Green Water and Big Black Marlin w/Capt. Danny Osuna

[coldtuna]

After waiting through the spring and early summer, it was finally time to head back to PV. I flew out of O’hare on 8/12 through ffice:smarttags" />Dallas arriving mid-afternoon at Paradise Village after having an alarm clock failure to start the day. I spoke to Danny Osuna on Sunday night and he asked me to meet him at 6:30 in La Cruz on Monday morning.
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8/13:

I met Danny at the gas station just on the southern edge of La Cruz and my taxi followed him down to the new marina. In the dark, it was hard to see the size and status of the marina, but we climbed aboard Danny’s new 32 ft. Blackfin and headed offshore. Danny’s first mate Alvino was already aboard and I greeted him. The boat is sweet and I joined Danny on the flybridge for the run to pick up cabbies. We picked up about 30 live baits from the pangero and headed for Corbetena.


We reached Corbetena about 9:00 a.m. and the water was green and dirty. We caught some skippies easily and started slow trolling. We didn’t have any action through the morning and there were half a dozen boats in the area also with little action.

As the afternoon wore on, Danny got a call from a Costa Rican boat that had moved west of Corbetena in search of some blue water. They had found the spinner dolphin and had three 100 pound class tuna on the deck. Danny suggested that we run west and see if we could find the spinners. We picked up the skippies and headed west. We found the cleaner water, but did not find the spinner dolphins – we looked west and then headed north toward El Banco.

We did find a small floating log and Alvino and Danny landed three dorado off of it. I farmed that many dorado and backlashed the small Avet so badly that one of the dorado broke me off on the first run. I knew I’d be rusty after a few months, but this was ridiculous. Danny said no worries and that we’d start working back towards La Cruz and that we’d stop on anything we found floating. About half an hour into our run back Danny called to me from the bridge that there was a floater up ahead and to get a couple of baits ready. When we got closer we saw that the floater was a large coil of rope and Danny could see dorado underneath it. Alvino and I dropped back a couple of cabbies and it was not long before we were both bit. I farmed mine and Alvino brought a 15 pound dorado to gaff. Danny, Alvino and I fished lived cabbies around the object for about 45 minutes and Danny and Alvino each caught a couple fish and I got one or two. We all farmed several. We were getting low on live bait and I dropped back one of our last two cabbies and was bit. I farmed the fish, but did not lose my bait, then was bit again and farmed that one as well. I still had a struggling live bait though and something exploded on it about 15 feet of the transom. I counted to three and put the Avet in gear and got the hook up. The fish took off on an explosive run just below the surface cutting a wake around the floating rope. The drag screeched on the 40 yard run and Danny said “that’s a good fish.” I took my time and worked the fish back to the boat. Danny and Alvino thought it might be a wahoo based on the initial run, but when we got color Danny said “big dorado.” Alvino gaffed the fish after we got it close and the 50 pound class dorado hit the deck. After a bunch of screw ups, it was nice to deck a good fish. I got a monster dorado with Danny and Alvino last August, and while this dorado was a really nice fish, it was nowhere near the size of last year’s trophy. Danny said we were out of bait and it was time to head for home. We had about 10 dorado on the deck and it was about 6:15 p.m. when we headed for La Cruz. We arrived back at La Cruz about 8:30 and Danny had called a cab for me. I thanked him for a good first day and said I’d see him at 6:30 tomorrow.

Here are a couple pictures of Danny's new boat.




8/14:

My friend Doug from Dallas flew in to join me for the remaining three days of the trip. Doug has an annoying habit of catching the biggest fish on each of our trips to PV and I told Danny on Monday that Doug was very lucky and typically hooked up right away, generally with a big fish, when flying in during the middle of a trip.

