OIFC Travelling Fisherman 2011- Galapagos

[Fishing Report]

[Squidnation]

Keep em coming man. I am ready to head back!

[Fishing Report]

OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 02/07/11

Back in the US and finally in front of the computer. I will pick up with the Galapagos report on Tuesday of last week our first fishing day. Enjoy.
Tuesday, Fish Day 1: Last night we all had dinner together at our hotel, the Miconia. The food is great and the atmosphere is better. The hotel restaurant overlooks the harbor and the only outside noise comes from the sea lions arguing over who gets dibs on the park bench. At dinner we were met by our host Captain Braden Escobar and he filled us in on the game plan for the following day. The plan was to meet our boats at 7am and make the 35 mile run to the Rosa Banca in hopes of finding stripe marlin. Anticipation was high and we all hung out after dinner talking about the next day and sharing fishing stories from other adventures. The group was separated into 4 different 4 fishermen/women teams for the 4 boats we were to be on. They were:
Big Fish: Captain Fernando
Bryan Freeman
Brian Robbins
Rick Blasé
Steve Austin (Dr. Love)

Patricia: Captain Braden
Brant McMullan
Amy McMullan
Brian Allen
Stacy Allen

Blue: Captain Julio
Tom Bordeaux
Blair Bordeaux
Ken Hill
Kennan Hill

Jonamar II: Captain Edwin
Benji Faulkner
Andy Erbacher
Rube McMullan
Barrett McMullan

With the teams and boats picked for day one the annual Traveling Fisherman tournament took shape. Through much debate we settled on a point system that would determine each day’s winning team. The point values were approved by Captain Braden and decided upon due to difficulty or likelihood of catching that particular species. The point values were:
Blue Marlin- 500 points
Black Marlin- 500 points
Sailfish- 500 points
Stripe Marlin- 200 points
Yellowfin Tuna > 100lbs- 200 points
Yellowfin Tuna < 100lbs- 75 points
Wahoo- 50 points
Snapper (20lb min)- 50 points
Grouper (20lb min)- 50 points

Today we woke up to sunny skies, warm temperatures and light winds. We all had breakfast at the hotel around 6:30am which consisted of fresh local fruit, French toast, ham and eggs. At 7:00am we walked from the hotel about 50 yards down to the main dock for the harbor where all the local workers were meeting up with water taxis to take them to work on the surrounding islands. We boarded our water taxis with gear in hand, smelling of sunscreen, and totally looking the stereotypical part of the “gringo” tourists. The boats were surprisingly nice and well equipped. They were a local make and were sort of a hybrid sport fishermen about 32’ to 36’ long with outboard 4 stroke power. We cruised out to the fishing grounds at about 25 to 28 knots and got to see the coastline of San Cristobal island where huge rock formations come straight out of the sea with large swells making spectacular crashes against them.

After about an hour and a half of running the sea lit up with current breaks, dolphins, sea lions and birds as we arrived on the bank. The purist way of marlin fishing in the Galapagos is to troll a spread of 4 teasers pretty close to the boat and wait for a marlin to come into the spread. Once the marlin is raised the teaser the fish is attracted to is removed from the water and simultaneously the angler drops back a ballyhoo rigged with a circle hook in its place. Ideally the fish switches from the teaser onto your bait and thus the bait and switch technique. Fishing circle hooks for billfish is a learned skill. The technique involved in hooking up takes practice and patience. The proper course of action is as follows: the marlin is raised behind a teaser; the teaser is retrieved; at the same time the angler drops back a naked circle hook rig ballyhoo with the clicker off to a position where the bait skips right in front of the marlin; the marlin bats the bait with its bill then grabs the bait; the angler, holding the rod tip high immediately drops the tip towards the water and removes his thumb from the spool letting line off the reel with no tension; the marlin swims away with the ballyhoo for a legitimate 10 second count; the angler keeps the tip low, engages the reel and reels the handle until the line comes tight or he throws the rod on the deck in disgust because he just missed another fish! They are tough fish to hook up especially on circle hooks. However there is no greater thrill than hand feeding a stripe marlin, waiting an eternity to engage the reel and then come tight on him and send him on a spastic jumping spree as he tries to shake the hook.

