Sincerely hoping not to offend anyone...
“The difference between a young man and an old man is that an old man is what he has done...a young man hopes that he does certain things, with no guarantees that he will...only time will tell on that.”
So, Sanchoco, you obviously are casting doubt on my fishing credentials and history. I am very sorry to see that, sir, and I hope that I can change your thinking.
First, my website is NOT “all about tuna”, nor are my books. Here are the subjects of the books that are currently on the site...
A new marlin book. I have written another that is out of print.
Two swordfish books, one for daytime and one for night fishing.
One book on bigeye tuna fishing (and for other tunas as well).
Two books on shark fishing, one on chumming, one on trolling.
One book on wahoo fishing.
One book on dolphin/dorado/mahi fishing.
One book on spreaderbars.
One all-around pelagic trolling book that includes them all.
One halibut and other flatfish book
One book on the secrets of west coast private boat pros.
And my novel, Grim Ripper.
That is a far cry from “all about tuna”...a very far cry indeed. It is inaccurate and unfair to state otherwise. The facts are that I have written more books on big game fishing alone, plus more on the various game species than any other author in history. And the "big three" of the sportfishing magazines have enough respect for my work that all have bought articles of mine, even to the extent of ones in all three at the same time, in the same month. I have been told that has never been done before.
As far as California marlin are concerned, I do not pretend to be, nor do I claim to be an expert on fishing up here. And besides, I am only here because my medical situation demands it...my heart, old and beat up as it is, belongs in my beloved Cabo and nowhere else. However, I have news for you. Just as it is for marlin designed spreaderbars, some of the biggest marlin catching names up here are, in fact, trolling ballyhoo part of the time. They are also not admitting it to anyone. That has to do more with California marlin catching success and the big bucks involved in tournament success than it does anything else. That is neither here nor there because you are right, most up here are live bait fishermen, as it used to be and still is to a great extent down in Cabo.
Before getting into my personal history with ballyhoo, both in The Baja and elsewhere, I have to respectfully note that your comment about top Cabo captains there only catching two hundred or so marlin a year is well, let’s just call it untrue too. Reading your words, I’m not sure if you fished in the same Cabo that I lived in full time and spent an average of over three hundred days fishing a year in because if you think a “top captain” averages a mere two hundred marlin a year there, you simply ain’t talking the same place.
I will leave you with just one or two statements of fact in that regard. First, check out the other post made here by the other “San”...specifically the photo of my peers and pals of long standing, Chris Badsy and the Brackman brothers aboard Chris’s Reelaxe on the day that they C&R’d ONE HUNDRED NINETY STRIPED MARLIN...I REPEAT, IN ONE DAY! And they have repeated or come close to similar catches on more occasions, as have some others, and might have even exceeded that first record by now. I am not interested in that sort of fishing, so I don’t really keep up with it much.
Please let me point out that neither Chris nor the Brackmann brothers are full time residents of Cabo like I was for many years, nor do they even spend anywhere near as many days fishing there annually, while my crew and I put in over three hundred trips per year. Yet their annual catch totals would be mind-boggling and perhaps even unimaginable to others. And in case you don’t know it, marlin are a very likely catch 365 days a year there. And it is a stone cold fact that during the late Fall, early Winter striped marlin migration any merely competent boat with even a minimally talented crew and anglers can catch and release 40+ stripers a day for literally months, while top crews interested in catching and releasing far greater numbers of fish can and do so - often.
Me? Like many other charterboats, I was somewhat limited on the number of fish that we could catch in a day by the quality, skill level, desires as far as how many marlin they caught (usually not whether we could catch some for them) until they wanted to go for meat fish, or sea sickness and a few more issues involving our passengers came into play. In fact, we developed our bait & switch tactics to actually avoid marlin so we could concentrate on meat fish at times when our passengers had caught enough marlin and didn't want to deal with any more. (Of course, we b&s'd for the opposite reason too - too many meat fish and not enough marlin getting through them. I LOVE bait & switch fishing!)