Anyway, we met Danny at the gas station in La Cruz and met some guys from Northern California who were fishing with Alonso Osuna today on the Marla 3. Doug climbed aboard the Marla and agreed that it is one sweet fishing platform. We picked up some cabbies from the pangero and were off to El Banco today. We made it there by about 9:45 and quickly caught some skipjacks. There were no other boats at the Banco, but the water was green. Alvino deployed a spread of fresh caught skipjack and we were in the game. Doug told Danny, as I had, that he wanted to catch a big marlin (defined as larger than 350 pounds) and had been trying for a number of years to do so. We started trolling around one of the pinnacles and within 10 minutes, we had a knockdown. I told Doug he was up first this morning and that with this green water, we might come across a nice black marlin. He protested at first, but finally agreed. Doug grabbed the left rigger on the knock down and put the reel in freespool while the fish ran with the skipjack. Danny told Doug to put it in gear after about 5 seconds and the hook found its mark. I was scrambling to clear the right rigger line and Doug shouted “BIG $*(%@! MARLIN!!!” as the black marlin exploded out of the water coming at the Marla. Although he is an Ivy Leaguer, he is prone to profanity at El Banco when he hooks big fish. Danny gunned the engines and the fish turned and headed away from the boat coming out of the water several times in a shower of spray each time. Doug was shouting incoherently but kept the line tight. The fight continued for about 25 minutes with Doug gaining line. We saw the black marlin off the transom and Danny said “it’s tail wrapped.” He backed down quickly and Alvino grabbed the leader and righted the fish. I helped Alvino unwrap the line from the fish’s tail and we tried to revive the fish, but it was dead. Doug was disappointed that the fish died – he is a zealous billfish release advocate. Given that it was dead, we took our time to get some good pictures. We taped the fish at 100 inches long with a 57 inch girth, which put the fish at 406 pounds. It was hard to tape the fish because it was bent slightly in the Marla’s cockpit. Danny looked at me after we landed the fish and said “you were right, this guy is lucky.” We all laughed.



Alvino cleaned the fish later, and got it on ice in the Marla’s fishbox. We had black marlin for lunch/dinner on Thursday, and Danny told me that the fish was shared with numerous people in La Cruz.

We fished the live skipjacks for another few hours around El Banco without any additional action. We then chunked some of the numerous skipjacks we caught this morning first thing getting a good chunk line going. We did several drifts, but all we caught was a medium sized rainbow runner.

At that point, Danny decided to head to Corbetena for the afternoon bite. We went there, stopping on the way on a floater with nobody home. Alvino deployed the kite and we trolled/skipped a dead caballito in spite of light wind conditions. I fished with a very skilled captain in the Gulf this summer, and he and his mate took some time to get a kite flying from a stationary boat with the right amount of wind. Alvino got a kite up in light wind, and rigged it with a bait by himself. Alvino is quiet, unassuming, and is not flashy. But on this trip, I started to realize that he is one hell of a good fisherman. I don’t think Alvino knows it, but he is top notch and he demonstrated that time and again on this trip.

We got the kite up and the cabbie skipping. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any knockdowns and called it a day about 6:30 arriving back at La Cruz about 8:00 p.m. where a cab was waiting for us. Doug thanked Danny for getting him the big marlin he’d been after in Cabo and PV for years and we agreed to meet at 6:30 the following day. Danny asked us to pick up some bagels at the Paradise Village grocery store for the following morning’s breakfast.

We met Alonso Osuna at the marina before departing and learned that his anglers (fishing on the Marla III) had gotten 9 tuna (to about 100 pounds), two nice dorado and a striped marlin today. Alonso also said that they jumped off a small blue marlin. I fished with Alonso last January and he’s a cool guy.

8/15:

We met Danny at the La Cruz gas station, and followed him to the boat. We left the marina without incident, but the bait pangero did not make bait the previous night, so Danny said we’d need to make cabbies ourselves. We headed to the cabbie hotspot and dropped our sabikis. Last year, Doug could barely catch a caballito, but this year, he caught them hand over fist, and I couldn’t catch one to save my life. I finally caught a few before it was time to head for Corbetena saving a little face. On the run to Corbetena, Alvino toasted some bagels for us and we had them with cream cheese and jelly. Riding on the flybride of Danny’s new boat, hot bagels and a cup of coffee as the sun rose over the mountains with the lights of PV in the distance … beautiful morning. Danny is a very personable guy and he kept us entertained with various stories on the run out this a.m. – he’s a character.



Danny said the plan for today was to make a few skippies at Corbetena first thing, then to run offshore looking for the blue water, the spinner dolphins and whatever life we might find. We made some skippies at Corbetena and then ran about 10 miles west and south of the Rock.

