My first cow with Scott Osuna from 10/9-10/12 and Mike Brown on 10/14-10/15

[Marlin Grando]

I can’t say enough about Scott Osuna, who constantly kept us on fish. On our first day out we had an extra deckie named Carlos who created a lot of action with a popper and another deckie Salva or Salvalito who was not only a good fisherman but makes a mean ceviche.

My son and I each hooked up with 2 black marlin, the one below got tailed wrapped and came in belly up. Three of the marlin were in the 300-400lb range and Scott estimated the 4^th one at around 700lb.

Quality sized Dorado were biting consistently throughout the first four days of fishing and were caught on a light setup with a Penn 16VSX.

Caught a +/- 100lb fish on one of Scott’s Avet LX 6/3 reels. While I’m pretty much a Penn guy, I was totally impressed with the easy cranking power of this little reel. The fish hit the deck in about 10 minutes, all the while I was thinking that it had to be a 30 lb max. fish because of the way the reel effortlessly handled the fish. When the fish landed on the deck, I kept looking back and forth between the fish and the reel in disbelief. Seeing this, Scott laughed and said “I told ya”. Do any of my BD brethren have experience with these little reels? Do you have to throw them away after a few fish like this or do they hold up?

My friend Walter fished with me on the fourth day, there’s a pic of him cutting up his hand on the gill plates of a Dorado. It was Walter’s first trip to PV and he fished with Danny Gomez for a couple of days as well. He was very impressed with both PV and Danny.

There’s a pic below of 200lb swivel that got straightened out by what Scott estimated to be a 1,000lb black. I’m pretty much a rookie compared to those of you who post on this board and I wanted to begin using more drag after an extended fight with a 150lb Yellow Fin Tuna. The drag was set at 40lbs on a Penn 80 wide when it got hit. Although, as soon as I set the hook the Marlin began taking line like the reel was in free spool and to the extent that I could smell the drag burning up in the reel….

My first cow inhaled a slow trolled skippie and I used a method of setting the hook taught to me by Bullshipper, where you put the reel in gear after the fish begins to accelerate away from the spot it took the bait versus using a set count. The Yellow Fin Tuna taped in at 243lbs and was caught on a Penn 70VS and custom Calstar 7455 XXH rod made by Doc Ski (Doc is a BD member and posts mainly under the rod building section).

My son landed his first Yellow Fin Tuna over 40lb aboard Mike Brown’s boat with deckie Hector Corona-Osuna.

[gernsey]

Nice report,those little reels are awsome.I got a 280 and a couple 120's on the LX and the drags are still fine .Manny and Clarke each got fish over 300 on the LX and JX.They are tuff reels.Thanks for the report.Gernsey

[Ali]

Nice fish amigo.

Welcome to PV.

[Customboatguy]

Your stoked man. That looks like great fun.

[frijolitos]

cool report, killer pics. Did Danny get your buddy on the roosterfish?? He's been kickin ass lately out there.

[lilharcher]

Congrats on the beutiful cow and all the species caught. "Those little reels" (Avet LX 2-speed) will hold up under the most extreme of conditions and so will the smaller versions, just ask Clark who recently got a 320lb+ Cow on a JX.

[Marlin Grando]

Originally Posted by frijolitos

cool report, killer pics. Did Danny get your buddy on the roosterfish?? He's been kickin ass lately out there.

big time, they caught and released 6 good size roosters

[Marlin Grando]

Originally Posted by lilharcher

Congrats on the beutiful cow and all the species caught. "Those little reels" (Avet LX 2-speed) will hold up under the most extreme of conditions and so will the smaller versions, just ask Clark who recently got a 320lb+ Cow on a JX.

very impressive, I just may have to break down and get me one of those reels

[wahoodad]

Good going John. I quit using those kind of snap swivels after a similar loss on a cow at Clipperton.
Nice pics, great job!

[Captain Jeff Illingworth]

That's actually a top of the line snap swivel............. there is only one way that can happen.

Anyway, congrats on a nice variety of pez!


-J

[wahoodad]

Mine was a 400# rated swivel, Sampo, not an off brand, engaged properly, it just plain failed, tuna got away with an unreplaceable trolling lure.
I was way more bummed about losing the Dynatroll than the tuna.

[coldtuna]

Congrats on a great trip!

Looks like your timing was just right.