Still, we were pretty pricey for a tourist boat, so we had a lot of days with talented, hard core charter groups who wanted to load up on marlin and we not only caught a helluva lot of marlin during those prime times, we also caught them at other, non-peak times too that included plenty of days of anywhere from as many as a dozen, to literally dozens of fish in one day.
On one of those non-primetime days that one can read about in my Marlin Book I had the right kind of anglers, who caught and released twenty-eight stripers before they pooped out, while David Brackmann, one of his brothers and his dad trolled parallel to and less than a hundred yards alongside us on a break and they caught even more, for a two boat, one day total of over sixty fish for the two of us. And that was a long way from our best one day, “off season” catch. I am pointing this day out partially because David is a highly respected, talented and well known West Coast marlin fisherman and he can and will confirm that what I am writing about here did, in fact, take place for those who might doubt that or find it hard to believe. He can also vouch for what the first boat was to bring ballyhoo into Cabo and fish them daily.
I will say no more here on this issue, except to say that we caught one helluva lot of marlin in Cabo annually, as did and do other top boats and crews. I humbly suggest and hope that you get your facts straight and please don’t demean, belittle and cast doubts on the legitimate accomplishments of other professionals.
I intentionally do not go around bragging about the numbers of marlin that we caught and will not now because that might appear to be bragging and I don’t want to brag in the first place, nor do I want to take advantage of the outright fact that we fished in what is still the place where the most striped marlin are caught on this entire planet. But the others mentioned are top guys who have repeatedly shown that Cabo is a place where good captains, crews, and anglers can and do catch remarkable numbers of striped marlin and other billfish annually. Included in that group are captains and crews of the Picante Fleet, the Minerva Fleet, the Pisces Fleet, Lalo Liquidano of Checkmate Fleet, the Dream Maker Fleet, Renegade Mike and some awesome gringo teams that fish there regularly, but somewhat sporadically but who regularly prove that Cabo was and still is one of the most incredible marlin fisheries on earth...and is, in fact, a great venue for testing lures, baits, techniques and tackle.
You may not have “great respect for any testing done in these areas”, but at least where I’m coming from, you certainly should! But go ahead, don’t have it if you choose not to...it’s a free world and you are entitled to whatever your opinion might be.
Now, on to my history with ballyhoo. I was born in Miami Beach in 1943. After my family moved north I returned for several summers to live with extended family and I caught, sold and swapped ballyhoo, pinfish and mullet on a daily basis for numerous crews out of Haulover Basin. Many of the ballyhoo were rigged after the old masters there taught me their rigging secrets and preferences. When I was thirteen years old, fifty-two years ago, I caught my first sail and my first (two) blue marlin aboard Captain Al Alfred’s Pink Lady and another charterboat who I had swapped bait for for a ride.
My love affair and decades of experience rigging and using ballyhoo began those fifty-two years ago. I have spent a bit more time than most with the slender, under-beaked beauties, I suspect and in all of that time and with the advice and instruction of some remarkably talented captains from around the world, I learned a bit about rigging and using them.
As far as using ballyhoo down in Cabo, all that you have to do is check with Minerva Smith, who you surely must know, and she will confirm that I was the first captain there to import and use ballyhoo long, long ago. She will also tell you that a lot of top crews – most, but not all gringo ones, now use ballies on a regular basis for both trolling and pitching. Furthermore, I’m sure that she will confirm that ballyhoo use has become so prevalent down there that she and her husband Bob have actually bought the industrial vacuum sealing equipment and flash freezer to try to develop their own, local source for ballyhoo. This, in an effort to eliminate the importation, shipping, and other costs involved in bringing bait in from The States that were problematic for me too.
David Jones, IGFA rep and owner of Fishermens Fleet up in La Paz not only uses ballyhoo, but he too has tried and is trying to develop his own local source for them. He and Minnie and her husband Bob are very good friends and they may well wind up working together on this venture.
