Just got back from another awesome trip with the wife and another couple. We absolutely love this area and the fishing is NEVER disappointing. We got to fish 2 days, 1 on a 31' Bertram looking for billfish out of Cabo San Lucas and 1 on a 28' panga of of San Jose del Cabo.
Heading out of the marina- one of the most famous places 'The Arch"
The first day on the way out to the fishing grounds, I spotted a striped marlin jumping clean out of the water 3 times. I yelled at the captain and mate who were up in the tower and we turned around and went after it. Upon getting to the area, we tossed out a live bait rigged caballito, and coaxed it into biting. The fight was on, and my buddy Jimmy was quite capable of landing this nice size stripe.
After the fight and release, we headed out to the fishing grounds which I would guess were about 18-20 miles offshore- much farther than I had ever fishing in Cabo before. We were quickly joined by not a few but hundreds of porpoise. I think it was a mix of bottlenose and spinners, as we saw quite a few jumping and spinning while in the air. Typically, you would assume this is a bad thing in offshore fishing. But according to the mate, this is what they were looking for. Big tuna as well as marlin and sailfish patiently wait under the schools of porpoise getting the free meals that are injured or dropped by these very smart animals. Sure enough it wasn't long before we raised a sailfish in the spread only to have it swim off without taking and bait or lure. Next couple strikes were tuna, but not the size we were looking for. These were more like footballs, which in turn seemed like perfect big marlin bait if we were to raise one. Sure enough, one got rigged and dropped into the tuna tube just in case!!! We managed to land 3 of these while also loosing 3- I think because the gear we were using was much too powerful for these small tuna. We needed some more play in the rod and line setup- but being as we were not going after 5lbers, we were not complaining.
The next bit of excitement came as another sailfish raised into the spread and almost instantly bit a lure! Unfortunately the fight only lasted 20 seconds or so as on the first jump, the sailfish was successful in throwing the lure as if to say- "Right back at ya." I was pretty bummed as this was the 3rd pacific sailfish I have had on the line while fishing out of Cabo and have still yet to land one there. But never fear, Cabo was not about to disappoint as the next bite only a few minuets later was another stripe that we raised in the spread and pitched a live rigged caballito to. It immediately started to show its displeasure of having our circle hook in the corner of its mouth with a stunning aerial display. Having yet to land a marlin on stand-up gear, I quickly asked for the belt and went to work. This would prove to be my 8th marlin landed, yet my first attempt with standup gear, and certainly not my last. It came to the boat in less than 10 mins. for a quick photo opp and right back in for someone else to catch at a later date!
No more action the rest of the first day- but really who could be disappointed with that kind of day???? We trolled around for another hour and a half with no bites and no action. It was another great day with a great captain and mate. I believe this was my 6th day aboard this boat with the same crew. Neither Jimmy nor myself were ready to call it quits, but our time was done and Capt. Pimi hollered at mate Damien and told him time to pull the spread. Damien grabbed the far left line, I grabbed the short left and Pimi grabbed the middle back line. Just as we had finished getting those 3 lines in(we had a total of 4 lines plus a teaser out, and always a pitch rod ready) we hear a commotion going on. Right at the back of the teaser, the only line that was floating as the boat had slowed to allow for us to reel in the lines easier, a curious Pacific Blue Marlin came cruising by to see what was going on. Quickly Damien pitched a caballito to it and immediately it was on. While peeling line, we quickly got the other lines in as well as the teaser. After a short, tournament like battle with Pimi backing down hard and without a doubt the best aerial show I have EVER witnessed, we were able to touch the leader after only a 4+ min battle and I had now crossed off another bucket list fish to add to my resume. Now the only marlin left for the complete marlin bucket is the elusive black. Waiting on the other memory cards to get the videos uploaded as we didn't get pictures of this one. Stay tuned for that!
Jeff
