179 Marlin and 1 sailfish released in one day - Cabo San Lucas Mexico - World record

[Captain Fred Archer]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I just gotta catch this goose! "Loose Goose", huh? "And I thought my wife and I were doing good at nine in one day down in Cabo", huh?

You and that spectacularly lovely and charming wife of yours DID do good on those nine fish. Real good! No disrespect intended and Chris and crew are all close friends of long standing, but you and that gal of yours went to war on those fish and fought 'em all hard, nose-to-nose, the regular way. The average fish was significantly bigger back in those days, too. You were hooked up to and fighting fish, most on spreaderbars, nonstop for hours. Very impressive, so don't belittle it.

And then there was the classic that started after marlin #8 was released and you were back in someone's tower, where only crew were allowed, but that a certain Goose just couldn't be kept out of. That was okay, because The Goose had become both crew AND friend by then. He said to the driver, "Hey, Cappy, can we fish for something else besides marlin for a while? We need a break from those things." "Sure, Henry...I mean, Goose, you said you wanted to catch a wahoo too, so let's run in to some of my inshore wahoo spots and see if we can't scare one up for you, even though it's not a good wahoo moon." The driver could see that The Goose was thinking, "Good! My back and muscles are killing me and it's fine with me if we don't get a wahoo, or any other kind of bite."

We ran in tight to the beach, the fast (not high speed, but fast) wahoo bars went out, the driver was glued to his chartplotter as he ran the drops from shallow to deep and the Goose was up there, drinking a coke and finally getting some rest...for a very little while.

The driver turned and watched the bars as he ran them over one of his best little spots. The Goose almost jumped out of his skin when the driver shouted, "Wahoo! BIG one just took a shot at the short right rigger!" "D-d-damn!" said the Goose as he turned around and looked back. The driver said, "Don't worry, they almost always come back when they miss like that. Watch for him! Man, he was a huge fish, maybe over a buck!"

The Goose had a very good "fish eye" and after the driver turned forward to make sure he wasn't going to drive over anyone, Goose yelled out, "Here he comes from behind! He's gonna get it!" The driver thought, "Uh, oh. From behind? That's not how fast wahoo come to a bar...they come from the side. You-know-what's come from behind."

Sure enough, when the driver turned and looked back, a big striper was roaring up behind the bar and wolfed it down. The Goose saw his error before the bite and uttered the classic phrase that the driver heard pretty regularly from marlin-glutted and gutted fishermen aboard his boat...

"Oh no! Not another (expletive deleted) MARLIN!"

This, from a guy who, all nervous and shakey and full of hope that morning had said, "I've come three thousand miles to catch a striped marlin...now, I'm a fisherman and understand the difference between fishing and catching, but do you think we can catch one?" To which the amused driver replied, not pointing out that he was referring to the "one" part of the question, "Well, that's a pretty tall order (only one? Hah, no way!), but we'll see what we can do for you."

And so The Goose and The Goddess locked and loaded on marlin, after marlin, after marlin, with a few tuna and dorado mixed in. Many others would have quit after just two or three big striped marlin workouts, but not these two...they went at it like true hard cores until, beaten up and bruised, and having caught and released eight stripers, they'd finally had enough. And then that last one came a'calling, gobbled a bar intended for wahoo, and that poor, tired, beaten up Goose yelled those words I heard many times.

Goose wearily climbed down out of the tower, instead of rocketing down the ladder in seconds, like he had done earlier, and proceeded to fight what turned out to be the baddest, toughest fish of the day.

The driver laughed his ass off when, after the fish was released, Goose looked up to him and said, "Damned marlin! I've had enough. Can we go home now?"

And we did. Just another great day in paradise, this time with The Goose and The Goddess. Oh yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday, 'cause I was there to see it all.

Howdy, Goose. Give my best to The Goddess, will ya? I'll remember to tell my beloved Shadow Girl that I ran into you two again when I have a few words with her up at Rainbow Bridge. I know she will remember you and hope that you remember her too. And God Bless!

If you reply, please start another thread, Goose. I shouldn't have posted this here, but I got so excited when I saw your comments and made the connection, I just had to do it!

Glory days with glorious people...in the end, that's what it's all about for a humble boat driver!

[frankypettolina]

Congrats guys that is an awesome catch.

I once was involved in a dead bait trolling tally of 31 sails in an afternoon off of Cancun with only one angler, and me and the Captain. Lots of 2's, 3's and a couple of quads for good measure. If that can be done in +/- 4 hours with just 3 people, I am sure the big number can be done with a bigger group of all experienced guys.

Cudos to you all that is a heck of a feat.

[bitemefiji]

This is absolutely fabulous that there are still some of us out there pulling in a large number of big fish.

Bloody well done guys!

Adrian
Bite Me, Fiji

[whitemarlin16]

awesome pictures whats a day !

[hamer31]

WOW! congrats on the day of a lifetime!!

[Finnseeker]

Originally Posted by frankypettolina

Congrats guys that is an awesome catch.