All 4 boats arrive about the same time and the teasers are deployed with really little explanation of what we should expect. In less than 10 minutes on board the Jonamar II we had fish crashing our teasers. Needless to say we were caught with our pants down and made a mess of it. The action was similar for the rest of the boats in the fleet. It wasn’t red hot but the action was steady. The crew of the Blue was first to break the ice as Blair Bordeaux landed his first ever marlin a stripe about 150lbs about an hour after baits were in the water. On board the The Big Fish, Bryan Freeman, Brian Robbins, Rick Blasé and Steve Austin had a very slow morning but ran into a hornets nest of stripe marlin late in the day and raised 13 fish in 1 hour! As you’ll notice by the number of raises to number of bites and then catches, just because the fish comes into your spread certainly does not mean they are caught fish. The fishing day ended around 3pm and we made the trip back to the island where we told stories of the day’s feats and follies. Dinner was great again as another group of travelers from Australia had lucked into a yellowfin tuna and were so kind to share some fresh sashimi. The day’s totals were tallied by Captain Braden and the day one tournament had a winner. The stats for all four teams:
The Big Fish: 600 points (All Stripe Marlin)
15 raises
11 bites
3 catch

Patricia: 200 points (All Stripe Marlin)
7 raises
4 bites
1 catch

Blue: 800 points (All Stripe Marlin)
13 raises
6 bites
4 catch

Jonamar II: 200 points (All Stripe Marlin)
13 raises
3 bites
1 catch

The winner is Blue, Captain Fernando and crew of Tom and Blair Bordeaux and Ken and Kennan Hill. Each angler on board was able to catch a marlin and Ken Hill caught a monster 240lb Stripe Marlin.

-Capt. Barrett McMullan

Ocean Isle Fishing Center- Ocean Isle Beach, NC – for more reports and upcoming fishing news visit www.OIFC.com ---
910-575-FISH

[Fishing Report]

"Day Two fishing Galapagos" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 02/08/11

Wednesday, Fish Day 2: We woke up early again today to perfect weather and a fresh local breakfast. We ate at the hotel again and watched the fishing boats and crews organize for the day ahead from the restaurant balcony. Big things were on tap today as we all had gained experience at this new type of fishing yesterday and were ready to catch some fish. The teams and boat assignments had been decided upon last night:
The Big Fish: Captain Fernando
Brant McMullan
Amy McMullan
Rube McMullan
Andy Erbacher

Patricia: Captain Braden
Ken Hill
Kennan Hill
Barrett McMullan
Benji Faulkner

Blue: Captain Julio
Tom Bordeaux
Blair Bordeaux
Brian Allen
Stacy Allen

Jonamar II: Captain Edwin a.k.a. Sammy Davis Jr
Bryan Freeman
Brian Robbins
Rick Blasé
Steve Austin

We returned back to the same area today to start but the action was slow to start the day. A couple boats ventured off a few more miles from the first bank and went to another bank called the Honey Hole. Around 11:00 things picked up a little but it seemed like the action would come in bunches. There’d be multiple stripes in the spread for a few minutes then nothing for an hour or more. Also today the fish seemed not to be feeding aggressively. They’d come onto a teaser but when the ballyhoo was free-lined the stripe marlin would often fade out of the spread without ever taking a bait. Nevertheless even with the marlin fishing a little tough today it still is probably equal or better than anywhere in the world. A couple boats decided to pack in the marlin fishing early and give the inshore fishing a shot. The inshore fishing consists of getting close to the rock formations near the island and either throwing poppers, trolling swimming plugs or deep jigging vertical jigs. The only problem with this style of fishing is the sea lions believe it or not. Nearly every fish that is hooked is an easy target for a hungry sea lion. These guys may look cute when they are floating around or laying on the park benches but make no mistake when they decide to eat they are ferocious. The crew on board the Blue hooked numerous wahoo but were able to get only 2 to the boat around 25lbs a piece. The guys on the Jonamar worked on the bottom fish catching a pile of grouper, a cubera snapper, several unidentified fish and lost a number of other fish to sea lions. When the marlin fishing isn’t producing fast enough for anglers there are plenty of other options available as proven by these two boats today. Once again the day ended with cocktails and a sunset on the harbor edge where fish stories were abound. Dinner tonight was unreal. The chef here at the Miconia is talented. I believe we got pictures of the presentation but to give you a basic idea, the chef took the head of the cubera snapper and put it on a platter. For the body of the snapper the chef replaced the cubera body and arranged wahoo sashimi on the platter which was delicious.

Because of the slow fishing by Galapagos standards, Captain Braden made an appearance at dinner and let us know of the plan for the following day. Two of the boats, the Patricia and The Big Fish, would be making a long run about 65 miles in the opposite direction as the previous days to a little known bank called the Black Sheep. Supposedly this bank is usually either on fire or very slow. We’re pretty excited to check out a new piece of turf. The other boats will return to Rosa Banks in case the marlin turn on there tomorrow. Today’s tournament results are:
The Big Fish: 200 points
5 raises
1 bite
1 stripe marlin
2 amberjack (Rube, go figure!)

