Super User 00 mod Posted July 27, 2015 Super User Posted July 27, 2015 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 6 Quote
Super User 00 mod Posted July 27, 2015 Author Super User Posted July 27, 2015 Day 2 would see Jimmy and I head out of the "playita" on a panga headed to the Gordo Banks for it's fertile fishing grounds. We were only about 10 miles out when the captain stopped and we began to instantly catch tuna and bonita left and right. These were in the 1-2lb range and on my second one I noticed a shark take a swipe at it. Never to pass up a moment like this, I left said tuna in the water and sure enough a nice 4-5 foot pilot made and easy meal of said tuna and began to peel drag until the line snapped. I asked the captain for a bigger rod with stronger line and we chunked it with a bit of bonita and within 2 mins. had another shark which appeared to be a hammerhead take the bait. After a pretty intense 5 min fight the line once again snapped. So to wire we went, although not having expected to see sharks, the captain only had small thin wire. He doubled it over and did the best he could. Another chunk of bonita barely had time to hit the water before a 6 foot pilot shark snatched it up and off to the battle we went. I chased this shark around the boat 3 times before finally wrestling it near the side for a quick photo and away it swam. Next up was Jimmy's turn and it seems the commotion we had created only fired the sharks up more as we basically pitched the chunk bait in front of a blue color blur and it eagerly took the bait. Jimmy tussled with this 4 foot hammer head for a brief fight and it too was released boat side. One more smaller pilot shark for me and we had to move to be able to find the tuna and bonita again as the shark were thick and not our target species. We mad a short run maybe half a mile down and began to catch tuna and bonita again. We drifted around for about 2 hours catching 30+ tuna and 30+ bonita but none of them topped the 5lb mark. We had heard 2 stories of guys catching a 330+lber and another 260+lber in the exact same place we were earlier in the week, but it was just not in our cards for this trip. We headed back towards shore to try and get some dogtooth snapper with the bonitas we had caught. Our guide said it was his favorite way to fish and he had been having much success with snapper up to 60lbs doing this. we tried this for several hours with ot a sniff, before we asked if we could go after some roosterfish. A couple years ago I had really gotten into some roosterfish in this same area, and honestly that is the reason we had gone panga fishing the second day, but upon hearing stories of all the roosterfish already leaving the area, we wanted to try for something different. Having no luck with the bigger tuna and the snapper, we decided that we would spend our last hour and 20 mins going after roosterfish. After about an hour with nothing to show we finally had a rooster come up and show interest in the bait. A few swipes and fish on. I quickly told Jimmy to take this one as he had never caught a roosterfish. Not anymore. He quickly learned why I like to target them, as they are cousins to Jack Crevalle and will put up a fight pound for pound one of the best in the ocean! All in all it was a GREAT 2 day of fishing in paradise, one I hope to visit again as soon as possible. In memory of my bucket catch I like to buy artwork instead of saltwater replica mounts. As I have done int the past, I like to get local art pieces that will remind me of the catches and are also unique to each area. This time my wife and I chose a piece of Huichol Indian Art. These are wood carvings that are then taken and had beaded with thousand of tiny beads. Each piece has Indian symbols which represent different things to them. My wife and I found this one very interesting and decided it needed to come home with us! We spoke with the Indian who was making this piece as he was finishing it up he told us this piece takes about 22 days. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COLORS: WHITE - Cloud Spirits. BLUE - The South, Pacific Ocean, water, rain, femininity. GREEN - The Earth, the Heavens, healing, the heart, grandfather, growth. Jeff 4 Quote
Super User 00 mod Posted July 27, 2015 Author Super User Posted July 27, 2015 More videos to come, including a much better one of the Blue marlin!!! Jeff 2 Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted July 28, 2015 Super User Posted July 28, 2015 Great read Jeff I almost felt like I was there with you. The fish art looks outstanding. Can't wait to see the video buddy. 1 Quote
cnpusbp Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Great report Jeff. Looks like an amazing time. 1 Quote
Super User buzzed bait Posted July 28, 2015 Super User Posted July 28, 2015 Nice catches Jeff! I'm headed back to Key West in 2 weeks to fish the salt and you've got me fired up now!! 1 Quote
Topwaterspook Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Great job, Jeff. An awesome trip for you folks. Congratulations !! 1 Quote
Super User 00 mod Posted July 31, 2015 Author Super User Posted July 31, 2015 3 Videos added to 3rd post. More to come when I get the other memory card from Jimmy! Jeff Quote
Helluva_Engineer Posted August 1, 2015 Posted August 1, 2015 I have always preferred fighting from stand-up gear myself. Landed one pacific sailfish from the chair at the mate's insistence, asked for the belt after that. 1 Quote
Super User Catch and Grease Posted August 1, 2015 Super User Posted August 1, 2015 Wow that's freakin' awesome man! Looks like such an amazing location to do some fishing, Good read and nice catches! 1 Quote
Super User 00 mod Posted August 2, 2015 Author Super User Posted August 2, 2015 Here are the rest of the videos! Make sure you watch all of them in 1080 and full screen! Jeff Quote
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