My last day out in Cabo with Calvin started with such anticipation. Hoping to finish off our marlin fishing on good terms I firstly brought the senior Navy guy who checks licences and permits a bag of dorado for supper. Then I brought our bait bud Jose a bag of hootchies and hooks and line for being a great provider of good baits and always waiting for us no matter how late we came out. Figuring we had the good mojo going off we went with about 16 good mackeral to fish our standard drift off El Faro Viejo (Cabo Falso). We quickly hooked into a marlin and that was followed by another ....double header. My fish eventually fell off as the circle again pulled out and Calvin played and landed his. We continued on fishing and Calvin hooked another marlin. This fish was played hard and didnīt go too far from the boat the whole fight. Finally close to the boat it began doing a bunch of short jumps within about 15 feet or so. I was holding my digital camera in front of my face taking jump photos thru the back screen when the 100 lb Ande leader chafed thru on yet another jump and the 8 oz lead torpedo weight came rocketing back. In a million to one deal the lead actually centerpunched my camera square on and knocked it over my shoulder and into the sea. I looked over as my shiny little Olympus 720SW fluttered to the bottom in 528 feet of (dare I say 'cerulean' blue sea???? ha ha ).........I had a fleeting second to dive in and try to rescue the camera but nada. I was so stunned I was speechless.........about 400 photos and maybe 300 were from fishing Puerto Escondito,the mangroves of Lopez Mataos and all the marlin action in Cabo! Wow. I kinda felt a little sick. To perhaps appease my grief a surface swimming mako shark suddenly appeared 60 feet off the stern of the boat. I quickly put a tandem hooked wire rig on my 8 foot pitching rod and put a live mackeral on. I then threw the mack out and freespooled the bait as the shark cruised around. I must say it was very evident when that little mack first realized what his fate was to become. The mako began to quickly pace the movements of the mack and then finally I felt a pickup..... after letting him run a bit I set the hook into my second ever mako shark in Baja. I played it for about 15 minutes or so while I though about all the great photos and all the editing of all the great photos I had just lost. Anyways this was one lucky mako shark because if this had been a few days earlier I would have bonked this guy to eat....makos are superb eating (In fact I had some last night). After taking lots of photos with my second camera and Calvinīs digtal of the the 50 lbér thrashing around showing his impressive rows upon rows of wicked teeth I finally shook him off with the gaff. As the winds really began to pick up we finally called it a day and picked gear and made our way home.
Final tally with Calvin was 23 marlin hooked ....12 leadered and released
4 dorado hooked ....2 bonked
2 black skipjack tuna released
7 actual days of marlin fishing with one day a complete skunk
1 day spent 30 miles offshore pursuing tuna...1 black skipjack tuna
One day tally with Kelly and Peter 2 marlin hooked...2 leadered and released
1 dorado hooked and bonked
Kelly was also handed off the second marlin of a īGregorīs single man double on my first day out which she fought and landed under very difficult circumstances. Congrats to Kelly and Peter on landing their first striped marlin.
Discussing the great striped marlin bite with my friend Dick Lohrke who Iīve camped and fished with in Cabo since 1990 , weīve agreed this was a fortunate bit of timing on our part . It seems every El Nina year the marlin fishing is good as our last great memorable bite was in 1997'98. Personally this was a great opportunity to fish with my good friend Calvin Higano and to appreciate the quality gear he brought as well as trying some innovative methods to hook and land these beautiful fish. We have some great ideas for next time!
On a separate note I went to La Playita in San Jose del Cabo today to check out the progress of the massive new marina . It is still 6 to 8 months from completion but it will be spectacular, they are still dredging the outer harbour and the rip rapping ect has a long way to go yet..... The fishing was very slow today as I talked to one boat skipper with one small dorado, but in the last week the same guy said they had several yellowfin tuna from 25 to 45 lbs biting on sardines and chunk bait. There was also a Governerīs Cup tuna tourney yesterday (registration and weigh in in Cabo but the fishing was at Gordo) and a 140 and a 120 lb tuna were caught....nice. Also a large īcabrillaī a grouper like sea bass took second place. . The winner won a 22 foot panga and a 60 hp motor....duuuulce!
Anyways Iīm off to Dick and Kimīs casa in Lopez Mataos in Mag Bay. I hear there was recently an epic snook bite on live shrimp in īDevilīs curveī..........cant wait to get there.
] Underwater shots of striped marlin using a Nikon AW 35 mm
Mako shark
Lopez Mataos shrimper at sunset
Karen the waitress with a big-ass bug.....Mama Espinoza's El Rosario B.C.S
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