I once was involved in a dead bait trolling tally of 31 sails in an afternoon off of Cancun with only one angler, and me and the Captain. Lots of 2's, 3's and a couple of quads for good measure. If that can be done in +/- 4 hours with just 3 people, I am sure the big number can be done with a bigger group of all experienced guys.

Cudos to you all that is a heck of a feat.

Franky - mazatlan used to be this way on sails many years ago but they have been wiped out and not the numbers there anymore. Trolling dead ballyhoos and mullet was the ticket back then and if you could make live bait and keep it alive in the marina then you had an advantage but too m uch fresh water running into the marina . Congrats on your catch - great day.

If any of you guys can get the time off you should shoot over to cabo and see this bite, its amazing and still going on, fish it , its unreal. Even local charter boats running 23 miles to the Golden gate are now doing 30 - 60 fish from 7-1pm. The bigger boast are still heading out further to the finger bank and doing higher numbers and less boat preassure more wide open. The marlin are moving down closer to cabo and inside also.

[Tower Todd]

There are no words....outstanding! I was in Mag bay last week and the volume of marlin was incredible. During the week I was there, the bite was moving further South each day. I'm sure Cabo and the local banks will be on fire for some time to come. We didn't see the bait balls like you did, but tailers everywhere. Packs of them...4 there....6 over there...2 or 3 over there...insane. What you guys did is truley an accomplishment.

Tower Todd

[Finnseeker]

Originally Posted by Tower Todd

There are no words....outstanding! I was in Mag bay last week and the volume of marlin was incredible. During the week I was there, the bite was moving further South each day. I'm sure Cabo and the local banks will be on fire for some time to come. We didn't see the bait balls like you did, but tailers everywhere. Packs of them...4 there....6 over there...2 or 3 over there...insane. What you guys did is truley an accomplishment.

Tower Todd

Thanks Todd, did you guys get into teh Tuna, wahoo and dorado as well tehre as im curious to know since I heard reports that the long range tuna boats were getting some sized tuna out there. Where did you guys make your bait, inside or out on the banks. How many jig fish did you guys get.
Indeed this pack is moving down towards Cabo, what a volume of fish though.

For the skeptics, here are pics off 3 of my camera's showing one of our released marlin.

1.) The leaders came off the reels - IGFA rules
2.) The fish were hooked and jumpiing in the distance
3.) Backing down hard on the fish and quick release see the times on all 3 camera's
4.) The marlin were not small as seen in the pics
5.) The marlin after release can be seen still greyhounding away afterwards
6.) You can see we made macs easily

[Finnseeker]

Originally Posted by Finnseeker

Thanks Todd, did you guys get into teh Tuna, wahoo and dorado as well tehre as im curious to know since I heard reports that the long range tuna boats were getting some sized tuna out there. Where did you guys make your bait, inside or out on the banks. How many jig fish did you guys get.
Indeed this pack is moving down towards Cabo, what a volume of fish though.

For the skeptics, here are pics off 3 of my camera's showing one of our released marlin.

1.) The leaders came off the reels - IGFA rules
2.) The fish were hooked and jumpiing in the distance
3.) Backing down hard on the fish and quick release see the times on all 3 camera's
4.) The marlin were not small as seen in the pics
5.) The marlin after release can be seen still greyhounding away afterwards
6.) You can see we made macs easily

pics continued -sorry the pics not to clear had to rezise and reduce to post, the video's will be clear

[Finnseeker]

E-mail ---- Hi JD – Finally back from our 11th year running the Riviera Mag Bay Baja Bash. It took me a little longer to chop the trees off my desk after my return this year but the memory of this bite kept the ax swinging. Our fleet of seven Riviera’s from 42 feet to 51 feet raised over 1,000 billfish for the week and released 377 all on circle hooks. Circle hooks are mandatory for this event. On tournament day Mike McGrath won the points on Thumper with 15 marlin and a Mag Bay Slam (Marlin, wahoo, dorado, yellowfin) to take top honors this year. John Arrieta on Cut Loose took second with his wife Barbara and her good friend Deb doing all the angling while the guys captained and coached the gals. Mike Levesque (Zane Grey 2007 winner aboard Ohana – Riviera 51) should have taken top honors but just couldn’t buy a wahoo. While the weather was a little challenging that Wednesday everyone made it out for an incredible display of marine life. Thanks also goes to the 130’ Royal Pelagic for their support and mothership duties every evening in Puerto Magdalena. Next year Rich and I will have the Eastern Pacific Yacht Club and our 160’ Pacific Provider on station in Mag Bay for two months. We’ll provide all the reports you need in real time with VSAT. This year we decided to award our participants with several sponsor items and mainly played for wood and bragging rights. The real winners from this year’s event is the children’s school in San Carlos that will be receiving a truck load of sports equipment for their school year next week. We decided to send enough equipment to field both sides of the diamond, soccer balls and nets, basketballs, hats, jerseys and everything else we could find at the Sports Authority. So next year if any of your guys see a bunch of 10 -14 year olds with Riviera hats and shirts playing ball on the dirt field, feel free to contribute. Perhaps it will catch on and we’ll see Riviera vs Viking, Hatteras or Cabo in San Carlos next fall. Cheers Tom Ellsworth – Ellsworth Marine Inc.