I do not recall the exact date, but I began bringing in and using ballyhoo in Cabo almost fifteen years ago. To my knowledge I was the first to do so, or at least to do so on a consistent basis and there are many reliable sources to confirm that. The facts are also well chronicled in my earlier books; in other words, in written, dated, historical fact. No brag or big deal, just what an old Florida ballyhoo fan did when he saw the vast schools of ballyhoo leaping in front of his boat and in front of its wakes in the mornings when he ran out of Cabo Bello on his way to the fishing grounds.
Just as I believe many other ballyhoo fans, a type that there were damned few of in Cabo at the time would have, or there would have been more of us using them, when I realized that they were likely the most common offshore fin bait there, I did what many others would have done and started bringing them in. That was the reason and the timing and so on and they are both the facts and the utter truth.
Now, wrapping this long (sorry about that) response up, here is part of an article from the “Inside Fred’s Head” part of our website that speaks a bit about the ballyhoo situation down in Cabo. Like everything else that I have written here, it too is the truth.
INSIDE FRED’S HEAD #3
OH, BABY, BALLYHOO! (FROM WAHOO TROLLER’S BIBLE)
Ballyhoo are probably the leading natural trolling bait around the globe and rightly so; those silver devils with the upside-down bills and nonsymmetrical tails are simply fish-catching sweethearts. They are easy to keep (good ones, like those from Baitmasters in Florida), easy to rig (especially my way) and easy to fish with (again, especially my way), so it’s no wonder that they are so popular with me, other fishermen, and fish. Along with every other game fish, wahoo love them and I consider them the best of the dead baits for the subject fish of this book and the other critters that live around and among them.
THE MEXICAN BALLYHOO SITUATION
There are tons of ballyhoo in Cabo waters, as many or even more than I have seen anywhere else. It always baffled me why local commercial bait makers don’t recognize this and start fishing them professionally. That sure would make life simpler and probably even less expensive for me.
The main reason why no one goes after them to sell is simple; there is no market for them! I know that there is a pile of you out there right now thinking something like “Am I hearing this guy right? Did he say that there is no market for ballyhoo in Cabo San Lucas, one of the leading big game fishing ports on earth, complete with a charter boat fleet of over two hundred boats? How could there be no market in a place like that? Oh, yeah, he also said that there are a lot of ballyhoo in the waters down there, so the fishermen must just catch their own baits and that’s why there is no market for them, right?”
Wrong! There is no market because until just recently, there was only one charter boat using ballyhoo in Cabo - mine! And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Nobody else that I know of used them until just lately and I believe that my buddy Lalo Liquidano, captain of the thirty-three Blackfin “Tail Chaser”, who learned how to use them from me, uses them regularly. Other than Lalo, I don’t know of anyone who is using ballyhoo down in that incredible, year-round big game fishing capitol and monster ballyhoo factory.
(*THIS WAS THE SITUATION 5 YEARS AGO. MANY MORE USE THEM TODAY)
THAT WORLDWIDE DISEASE, “FISHING INERTIA.” DO YOU HAVE IT?
Why don’t fishermen there use ballyhoo? First, both the locals and the gringos are live bait freaks who are for the most part unwilling to change their ways. They are the collective victims of a fisherman’s disease that I call, “fishing inertia”.
It is that very same fishing inertia that keeps otherwise intelligent fishermen all over the world from learning and using new techniques that would help them catch a lot more fish and have a helluva lot more fun. You can bet the farm on it and take it to the bank that it’s “Fishing Inertia Disease Syndrome” or “FIDS”, or something far worse and impolite to say if you’re trying to make friends out of the victims of what I am being nice here and calling a disease that is holding fishermen back. It amazes me just how prevalent whatever it is, is!
“JUST CATCH YOUR OWN BALLYHOO, FOOL!”
I can hear some of you, especially you Florida boys, saying, “Hey Fred, you can catch your own, you know? It’s no big deal if you know how.”
