Sorry for not being there for awhile. There were several weeks that I never made it out in late August. Nice tuna to 50# were being caught. They were seen today, not sure what size. One boat had 14. A short trip but one sail today. Things look to be cooling down. Lots of charters lined up and lots of fish to be caught.
Missed the Rescate report, but Team Margarita kicked butt with thirteen releases. Second place had seven. We were on fire!
Lisa’s probably ready to be helped with dinner, so here’s a report from yesterday.
Well, I’m back from a few weeks in California and ready for the Fall fishing season. I felt the water today and I think it felt a degree cooler. A chilly 87. It seems like it has been a long warm summer, but I think those cooler currents filled with bait are just waiting to come up again. Reports were slim over the few weeks that I was gone, but the fishing sounded decent. Unfortunately I’ve only heard of a few tuna lately. They should still be around though. Most of the dorado are under 15#, but there are a fair number swimming around. Some of the skipjack are pushing 10# (if only they tasted better). I’ve heard of some sierra, corvina, and barracuda, so some of the ‘Fall fish’ are starting to show. One fish that we have been waiting on all year though are the big marlin.
San Carlos hosted the 2nd Pacifico Light Tournament over the weekend with a whopping 77 boats entered. The fish were seemingly found all over with the boats fairly spread out. Our boat and many others suffered from poor radio reception, and with the conversation in spanish it was a little tough to follow the action. Maybe I just never figured we were ‘in the money’, or I couldn’t keep track of it all. Mainly we just couldn’t stand to listen to the annoying static and noise from our radio, turned it down, and focused on fishing. I had one friend coming down that wanted to fish. He knows his stuff, fishes circle hooks, and I thought we could have a winning team. Unfortunately I think I forgot how to fish after a few weeks off. Either that or my luck ran out. Still, I heard of many fish lost (44 of 137 hook-ups) mid-battle and probably countless bites missed. The fish just weren’t taking the baits too great. My friend flew in the first morning, so that created a little delay as we came back in to pick him up at the dock. Our first fish was lost inches from being released. My mojo just never recovered after that. Out of four or five bites I never had a fish stick and I lost one huge sail that threw the lure after his tenth jump. We ended up with three released fish. I guess you just can’t win them all. That is it seems unless you’re Team Kryptonite. They seem to have arrived from another planet with their string of wins in the last two years. Marlin counted for 200 points and sailfish 100 in this tournament. Kryptonite ended up with seven fish and 1000 points winning a new Mako 18′ with a Mercury 150. Team Telamon (who I usually fish with and almost joined) earned 900 points to win a new Ford 150.
As I returned to stew some more at my wife’s bar after being comped a meal from my friends who took second and were rejoicing, I sat down next to a guy who had the real fish story. A potato farmer from Chihuahua, he came down and chartered a boat for his first time fishing. They hooked a giant Blue Marlin that took a leap and dragged out a five plus hour-long battle. He showed me the video on his phone of the entire team of seven barely hauling in the 14′ beast over the rail. They rejoiced and maybe still are. It didn’t look like you could wipe the grin off his face (maybe also due to the empty Captain Morgan bottle). I’m sure that the story is being told around the state. He was off to see friends and clients in Hermosillo and Obregon over the next few days after resting comfortable at Playa Blanca that night (no poor farmer here). The fish weighed 662#, though I believe he had told me 766#. I’m not sure if that was adding on the 5% weight loss and the dorado and tuna that fell out of its mouth. I’m sure by now that it’s a grander. I’ll have to fish a long time to ever catch one like that. I did hear of one 500# fish released and a few 300-400# marlin lost. It’s time to break out the big guns.
So my report from California: I didn’t get to participate in the legendary bluefin bite off of San Diego or go for albacore farther north. I did get to see the San Francisco Bay at pre-dawn and fish outside the Golden Gate on a perfect day. We missed the incredible salmon bite the day before. We caught rockfish, some lingcod to 12#, three 25″ salmon, and a couple thresher sharks. So I got to eat some different fish which was my main goal. I ran around the Yuba and Feather River near the Sacramento and tied into a few large salmon on light tackle. The Sierras were beautiful but didn’t pan out too great. At least I got to cast my fly in some cool water. A lot of driving, visiting friends and family, a little surfing, hiking, and a lot of swiping of the credit card. I read the reports for months about the great fishing, to where I just couldn’t wait to go. I think I found a lot of ‘you should have been here yesterday’, either that or they just always lie in those fishing reports. We all know though not to believe everything that a fisherman says, right?
Sport Fishing Reports 