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Originally Posted by live2fish  Lets see them, its not just the biggest but the best catch, mine is a 40.5lb yellow on 20lb at cat on a dean when the wouldnt eat squid. Or the 25lber in my avatar that i got on 10lb test at SCI. |
800# BLUE CAUGHT ON THE REEL TEQUILA. FIRST TIMERS TO CABO WITH GREAT STORY!!!
After enumerable telephone calls and insistent assurances by Reel Danger
Travel's booking agent Taylor Kelley, St. Louis residents Alan and Pam
Schuchardt and Patrick and Kathy Hutsler booked a trip to hurricane ravaged
Cabo San Lucas. Cabo San Lucas had been inundated with some 24 inches of
rain and gusting winds reaching 125 MPH over a four-day period. "Taylor was
very persuasive!" said Alan as he sipped yet another Margarita at the
popular Baja Cantina, which faces the snug, and secure Baja California
harbor. "He said the airport was open, the highway to Cabo San Lucas was
safe and the hotel Hacienda Beach Resort was open for business as usual."
Patrick laughed aloud at that statement. "Alan talked us into it. I don't
think it would have made any difference to Alan if the roads were horrible.
Alan just wanted to attend Sammy Hagar's birthday party." And maybe try a
little deep-sea fishing!
The two couples were eager to experience their first foray onto the Mar de
Cortés, Baja California's now famous fishery, and were at "A" dock at 0700
hours. Waiting for them was Reel Danger's REEL TEQUILA, a 33' Rampage
manufactured in Florida. Capitán Ramón had the engines warmed, impatient,
the fishing gear stowed. The deck hand Manuel, helped the ladies aboard.
Within minutes they had exited the harbor, motored past Lover's Beach,
skirted the famous Arch, and headed to sea bearing north by northeast. It
didn't take long for things to start happening. "Look at the whale!" someone
shouted. Ramón flashed a grin. It wasn't a whale but something was certainly
going on several hundred yards ahead. The ascending sun painted the Mar de
Cortés in sparkling multicolored hues of blue and green. And she was as flat
as glass, resting, perhaps, after the previous week's tumultuous pounding by
hurricane Julieta. As they drew closer to the boiling sea they were informed
that porpoise were corralling baitfish and tuna were feeding voraciously
below them. "Can we catch some tunas?" someone asked and received the
standard Mexican reply, "No problema."
Just watching the porpoise perform was, in itself, worth the price of a day
cruise Manuel had the outriggers baited and trolling as REEL TEQUJILA eased
her way through the feeding frenzy. The metallic clack from one of the
outriggers certainly got everyone's attention. One's first reaction is that
something has gone bad but immediately realized that something had gone
good. This time, though, the tuna bait had been hit and discarded. Ramón
smiled. It was going to be a good day. Like all seasoned captains in Cabo
San Lucas, he could feel it in his bones.
REEL TEQUILA was approaching San José Canyon now and Ramón was certain that
these virgin fishermen were about to experience the thrill of their
landlocked lives. As he adjusted his course it struck. "Hookup!" shouted
Manuel. The corner starboard line was indeed as taut as a bowstring, the
line pulling the black and purple lure. Manuel waited patiently. When
confident that the fish had taken the lure, he set the hook, turned, handed
the rod and reel to Alan. Patrick glanced at his watch. It was exactly 0800
hours.
The largest fish Alan had ever caught was a 9-1/2 pound Large Mouth Bass.
When he had the rod well in hand he lifted the tip slightly to get a feel
for the equipment and exclaimed "Holy shit!" And suddenly it dawned on him
that as he continued to reel, the line continued to dash from the Penn
International 80-wide. Whatever was on the other end of the line was very,
very big.
Ramón, had anyone noticed, was showing signs of anxiety. He was maneuvering
the boat to give the angler all the help he could but the angler was not
recapturing any of the line. Soon, very soon, the 1000 feet of monofilament
line would be spooled. It was then that the fish decided to rest. "Reel,
amigo, reel!" he shouted. And Alan reeled. Nearly an hour passed and then
they saw it. A huge Marlin, just below the surface of the sea, a shadowy
creature of undetermined size and weight. Alan turned to Patrick, "Take
this, I'm beat."
Patrick gathered the rod and reel into his arms and commenced the lift-up
and reel-down motion with which standing anglers are so familiar. He had
never felt anything so heavy in his life. And this thing was alive. Then
came the shock. The line was once again escaping from the real. Señor Marlin
was making another run. Ramón realized that this was no ordinary Marlin. He
also realized that there was, again, every possibility of being spooled. He
was relying on his many years of experience to attempt to avoid the
inevitable. Finally, the fish tired and the line commenced to rewind onto
the reel. An hour passed and Patrick returned the rod and reel to Alan.
Another hour passed. They were making progress. Only a third of the line
remained in the sea. Alan returned the gear to Patrick. Both anglers were
now numb with exhaustion. It was no longer any fun.
"There he eeze!" shouted Manuel. Ramón realized that the two gringos were
just about spent. He yelled something in machine-gun Spanish and Manuel
rushed to the gunnel and started hand-lining the behemoth Marlin toward the
stern. And then Ramón realized that there was yet another possible problem.
If the Marlin died while off the stern there would be hell to pay getting
him aboard. Manuel was hand lining feverishly, glistening with perspiration.
They were making progress. And then the Marlin expired.
It took them 45 minutes to wrestle the Blue to the door and haul him half
of him inside. Ramón changed course and headed for the commercial weighing
dock. There, people waited in disbelief. Was it a grander? They weighed
three times. Each reading differing from the last. They finally settled on
800 pounds, the largest bill weighed so far this season, although most
people thought it weighed more. The experts will figure it out; the length
of the fish was 172" and its girth slightly over 30". After the Blue was cut
up and donated to local Mexicans, the two anglers and their wives headed for
hotel Hacienda. They wanted to be well rested in order to thoroughly enjoy
what they had traveled so far to hear in the first place - the Sammy Hager
Concert. Thanks to reeldanger.com they would return to St. Louis with
memories to last them a lifetime.
9 lb 6 oz bass released. wouldve been the junior record if i had kept it but that didnt stop me from keeping the 5 lb 11 ouncer that got the record
Something lb BSB on 14# bass set up
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