No, neither you nor I can catch ballyhoo for bait in Mexico. I do know the various ways to catch them (as native-born Florida boy and a kid who used to supply a good sized charter fleet in Miami with ballyhoo, pinfish and mullet, how could I not?), but there is a huge problem in Mexico as far as foreigners catching their own bait is concerned. It’s the dangdest thing that I’ve ever seen. First, it is illegal for foreigners to use cast nets. Their use is absolutely verboten and in fact, it is illegal for Americans to even have a cast net in their possession in Mexico. Puts a serious crimp in any bait netting plans, you know?
Second, trying to catch your own bait puts you in a very bad position as far as the local, professional bait catchers are concerned and it is more than likely that you would have real problems with your boat and truck if you started trying to catch bait.
This situation is so bad that after a charterboat owner buddy, Chuck Baker of the Checkmate Fleet and I actually bought a panga, trailer, etc. with the express purpose of having our Mexican crews catch ballies from it (legally, with chum and rod and reel), we were forced to give up on the project because of endless mysterious permit and other licensing problems and the infinitely clear message from the bait catching pro’s that we would have real troubles if we tried to catch bait, even if it was just on hook and line and was for our own use, which was what we were trying to catch it for.
As far as the resident bait catchers are concerned, they are set up for and knowledgeable about live bait, not dead stuff. As you may or may not know, there is a lot involved in producing quality ballyhoo, including such things as killing them properly in a chilled brine, further brining and then blast freezing them in heavy duty, vacuum sealed plastic bags. That’s a lot different than going out at night, catching bait on hand lines and tossing it into a flooded compartment of your panga, then delivering the busted up and sometimes already dying and rotting baits to boats that morning. We were ready to do the bait thing right, but the live bait guys weren’t about to let us.
GOD BLESS FLORIDA!
That is where I got my frozen ballyhoo. My source was Mark Pumo’s famed Baitmasters of South Florida. I always got top quality baits from Mark. His ballyhoo come so well packaged and frozen that he guarantees that they will last up to two years if kept properly frozen. Quality was important to me for obvious reasons and I certainly got it from Baitmasters.
A STEADY, EASY, BUT COSTLY SUPPLY WITH TOO MANY HASSLES
Convenience is also important and the fact that I could simply reach into my freezer in the morning, stuff a few packs of ‘hoos in my knapsack and we were ready to rock and didn’t have to worry about buying or making bait in the morning - especially on the moons, when it gets tough as hell to catch anything, including bait, was just great as far as I was concerned. The further fact is that due to the great quality of Mark’s baits and thorough curing and care we got up to three days use out of them. That beats the heck out of watching your customers dump forty or more bucks worth of live baits in Mexico – or a lot more at the moon times or up north or back east, baits that didn’t get used during the trip and for the most part, fed to the damned birds! (Don’t get me wrong! I like the birds as much as the next guy, but I sure don’t like turning them into a bunch of freeloaders with my live bait leavings. Let ‘em earn an honest living and catch their own damned meals!)
I troll my ‘hoos both fast and at regular speeds and I find that many of the regular speed fish strike the head or just behind it, while those that hit the faster baits invariably get stuck on hooks rigged long. That’s been my experience and it’s a long history I’m talking here. We’ll get into various rigging details based on species sought, bait size, speeds, etc. shortly.
END OF EXCERPT
Frankly, I don’t like being called a liar or having inferences made in that regard. I have a long, long public history in both fishing and the fishing tackle businesses. I worked hard to earn that reputation and it has been recognized by some true authorities in the media. I am proud of that, but try hard to avoid bragging about any of it. Whether I was trying to come up with innovative new reels, or developing likewise new-to-a-given-area techniques, or purely new, better and innovative ways to catch fish for myself and other fishermen, I have always strived to both do that and to pass on the things that I have been so blessed with learning to other fishermen. Look, and I hope that you will see that.
There are plenty of bullshitters, copyrats, hard-headed traditionalists and keyboard experts around and on these boards...I am not one of them.
Over
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Ace1st
I meant ballyhoomercial..
www.canyongear.com
