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I have just returned from a pretty amazing adventure with 2 of my charter clients. We travelled south to fish the island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos. We took a direct nonstop flight form Newark, NJ to Guayaqyil Ecuador and then after a 2 hour layover caught a 727 into San Cristobal. You know you are not in Kansas anymore when you see Sea Lions and marine iguanas right out the hotel door.We fished with Capt. Allan Starr who has a long standing reputation in the Big Game Fishing Community. His boat is a 32 foot Ecuadorian built sportboat powered by 2 Yamaha 200 HP outboards. The 4 strokes were very quiet and could more the boat at 29-30 knots when conditions allowed. Because of El Nino conditions the fishing varied greatly and the runs were 35 -68 miles long (almost a NJ canyon run!)The tackle was all in very good shape. Highlights of the first day included finding an illegal longline in the National Park (which encompasses the whole area)From the line I released 2 sea turtles alive, and 2 that were dead. Later that day we found a large sea lion that dove down 700' to catch a 30lb grouper. These sea lions come up to the surface to eat their catch, and when we cruised by he left the still swimming grouper. I was able to gaff the grouper and as I stepped back from the gunnel he popped up ,real angry. I thought he was going to come flying into the boat, but then he got distracted by our trolling lures and we got out of there. Someone was going to eat that grouper, we came out on top of the food chain! On day 2 we ran 68 miles north and found bait balls and a longliner! The Ecuadorian Government is paid off to ignore these activities. In spite of our disappointment, the day impoved as we went 8 for 11 on big striped marlin (150-200lbs). The day was capped off when I licked a 265lb Big Eye Tuna in 45 minutes on 50 lb gear. It was all or nothing and I really put the heat on the fish, full drag and both thumbs on the spool and it worked! Day 3 of fishing we picked another area but got clobbered by the El Nino conditions which kicked up big winds and shut down the bite. We managed one wahoo, a couple of real small yellowfin, and a bonita. On a non fishing day we took a tour of the volcanic island and saw the only source of fresh water in these islands. The pirates and whalers knew of this and would row a dory under the waterfall to bring fresh water back to their sailing ships. They have a giant tortoise reserve here and it was pretty cool watching them plow thu the scrub eating as they went. They have an active breeding program with babies the size of small plates. All photos are posted on tunawahoo.com. This was definately a worthwhile experience and next year I will return with 6-9 anglers. Contact me if interested. Tight Lines!
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Originally Posted by Captain Rich Adler
