Isla Mujeres Report

[Marlinmate]

I arrived in Isla on Thursday, and met up with my lil'bro and his fiance(from Key West) at the airport, jumped a cab, a ferry and a taxi to eventually make it to Isla. Went on down to the marina to see what the action was like for the day and all boats were having success.

Woke up on Friday morning, jumped aboard BI-OP-SEA. a 59ft. Spencer and steamed out 4.5 miles and put lines in. It took a while for everyone to get in sync, but at the days end, we ended up with 19 out of who knows how many opportunities. Had 3 dolphin bites a bonito bite and a bunch of unhooked TOOTHY CRITTER bites. Had a few triples thrown in there just to add to the chaos. Back at the dock around 5 for more cold cervezas and 3 shrimp tacos for $4.00. (the cheapest eats I've ever encountered.)

Back at it again on Saturday morning on BI-OP-SEA. Steamed a whopping 4 miles to the fishing grounds, lines in and right out of the gates had a triple hook-up. The day was off to a good start. Had a quad after that and at one point had 5 hook-ups at one time. This was chaos. ONe pulled off and ended up with 4 releases out of that flurry.

Saturdays totals were 24 released out of probably 45 opportunities or so. More beer and more cheap yummy tacos to end a nother awesome day.

My flight back to the US was around 3pm, so we fished Sunday morning, lines in again at 7, and by 11:30 am, we released 9 sails and left a bite that was only getting better. BI-OP-SEA, and Capt. Jesse Granitzki dropped us off in Cancun, where a taxi was already waiting for us.

I can't say enough about how fun the trip was. I've fished with this boat/Capt for many years and had a great time. Matt the mate is about as laid back as they come, however you won't find a better pit man when the action turns to chaotic. When you have 7 sailfish attacking 5 baits, true pandemonium ensues.

Left 81 degree Isla with 54 releases in 2.5 days and an uncountable number of opportunities. Circle hooks were used exclusively and all fish caught swam away.

For those of you heading down there, I'm pretty confidant you will see a hotter bite as things were picking up as I was leaving.

Got back to 33 degrees Dulles Airport last nite at 11:30pm and din't have time to get camera out, but will upload some pics later this evening.

BI-OP-SEA is heading to the DOminican for the blue marlin bite at the end of February. If you want to catch fish, I highly recommend this boat and Capt.

By the way, I'm pretty sure I will be unproductive today at work. For some reason, I keep seeing sailfish jump all around while I stare out my office window at the snow.

My radio has been re-playing Eddie Money's tune "I WANNA GO BACK".

[#1Gaffman]

Great report,

Capt. Jesse is a cool guy and a great billfisherman not to mention the boat is sick.

And his mate matt is awesome. Congrats on a great and fun trip.

[Foul Hooked]

Awesome report. I am starting to see that I'll be pretty useless for the next couple of weeks waiting to get down there.

[coores14]

well, here's my first post... I'm Marlinmate's brother and I just wanted to add that I had a blast on this trip. As usual, Jesse and Matt on the Bi-Op-Sea were awesome and really put us in the thick of things. Triple and quadruple hookups were common and the pandemonium in the cockpit was incredible. Also, let's give a round of applause to my fiancee, Autumn, who went out there on Saturday and landed 7 Sails and one dolphin....all after contributing her own "chum" to the ocean!
I'll add a few more pics that I had on my camera.

[Marlinmate]

Glad to see you posting lil'bro

[Cornfed]

What kind of setup is going on with the Penn rigger?

[whitey]

What kind of setup is going on with the Penn rigger?

The downriggers are for the dredges.

[coores14]

yep, downriggers on each side pulling dredges at 40ft. both were combo artificial/dead mullet. on the surface just outside of the dredges and back a few feet were squid teasers with another split tail mullet swimming at the end. there then were 5 hook baits -- all circle hook naked ballyhoo -- two flat, two off the riggers, and one shotgun. obviously, the setup proved to be deadly with 52 sails in only 2.5 days.

[Cornfed]

yep, downriggers on each side pulling dredges at 40ft. both were combo artificial/dead mullet. on the surface just outside of the dredges and back a few feet were squid teasers with another split tail mullet swimming at the end. there then were 5 hook baits -- all circle hook naked ballyhoo -- two flat, two off the riggers, and one shotgun. obviously, the setup proved to be deadly with 52 sails in only 2.5 days.

YOU BET! So how much weight do you use for the dredges and how fast can you troll with the Penn Fathomasters? I think thats what I saw in the pics?

[coores14]

not sure on the weight. we were using what basically looked like a large cigar weight with a skirt over top. My guess would be around 16oz or heavier. We were trolling at normal trolling speed.