Just in, big'uns from Cabo!

[Captain Fred Archer]

Some very nice fish caught in one day this week. "Extraction" owner Tom says they caught 35-40 big dorados, keeping only the Mex limit of five and releasing the rest. They also landed two out of a triple hookup on wahoos and released six striped marlin. The dorados and wahoos were all bar fish on light trolling gear - a real blast! Their other boat, Dreamweaver, had a similar day that included a seventy-two pound dorado! They report that 100-150# yellowfin went off big time up towards La Paz a day or two ago. Blue and black marlin are starting to show too. Cabo at its finest!

Our "Best in Big Game" website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[Captain Rich Adler]

Fred- I heard on the dock the other day that you used to fish out of Point Pleasant or Brielle, what years was that? I feel a loss, I missed meeting you when I was going down to Cabo, now I hear you used to dock up in my backyard!

[SkirtChaser32']

awesome fish! i gotta get down there and get on of them slammer dolphin

[Captain Fred Archer]

Rich,

Yes, it's ironic that we never crossed paths and I too am disappointed about that. I was fishing out of both Atlantic Highlands, with my home port Point Pleasant (depending on where we were fishing and what for) in the 60's and again in the late 70's. We were docked on the other side of the harbor from the yacht club, over by Carlsons and the commercial docks in that little marina over there.

Back in the late 50's and early 60's I spent most of my fishing time completely out of the sport fishing circles. All of my fishing was done in the big, commercial dory that I bought as a teenager and began my pinhooking and "Fred's Fresh Fish" business, where I delivered whatever was running to a long list of individual customers who had signed up for having the freshest of fresh fish delivered to their doorsteps "X" number of times a week. It proved to be very popular, I charged and got premium prices, the people got great, fresh fish, and I managed to pay most of my college expenses with the money that I made.

We also sold GBFT for pennies a pound up the river at Fulton Fish Market when they were running. Later, as the sashimi market bloomed, the bluefins and bigeyes became more and more important and we began hunting both much more seriously. Canyon fishing was becoming more and more popular and that was where we sought the valuable bigeyes and learned the secrets to catching these very different tuna, including night trolling for them with the earliest spreaderbars with artificial lures on them. I had graduated from college by then and gotten back from my overseas military thing and those fish proved to be a big boost to our family income. Most of our canyon bigeye fishing was from Point Pleasant, while we fished for the bluefins out of there and up at Atlantic Highlands and even further north at times. They were heady, wonderful days that I wouldn't trade for anything!

The commercial side of fishing took sort of a hiatus when I spent almost ten years with Shimano, eventually winding up being in charge of the Fishing Tackle Division. I still fished a lot, but not for money, but of course, fishing continued to be the way that I made my living. Then I retired and followed my heart to Cabo with the custom boat I named for my beloved parents, who I named it after. Not many know this, but they ordered my to stop busting my butt and go to the place I loved and begin to take people fishing. No more "regular work", they said. This was a final order. I lost them within days of one another.

Just as it was up north, I was never much of a "sporty" (no disrespect there, just the way that it was) down in Cabo either. Commercial fishing by sportfishermen or charterboats was and is illegal there and I fully and absolutely respected that. However, my life continued to revolve around fish and fishing and the wonderful Mexican people who I had grown to love over the many years that I fished down there.

I didn't hang around in the popular "gringo bars" and other hangouts. After all, I was in hog heaven with my boat, The Sea of Cortez, the Pacific, the fish, whales, birds, my Mexican friends and that was about it. Not much time to meet visitors, unless I met them in the morning, led them down to the boat, walked out on the bow pulpit to have a few private words with the folks, and then The Allman Brothers started pounding "Southbound" out as me, my baby, my wonderful crew and new or old friends headed out to...

THE GLORY!

Sorry that I missed you, Rich. It woulda been a ball!

"Best of Big Game" website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[Captain Fred Archer]

Capt Rich,

No reply? I hope and guess you're fishing and hopefully, catching.

I just re-read our posts and a lot of memories came flowing back. I remembered that my first saltwater fish came from that area. Back when I was a little shaver my folks and I went on vacation to Point Pleasant to celebrate The Fourth by swimming and picnicing at Jenkinsen's Pavillion and to see their famed at-the-time fireworks display.

On the way to the beach I got my folks to stop at a tackle shop and talked my dad into buying me a handline, some hooks, a couple of big sinkers, and some squid for bait that the tackle shop owner went to the extra effort to cut into strips for me.

When we got to the beach there was no swimming for me. I spent the day wading out and tossing that handline out, which wasn't very far out at all, alongside the jetty in order to avoid the crowds of swimmers. Nothing happened for a long time, but then "the miracle" went down. Suddenly there was a heavy weight on the line. So heavy that I couldn't pull it in by hand, so I put the line up over my shoulder and ran up the beach with it, howling "got one! I've got a fish!" (I was actually hoping, rather than actually knowing.)