Patricia: 400 points (All Stripe Marlin)
13 raises
4 bites
2 fish

Blue: 700 points
5 raises
5 bites
3 stripe marlin
2 wahoo

Jonamar II: 200 points
9 raises
2 bites
1 stripe marlin
1 cubera snapper under 20lbs
8 grouper under 20lbs

The winner once again today was the crew of the Blue. The opinion from those who have fished on the Blue to this point is these guys are fishing very effectively. We’ll see if they can go for 3 in a row tomorrow. Tomorrow the boats making the big run will be leaving an hour earlier at 6:00am in order to have sufficient fishing time. Feels like rain is coming in tonight, hopefully we have good weather for the run. There are high hopes for the new fishing grounds. After paying the winning team from today, the crew dispersed and hit the sack ready to tee em’ up again tomorrow.

The pictures below are of the jigging done by the crew of the Jonamar today. The marlin pictures are coming soon.

-Capt. Barrett McMullan

Ocean Isle Fishing Center- Ocean Isle Beach, NC – for more reports and upcoming fishing news visit www.OIFC.com ---
910-575-FISH

[Ozimo2]

Long way to go for two days

[Marlinhunter2]

naw read elsewhere they fished for 4 days

[Fishing Report]

[Fishing Report]

[Fishing Report]

"Galapagos Continued" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 02/09/11

It poured rain last night which sounded pretty neat coming through the tropical trees surrounding our hotel. The plan again for today was for 2 boats to make an extra long run about 68 miles to another bank called the Black Sheep. The name comes from the fact it's so far away from anything else, it's all on it's own. 8 of us woke up an hour early for a 6am departure. The rain brought a stiff easterly breeze this morning which made us think maybe making the long run wouldn't be in the cards today. Captain Braden met us outside the hotel and re-assured everyone it was just a land breeze and we were on as planned. The two boats making the long run were The Big Fish and Patricia. Blue and Jonamar II would be heading back to Rosa Banca at the normal time. Today's crews and boat assignments:

The Big Fish: Captain Fernando
Blair Bordeaux
Bryan Freeman
Rick Blase
Barrett McMullan

Patricia: Captain Braden
Rube McMullan
Andy Erbacher
Brian Allen
Stacy Allen

Blue: Captain Julio
Brant McMullan
Amy McMullan
Tom Bordeaux
Benji Faulkner

Jonamar II: Captain Edwin a.k.a. Richard Petty
Ken Hill
Kennan Hill
Brian Robbins
Steve Austin

I was on the Big Fish that headed to the Black Sheep bank. Talk about traveling where no man has traveled before, wow. Not only did we start on an island that is in the middle of nowhere, we left nowhere and went another 70 miles to the middle of the ocean. We left out of the harbor and headed around the opposite end of the island than we had been traveling the previous two days. The first 30 miles were flat riding behind the island and passing by Kicker Rock. The next 35 miles were a little bumpy but not too bad. The boats did well. We arrived to the bank and the feast or famine forecast looked to be leaning more towards famine as there were no signs of life on the bank. No birds, dolphin, or bait could be seen immediately. We were a little worried we may have made a mistake but despite the lack of signs of fish, they were there. In less than 10 minutes we had the first fish in the spread and it proceeded to make fools out of us. Just a few minutes later the Captain Braden on Patricia comes on the radio and reports raising a triple but three whiffs by the crew. Between the two boats it was a tale of different days. I don't know what to attribute it to, but on board The Big Fish we had a very busy day with stripe marlin being raised all day long. It seemed like we had a bunch of multiples which created a chaotic cockpit. The Patricia couldn't seem to get it going after the first flurry and raised just a few fish all day. Despite all these guys working in the same operation, make no mistake there is significant competition among the Captains. These guys are motivated to catch more fish than their colleagues which works out good for the anglers. Back on board The Big Fish our biggest problem was a group of about 8 frigate birds that wouldn't leave us alone. They were aggressive, trying to eat baits first out of our spread and then actually out of the boat! The problem was every time we'd raise a marlin and drop a bally hoo back the frigates would swoop in and take the bait. After several encounters with birds, the good ol boy NC came out in Freeman and the birds were no longer a problem. In addition we decided to pull lures so the birds wouldn't bother our presentation. It worked as our hook up ratio improved in the afternoon. We fished late as the Patricia was trying to regain some honor but it wasn't to be on this day. The Big Fish was the hot boat today with numerous raises, fish hooked fought and lost and a few boated. Back on the Rosa Banca the action was similar to the first two days. Both boats released stripe marlin with the action occurring between 11:00 and 2:00 but overall it wasn't real hot. The results from today:

