PV- 10/26 & 10/27

[Big Kahuna]

Friday (10/26)- I fished with Luis Ocaranza, as his brother Tony who usually fishes with me, was busy with Clark on Aleta. We decided to try for quantity over quality, as we heard there were lots of dorado and sailfish about 10-15 miles NW of Punta Mita. We spent about half the day trolling around for nada but a couple knockdowns that did not stick. About 1:30 we finally get a solid ZZZZip and then a blue marlin goes airborn about 100 yards out. It bit a black & purple EAL sonic lure. We got a show of 5 or 6 more jumps and then the fish settled down after peeling half my line off. After about 15 minutes I was getting a lot of line back and Luis commented that it was too easy. In low gear I was able to reel almost continuously. In just a few more minutes the fish came to the boat looking lifeless. We spent 20 minutes trying to revive it but it was not moving. I felt like the doctor on TV pounding on the patient’s chest long after he had been declared dead. Luis said “It’s dead” and I said, “Let’s keep trying.” We finally gave up and hoisted the fish on the swim step and then into the cockpit. This was my first marlin after many years trying in San Diego and I really wanted to release it, but the fish coming up dead took the excitement out of the moment. It taped out at 248 pounds and ended up as many bags of huge white meat filets. I hope you tree huggers out there do not mind me posting a picture of the fish. We called it a day and headed for Opequimar to make our donation to the Mexican fuel industry so that we would be ready for another adventure the next day. The water was a little bumpy today with some swell mixed in. It smoothed out later in the day though.

Saturday (10/27)- Tony was back on board today and I was fired up after hearing about the 315 pound cow they had caught the day before. After getting some caballitos in Marina Vallarta we started the day looking for dorado in the same area from the day before. After a couple hours of nothing but a couple more non-stick knockdowns including one big dodo that bit through the jig leader, we started angling toward El Banco. Manny on Pacifico called and said he was out there and that it looked fishy. At that point we pulled in the jigs and ran over there. Upon arrival, we caught four bullet tuna to put in the tubes and two more to go right back out. We were near the high spot and Manny, who was just to starboard of us now, called to say he just hooked a big dorado. Tony finished bridling the second bait and had just dropped it in the water when he noticed the line was coming off the reel too fast for a baitfish. Tony yelled to punch it and we were hooked up. Apparently this fish was waiting patiently in the Big Kahuna buffet line and hit almost immediately after putting the bait in the water. Tony had a big smile on his face and waved for me to come down and fight the fish. Not knowing what to expect in Cowtown, I harnessed up and started evaluating what we had on. After a couple short strong runs, I could tell it was not huge but it was still mad that we pulled it out of the buffet line. Like the marlin from yesterday, this fish got easy too quickly. When we got it to the swimstep, the baitfish was stuck in its mouth and was probably drowning it. Oh well. Not a cow but still good enough to irritate the other boats that had already been there a while with nothing to show for it. It weighed 65 pounds on the spring scale. We continued to work it hard until an hour after all the other boats had left, but that one fish was it for the day. There was lots of bait up all day, as usual, and we did see some smaller tunas crashing though them at one point in the later afternoon. The water was very smooth today.

Two days. Two fish. Certainly not “epic”, but I was at least able to check off another fish on my list that I could not catch out of San Diego.

[frijolitos]

Nice report and good job, no need to be concerned with anybodys opinion on a fish in the boat, you caught it, it's a legal catch and if it died during the fight, then that was its destiny..........marlin steaks..YUM!!!! nice job

[Bullshipper]

If you go to Cabo, there are lots of little footballs, and they are easier to catch in larger numbers. These larger variety have shown themselves to be tougher to attract away from the large quantity of bait in PV, or they are very line shy too.

I am looking forward to a few days out on a large boat later in the year where hopefully we can stay out to late to chunk weather permitting . For some reason, I think that this may be a trick that will get more fish in a feeding mode around the boat if I can catch enough skippies in the day.

But then again, who knows?

Glad to here you got a nice marlin and to me, your tuna looks bigger than 65 lbs.

[Hithard]

Thanks for the report. I understand what you mean about wanting to release it, but it was by no fault of your own. I look forward to my first big blue or black. I'm also hoping to get in on some of those smaller, larger tuna. Cows or not I don't know but anything over 50lbs will make me smile from ear to ear.

[Captain Jeff Illingworth]

I love marlin... STEAKS!

Jeff