Well, the dog days of summer aren’t always that bad. Didn’t hear of any reports during the week, but a few came in over the weekend. One friend was out and ran into three random tuna from 15-40#. I certainly wouldn’t have minded that catch. My other buddy saw the tuna come up but couldn’t connect. They were about 28mi. out, and once again, if someone was out there fishing in the late afternoon they’d probably have a good chance at them. Some other boats went the distance out to the center and found a few longliners that were catching good numbers of fish, where they too got on the scraps that were hanging around. A few boats went far to the North, even inside the Island, and found plenty of small dorado, with my one friend also releasing a Sailfish, a Striped Marlin, and a few 20# bulls out of ten Dorado in the cooler water there. The next day he saw plenty of Sailfish just beyond the reef, though didn’t catch any. In a little closer on the reef, there are plenty of Skipjack and a few small Dorado that might get the big fish showing up soon. I still see a couple Thresher Sharks jump out there every trip. The dolphin are all over still and will play with your boat for up to an hour at times.
The pangas that you see in the Bahia early in the morning are fishing beyond San Pedro at night for the 2-3′ calamari. Some have been fishing off the lighthouse for good catches of red snapper at night. I also heard of some Yellowtail being caught on the squid on the north end of the Island in the 25-30#. It seems like a lot of the small dorado in the bay have left, though now there are decent numbers of Sierra and even a few Bonita mixed in around the Skipjack.
We were out yesterday on my friend’s boat who had come down for a day of fishing. Things were pretty overcast and a little bumpy on the way out. We caught a dorado before the lines were set, and followed that an hour later with a nice 20# bull. We were watching an ominous storm brewing when my friend thought he saw something. It was just a little bit of a tail, but it looked like a marlin from the color. We turned and the long rigger bait was just going by him when his tail started to kick. Sure enough the rigger popped right where I was waiting. I thought he wasn’t there, but sensed no tension and kept reeling until I came tight. The big fish was looking for a second bait, but the first one was enough. It didn’t peel off too much line and we cleared the others. It seemed to be coming in, and then began a series of jumps grey-hounding off into the distance. Our friend kept commenting that it kept taking out line. Yep, no stopping that fish. I couldn’t even begin to turn it at the boat with the light 130# leader. The angler was tiring bad after an hour on the light tackle. The fish just kept swimming away from the boat whenever we got close to where I could grab the leader. The large pectoral fins and tail were lit up a bright neon blue as it swam towards the squall. The angler was pleading at times to hand off the rod, but we wouldn’t let him. My friend was talking about smoked marlin, and I could see the captain salivating when I looked in utter shock that my friend would even consider the idea. No way was I going to be a part of killing a healthy fish. When the fish came to wire a fourth time and Armagedeon about to start, I held on a little tighter as we backed into the waves after the fish. Unfortunately the leader had probably rubbed on its mouth for an hour causing it to weaken and the fish swam free. A technical release in most books, even though we didn’t get to stare the estimated 200# fish in the eye. My first Blue of the year, but definitely hopefully not my last. The skies broke and a chilling rain rinsed the boat as we celebrated a great catch. We caught a sail shortly after in the rain and almost had another on a few hours later. The seas flattened and the sun almost came out. I probably couldn’t ask for any better weather in August.
Tight Lines,
Bryan
Sport Fishing Reports 