We put the lures out when we saw a pod of dolphin with birds working and trolled around the melee, but did not hook up. We didn’t see any tuna working, so kept heading west. The water was still green, but clear and there was a lot of debris in the water. We came across several pods of dolphins and birds working but did not hook up. We continued south into some nice blue water and trolled marlin lures for several hours with no strikes. Danny’s uncle was captaining a 35’ Cabo express south of us and he reported that he was hooked up on a nice blue marlin (which turned out to be about 350 pounds). We headed towards Danny’s uncle, but didn’t find any takers. Danny had been monitoring the radio and reported that a friend on a panga had hooked a large tuna on a skipjack at Corbetena and had been fighting it for over three hours (it broke off at the leader a half an hour later). He suggested that we go to Corbetena for the afternoon bite. Doug and I agreed.

We slow trolled skippies just west of Corbetena for several hours and had a fish boil on one of our skippies, but did not get a knock down. We also saw a big black (maybe 600 pound class) thrashing the surface chasing and eating skipjacks near us (within 20 yards at times) repeatedly … but it would not come after our live baits. We got “pargoed” a couple times during the afternoon, but did not hook up getting nothing but a mangled or destroyed skippie for our efforts.

We headed for the barn at about 6:15 skunked for the day (we did catch a rat dorado sometime during the day). That’s fishing. We had good baits in the water all day.

Danny said we’d fish Corbetena tomorrow all day with skippies … he said we knew the big fish were there. We agreed to meet at 6:30 the following day.

8/16:

We headed for Corbetena after meeting Danny at 6:30. We had bagels and cream cheese again on the run out this morning, which made for a great breakfast. It was a beautiful sunrise and another nice day offshore. The weather had been hot and humid the whole trip and today was to be no exception.

We got to Corbetena about 9:00 a.m. and there were a few boats there already. We tried to make skippies just east of the Rock, but were unable to do so. Danny picked up and ran just West of the Rock where some other boats were trying to make bait. This morning, there were a lot more boats fishing and I think we counted about 12 boats working around Corbetena with most of the well known PV boats on the scene. We caught several skipjacks and Alvino started to deploy the fresh caught skipjacks. We were using Alvino’s ipod player and speakers for music and this morning, Doug’s ipod was out of power, so he asked me to use mine. I was starting to get my ipod going and Alvino yelled that he was bit. I turned around and he was freespooling the right rigger rod … he couldn’t get it in the rigger before it was bit. There were boats all around us and Alvino handed me the rod. I put the reel in gear, the line came tight and the Super Mutu circle hook found its mark. Danny called “hook up” on the radio and the other boats gave us room to fight the fish. We’d been fishing for less than 5 minutes and we were on. Doug helped me get in my Smitty harness and plate and the fight was on. The fish jumped after a few minutes and Danny said “black marlin.” It was a nice fish, but nothing outstanding by PV standards. The morning sun was shining, we had the music cranking and I was on a black marlin … great way to start a Thursday. The fish made a good account of itself, but we had it boatside in about 20 minutes, but not before I was soaked in sweat. I was fishing with one of my Penn 50SWs that I’d had modified by Cal Sheets. The reel was attached to a custom Calstar 655XXH that I’d had made this spring by Louis at Bad-Fish (www.bad-fish.com). When Danny first saw these new rods, he said they were really nice and he asked me to have Louis wrap him four of the same in colors to match the Marla. Doug had landed his black on one of these rod/reel combos, but this was the fish time I had a chance to use them. Very nice sticks. Can’t wait to try them on a big tuna.

We got the marlin along side the boat and Alvino leadered it and it was quite tired and rolled on its side. Danny asked me to help Alvino and I got out of my harness and climbed out on the swim step and held the marlin’s dorsal fin to keep it swimming upright while we dragged it to resuscitate it. We kept on for about 10 minutes when Alvino said he thought the fish was okay .. and we released it. It swam down and Danny said it was okay. Danny estimated the fish at 350 pounds and that seemed reasonable to me. I thought Doug’s marlin was fat, but it was actually much fatter out of the water than it looked in the water. I suspected the same was true with this marlin. Danny said he was very happy we got that fish. In 2006, I’d hooked five black marlin with Danny, but lost every one. We finally got one (i.e. I didn’t lose the fish) to the boat and got a good release to boot.

