Tortuga/San Marcos trip

I was on a friend’s boat staying at Tortuga Monday and San Marcos on Tuesday. We had four to five sails briefly hooked up each way around 32-47 mi. that all managed to throw the hook. Mostly smaller fish and half were baits too. Only one 12# dorado that we released on the way back. We caught a nice 35# wahoo on the way over and a 140# stripe on the way to San Marcos. A few mackerel and lots of blue runners on the hook at Tortuga. At San Marcos I caught a 25# jack on the zodiac off the Rocks and a nice 6# barred pargo from the boat. I saw one school of cabrilla that had a golden cabrilla (spawning color) with it while snorkeling. There were good current rips with some flying fish 5-10mi. either side of Tortuga with some very small scraps of sargasso. I heard of better fishing reports to the north or up the current lines all the way to Martir. The sailfish action was pretty good in the center and maybe some circle hooks would have led to some actual catching. Another captain and crew found the same tricky fish to hook going zero for twenty. Looks like some cooler water is getting kicked up. I’m sure that Adam will be dragging me out again. It’s a tough life. Wahoo sushi at the Wine Bar tonight!

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The one that got away.

We had some slow times on the water this week, but you just never know. Many boats are getting a sail or marlin a day. A few dorado are being found as well as some 15-20# tuna if you are lucky. We caught one medium sized dorado today and a sail on the reef. The tuna are lingering in that area and to the south. We hooked into something today that quickly ripped out 250 yards of line at an alarming rate. It showed no change in speed and I was seconds away from giving orders to turn and chase. The fish was on for only twenty seconds before it bit through the leader unfortunately. I’m guessing that it was a very large wahoo, but I can’t rule out a giant tuna or black or blue marlin. We’ll never know. Those are the moments I live for and keep fishing. Many people can see trolling as pretty monotonous, but I’m always hunting with my eyes and know that at any moment everything can change and you could catch (or lose) the fish of a lifetime. I’ll be looking for that next one!

July 5th report

The fish were biting good last week. We had some huge tuna boiling around the boat. Twice we were able to get one tuna in the 45# range. Caught one nice 34# dorado. Had a couple days where we were close to a slam of four species. Of course we had our great days before the tournament with some good catches of sailfish, striped marlin, and dorado. Not too many fish over the tournament, though the two first place teams found some with five fish each. A few more dorado are showing up and the tuna are still around. I heard of one good Blue caught last week after a four hour fight on a spinning rod. There have been four or five wahoo caught this year. Things are looking to heat up this week for our real first taste of summer. Hopefully the rains will not be far behind. It should still be cool on the water and in the shade with a cold drink though!

tight lines,

Bryan