The Big Fish: 600 points (Stripe Marlin)
16+ raises
6 bites
3 catch

Patricia: 0 points (Stripe Marlin)
5 raises
2 bites
0 catch

Blue: 400 points (Stripe Marlin)
6 raises
4 bites
2 catches

Jonamar II: 200 points (Stripe Marlin)
8 raises
3 bites
1 catch

Amy caught her first stripe marlin of the trip today. Now, Brant and Rube are the only two in the group not to catch a marlin. Tomorrow is our last day of fishing here at the Galapagos. While we are a little sad to see the end, we are also pretty worn out from going at it hard these last few days. The plan tomorrow is for all the boats to head back to the Rosa Banca for a grand finale. Captain Braden on the Patricia has sworn revenge. The McMullan's are on board the Patrica tomorrow so we're going to help Braden get back on top, or at least that's the plan. One more day to go.

Here are some pictures from Bryan Freeman on board The Big Fish.

-Capt. Barrett McMullan
Ocean Isle Fishing Center- Ocean Isle Beach, NC – for more reports and upcoming fishing news visit www.OIFC.com ---
910-575-FISH

[Fishing Report]

"Galapagos Final Fish Day" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 02/10/11

Friday, Fish Day 4: Yesterday was a long one for the crews of the Patricia and Big Fish who made the long to the Black Sheep bank and got back to port just before dark. Today we got going on a more typical schedule departing the dock about 7am. All 4 boats headed east and spread out between the Rosa Banca and the Honey Hole. So far the Blue has been the most consistent boat, with The Big Fish a close second and the Jonamar and Patricia in a dead heat for last place. Captain Braden captains the Patricia and was well aware of this fact and declared early on that today would have a different result. The weather, of course, was once again perfect. With the last day of fishing ahead of us, we were all excited to make the most of it. Today's crews were:
The Big Fish: Captain Fernando
Brian Allen
Stacy Allen
Ken Hill
Kennan Hill

Patricia: Captain Braden
Rube McMullan
Barrett McMullan
Brant McMullan
Amy McMullan

Blue: Captain Julio
Brian Robbins
Steve Austin
Rick Blase
Bryan Freeman

Jonamar II: Captain Edwin
Tom Bordeaux
Blair Bordeaux
Benji Faulkner
Andy Erbacher

On board the Patricia we arrived to the Honey Hole first. Brant and I pulled out our bag of tricks as the pressure was on to help get Captain Braden out of the dog house. The morning started slow for all the boats. We had one Stripe Marlin come in the spread after about an hour that tormented us by following every teaser we had but he wouldn't take a bait. Today we varied the approach by running two hooked lures on the riggers, two teasers close, one lure near the teaser and one pitch bait ready to go. Also, we dropped back a small feather on the long line in case a tuna was nearby. The first strike of the day was on the feather which yielded a 30lb yellowfin tuna handled by Amy. The pressure was off, dinner was served! Just like clock work at 11:00am the action began on board the Patricia. For the rest of the day we had stripe marlin in the spread. Most fish that were raised were aggressive and and struck either or lures or pitch baits. We had a great day with the stripe marlin eventhough we should have caught several more than we did. For whatever reason we were definitely the hot boat today. Braden was on the fish and loving it. We got some great video and pics today as Brant was our underwater photographer. The Big Fish and Blue stuck with the marlin fishing all day but the Jonamar team opted to call it quits early and try out the jigging action. The final tally for today:
The Big Fish: 200 points +?
8 raises
5 hook ups
1 stripe marlin catch
1 sea lion release!

Patricia: 1075 points
20 raises
10 hook ups
5 stripe marlin catches
1 yellowfin tuna

Blue: 200 points
9 raises
4 bites
2 hook ups
1 stripe marlin catch

Jonamar II: 100 points
1 raise
2 wahoo to the boat
Multiple wahoo and tuna lost to sea lions

Patricia takes the title today. What an awesome place this is. I hate to think tomorrow we're out of here. The plan is to have our host Ronnie pick up our bags and passports tomorrow morning and get us checked in for our flight at noon. While that's going on we're going to head to the highlands of San Cristobal and go check out the famed giant tortoises of the Galapagos. I think we're ready for a break from fishing but to leave this place tomorrow afternoon is going to be tough.

I'll be posting a trip wrap up tomorrow complete with fishing stats, general thoughts on the experience as a whole and plans for the future. I should have all the pics early next week and will post as many as I can.

-Capt. Barrett McMullan