We went back to fishing and Doug was up … at least temporarily. We trolled around the other boats in the area and saw our old friend Zanate on the Top Gun. He told us to call him Flaco (“Skinny”) when we fished with him on the Yolaray in 2003. He’s a great fisherman and from what I can tell, a great guy. I have yet to see anyone else leader a 200+ pound yellowfin with their left hand and gaff it with their right hand the way Flaco did with Doug and I in 2003. I have not fished with Juan on the Top Gun, but hear great things about him. With Zanate on the deck, they must make a great team. In 2003, Flaco wanted Doug’s Revo sunglasses. Doug told Flaco he’d trade the Revo’s for a big black marlin. I mentioned this to Danny in passing.

We kept trolling for several more hours before we got another take down. Doug grabbed the left rigger and got the hook up. A small black marlin (about 250 pounds) went nuts off the left corner tearing up the water just below the surface then streaking forward along side the boat. It’s dorsal and tail were just above the waterline and this fish was hot. Doug kept the line tight as Danny raced to keep up with the marlin. Doug was on for about 30 seconds before the hook pulled.

We went back to fishing and lost one of our live baits to a pargo, and then had our final live skippie run over by a large private yacht. The spectra got tangled in the other boat’s props and they had to cut the line at their transom.

We tried to make bait for an hour, but the skippies had gone down. Finally, Danny saw some commercial pangeros who had a live skipjack on a jig. They use the skippies for chum. Danny called out to them and asked if we could trade four dead skippies for the live one they had, and a bargain was struck. We slowly moved toward them and Danny told me to drop a jig down and Alvino did the same. I got hooked up immediately, and Alvino made the trade to get the live skippie from the pangeros. We got my skippie in the tubes and the pangeros were floating near us. These guys had on big straw hats and looked like they were boiling in the heat. I grabbed three Gatorades out of our ice chest and threw each of the pangeros one. They smiled and one of them chugged his straight down. We went back to jigging and Alvino hooked up (he was on fire the whole trip). The pangeros hooked two more and waved us over. One was bleeding so we took the one good lively uninjured one. I hooked up again and we had enough live skippies to get back in the game. When I hooked this second skippie, Danny said “you are coming back” in reference to my poor performance the first few days. We both laughed. Doug commented that the exchange with the pangeros was a cool experience and I agreed.

We went back to trolling and not much happened for a few hours. Alvino prepared some of the black marlin that Danny’s wife had cooked up the night before. It was in some peppers and other vegetables. I can’t remember what Danny called it, but we mixed it with rice and it was great. Danny and Alvino kept us well fed during the trip and really went out of their way to make sure we had hot food each day (quesadillas, chicken, the marlin, etc.).

We’d seen the black marlin chasing skippies yesterday about 4:00 p.m. and as we neared that time of the afternoon, I said as much to Danny. Not long thereafter, the left rigger (again) started to scream. Doug started to reach for the rod, but was too slow. I had it in my hand and was freespooling it. Danny yelled “let him run.” I pointed the rod at the fish and the clicker screeched on the Penn 50SW. Danny said “OK” after about 3 seconds and I put it in gear. The line came tight and I was hooked up. The line peeled off the reel as the fish made its first run. Danny said “are you hooked up?” I yelled yes and he slowly pulled forward. He called out hook up and a private boat that was off our stern peeled away to give us some room. The first run continued and line melted off the reel quickly in spite of 26 pounds of drag. After a minute of two the fish made a few jumps about 350 yards behind the boat and Danny and Alvino both shouted. It was a marlin, and a nice fish, but we could not tell how big. This is the last we’d see of the fish for some time.

