be had. Or so I thought.
We hooked into another Striped Marlin which got off within minuets of initial hooking and also another sailfish, who got off on the second jump. The day was about over, and after the sail got off, they told me it was time to head in. Crazy thing was, on the way in Pimi spotted another Marlin near the surface, and shut the boat down. We pitched to it, both me with a balleyhoo, and the deckhand with a "bullfish" but this one wanted nothing to do with us. And with that we headed back in. It was a great time in Cabo, and I will be back!
Jeff
Here is the only picture that halfway turned out of a Marlin out of water. I had my good camera, but never used it, and this picture was the captain using my point and shoot.
These were our guest upon arriving back at the dock. They robbed everyone's left over bait! Pretty smart!
