the latest

Well, haven´t been out on the water too much. Just got back from a nice cool trip and wedding in Telluride, Colorado. I love the mountains, and even more-so casting my fly rod. It has to be my overall favorite form of fishing, until the big-game bite is on.
Saw one friend come in with a few dorado flags (he was 38 miles out I heard). Another boat went to Loreto and ran into plenty of dorado 60 miles out. They said the sailfish off of Pt.Pulpito were incredibly thick though near impossible to catch. I guess the pangueros there throw out live bait to get them excited, and then toss one with a hook in. A couple other friends were out last week catching some nice big dorado (35 to 55 pounds), a couple sails, and losing a marlin. It is hot, but there are still a few fish out on this side.
I was on the Margarita IV for the 62nd International Fishing Tournament over July 17-19th with my father, Skip and Anne Andree, and Joshua. A lot of short and dropped baits, uninterested marlin, jumping dorado, and empty patches …. though some were holding. We had a few misses on the first day, having a 30 pound jackpot bull follow my popper to the boat, and after taking my drop back bait, collide and tangle with another lure. Second day saw us start with one dorado weighing just .2 underweight. We caught a couple other small ones and it looked like an uneventful day. Then we passed a patch with a quadruple hookup. Three nice 20-30 pound bulls. We pulled two more in, but the other big boys wouldn’t bite. Anne  scored first place with her 30 pound fish and I placed third overall with my 24.5 pound fish. The last day we chased nice fish but only caught a couple small ones. Found a nice patch that previous fish had been caught off, as well as a wahoo and several tuna.
The winner was fishing in the center and close to Tortuga, with overall three marlin and a sail. Only about eight marlin and four sails were caught, with about a dozen weighable dorado for 26 boats and 45 anglers. Still a great party and nice trophies. The water was very nice all three days with a breeze to keep things cool – or cooler!

Bryan, Ernesto Zaragoza (Tournament Sponsor), Anne Andree

Advertisement

Billfish Blowout

Well, not a bad finish for Team Margarita. Actually, we couldn’t have done better for the one jackpot we entered. We placed second behind Mr. Tata out of twelve boats. The first day saw us with one sail and a half dozen missed bites. A lot of small feisty sails not swallowing the baits. We had one hooked for a bit that came off. Other boats reported the same thing. We did get two nice dorado, and found a floater just after another boat pulled a 40# fish off it. Two boats had two fish and six had one after day one.

Day two I caught and released a sail within the first half hour. The other first place boats lost one and landed one. We then caught a small sail to tie. Mr. Tata then caught another to pull in the lead. After a two minute hook-up that I had on a small marlin, we then learned that Mr. Tata had a double on. They would not be beat that day.  Here is the picture of the first sail we caught on day 2…courtesy of Fernando of Catch 22!

Lots of big marlin spotted and a few caught. We saw at least three 200-300# fish each day. Plenty of 30-40# bulls caught. Two charters yesterday found small sierra, skipjacks, and 3-4# dorado in close.

Way to go team! A small tournament but a very fun one. Next time we’ll have to come up with a bit more gambling money.  Anyway, we certainly recoved our costs and had a great time.