There is not much to tell about the fight except that we kept on with this marlin for about an hour, with lots of drag in the afternoon heat. I was thumbing the spool to apply extra pressure and the Calstar rod was doubled over. Danny said he loved these new rods and that the action was perfect for spectra fishing. As the fight wore on Danny was constantly communicating with me. When he’d back down, he would ask me if he was backing down too fast – always communicating, always making sure that I was comfortable. Danny’s boat handling is so smooth that you hardly notice what a masterful job he’s doing. We kept on for what I was later told was an hour, but which seemed like minutes to me – I was concentrating hard and didn’t want to lose another nice black marlin like I’d done in 2006. The music was blasting -- everything was working right. I was pulling very hard on the fish, but could not make any ground. The new Calstar rod was working well, but I just couldn’t get it done. The marlin was straight under the boat and acting like a big tuna. My left knee started to hurt and I wondered if I was going to blow it out on this fish … not what I wanted.

We got the fish near the boat, and Alvino said we had color. It was overcast by now and the water was green. I could not see the fish, but the leader came out of the water. Danny said “big fish.” We continued to work, and Alvino finally got the leader. He tried to maneuver the fish close, but it took off and he had to dump the leader. Another five minutes and we got the leader again. Once again, Alvino had to dump the leader.


Danny said “Merle, this is a caught fish. It is very green and its dangerous to try to bring it alongside to get the hook out because it won’t settle down. We’ll try one more time and if the fish is still too green, we’ll cut the leader if that is okay with you.” I said “sure.” Danny said he didn’t want to tire the fish out too much and kill it and I said I much preferred cutting the leader to hurting the fish. We got the leader a third time, and the fish was acting crazy, so Danny yelled “cut it” and Doug handed Alvino the knife and he cut the leader. The marlin swam off quickly. High fives all around and I was soaked in sweat. I had not gotten a good look at the marlin, but Danny and Alvino said it was a black marlin. Danny said he thought the fish was at least 550 but it was hard to tell just how fat this one was. It was quite a bit longer than Doug’s black of two day’s earlier. It was my biggest marlin to date, and another personal best fish with Danny and Alvino (I got my biggest tuna and biggest dorado with these guys last August). After missing several good shots at black marlin last year, it felt great to go two for two to start off this season.

We didn’t call it a day, but put out the remaining fresh skipjacks that we had in the tuna tubes. I guzzled a couple Gatorades and a water. We fished the live skippies for another 45 minutes or so without a takedown and called it a trip at about 6:30 p.m.

We cracked some cold Coronas for the run home. We reached the La Cruz marina about 8:00 p.m. and caught a cab back to Paradise Village after thanking Danny and Alvino for a great trip. For four days, we got a bunch of dorado and three black marlin at 350, 406 and 550. Doug got the big marlin he’d been in search of for years and I got my personal best marlin as well. The conditions were not ideal with green water at Corbetena and El Banco, but we had a great trip nonetheless. Danny and Alvino work their butts off every day. On top of that, they are good people. The results speak for themselves. It is a pleasure to fish with them and dealing with Danny and the Osuna family is seamless and pleasant. You can reach Danny at www.marlasportfishing.com. He did tell me that his computer had been malfunctioning for a few weeks, and that he was trying to get caught up with old e-mails. Resending an e-mail that has not been answered probably makes sense.

I’ll be back down in a few weeks to fish with Danny again. I’m bringing two friends who tried PV for the first time last year, but got shut out on the big tuna. They are anxious to give it a try again, and hopefully the blue water and the tuna will be back by then.

[Duramax]

Looks like a dream come true...........

[Bayside]

Nice trip and report. Danny and crew are great people for sure. Yes Alvino is one of the best deck hands I have seen in PV. I will be there soon.

[fdhanna]

Merle: Great report. Yes, I am sorry that that first fish got tail wrapped and died but the trip was great anyway. You organize one heck of a fishing trip.

[capt josh]

Great job guys...it was awesome to see you guys out there and i'm stoked you and Doug are still enjoying your mojo!!! Congrats on a great trip all around...

[peto]

Sweet ride. Better boat than my 31.

[coldtuna]

Josh,

Not sure if you knew it was us when we waved. Doug wanted to be sure you heard hello from "Team Canada."

Nice to see you as well.

Merle

[jesse]

Thats a bitchin report dude.

nice fish too-

[mickyspec]

hey man great post!
3 friends and I are heading to PV on october 12th to fish with danny for 5 days and after reading this post lets just say ive got woood!!!
thanks
mick