My dad came running down and suddenly, sliding out of the water and up the sand came Moby Fluke himself! He was a true, honest-to-goodness doormat that my dad pounced on and moved up and away from the water. I didn't know what that fish was, but my dad, who had fished for and caught both winter and summer flounder sure did. We iced the fish down in our cooler, watched the fireworks, then headed home. Mom prepared the fish the next day and as you know, it was delicious.

Thus began my love affair with flatfish of all kinds. To this day I love fishing for them. They became a very important component of my Fred's Fresh Fish business a number of years later. When I started to fish for them commercially I developed techniques to zero in on the bigger fish. There were no size or bag limits in Jersey waters back then, but I concentrated on the big fish because they were faster and easier to fillet and brought a lot more money per fish.

Coming up with good techniques for catching big flatfish stood me in good stead when I moved to California and discovered the fluke's big cousin, the California halibut. Using my big fluke techniques from the east coast, my first one was over thirty pounds. Many more followed. One of the neat things about them is their size and the fact that you can fill a freezer for a long time after just one good day. That left a lot of time for fishing for other species.

Fishing the flatfish on both coasts eventually led to two books about fishing for halibut and fluke. Now that fluke size limits have ratcheted up close to those of halibut, the tricks for zeroing in on the big ones are more important than ever. The halibut book itself includes instructions and illustrations on how to make and use the "bounce ball" rigs being discussed here lately, along with many other proven and oft times better ways of catching halibut and big fluke. It was co-authored with some top charter captains, guides and rod and reel commercial fishermen who really know their stuff. I hope that anyone interested in catching big fluke, and not just any old fluke, reads it and applies what there is to learn from it.

My first mako shark also came from Pt Pleasant/Brielle. That fish had a remarkable and life-changing effect on me too. It spawned a life-long love affair with sharks that resulted in many articles in saltwater magazines, five books and one novel about them.

In the end, it is now clear to me that those early days were what caused me to follow my heart and continue to earn my livelyhood by fishing, including the years at the helm of a hot, new fishing tackle company that brought dramatic change to fishing tackle, and with my soul singing at the wheel of a sweet charterboat taking folks fishing over three hundred days a year in what was at the time one of the most abundant and spectacular big game venues in the world.

And it all got started one Fourth of July weekend many decades ago with a great dad, a kindly tackle shop owner, Moby Fluke, all down at Point Pleasant/Brielle, New Jersey, where it wasn't just the fireworks on the beach that had skyrockets going off and bombs bursting in air...hell, they were nothing compared to the ones that were going of in a little kid's heart and soul!

Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not this old man!

Hope ya knocked 'em in the ditch, Rich. Talk at ya when you're done cleaning fish.

[breel]

good read Capt. Fred!

[Captain Rich Adler]

Hey Fred- Thanks for the comeback, yes I've been fishing the past couple of days, ....bluefish, sea bass, and fluke. Our striper season is pretty much over until the water cools down later in the fall. Next trip is offshore for mako/ threshers and some trolling for bluefin, 40 to 50 mile run these days. You used to dock up next to Carlson's? I've seen the pilings over there and always wondered about them. When was the last time you came to Point?? Where are you living these days? The commercial fleet is still huge, docking up in the two creeks leading to Lake Louise and Will's Hole (remember those places??) even though much of the town has gotten yuppified. Do you remember the name of the tackle shop you spoke of... There are two down at the inlet, Alex's and Gate's both have been there for a long time. Good to speak with you, let's keep this going.--Rich

[Captain Fred Archer]

Rich,

Thanks for the comeback and yes, this is a lot of fun thinking back to the old days and that wonderful place where I fished then and you do now and all of the good things about it. The only tackle shop name that I remember there is Bogan's which was on the parkway side of the bridge. I started going there many years after that first fluke. And there were two others on the other side of the bridge after making the left turn, but I don't remember their names.

Speaking of stripers, how about the ones at the railroad bridge? We used to hook a lot of them up there and with all of the current running through there, they were a ball to try to land...and they won many times. The ones up at the highway bridge were much easier. Ditto on the fluke there. I used to cast bucktails and fluke belly strips off Colabella's dock and just cream them at times.

Be sure to put out a shark lure or two while you are trolling the inshore or offshore tunas. A very successful charter captain back there recently wrote and thanked us for getting him turned on to shark trolling and not only did he win a major tournament back there this year with a big, trolled thresher, he told me that he started running shark lures with his tuna stuff on the bluefins last year and had a lot of success catching both species and in some cases, catching both at the same time. Yow! Now that's what I call a great charter trip!

Stay in touch, Cappy. And keep triggering those memories of former times and great days back there, starting when a certain old salt was knee high to a grasshopper.

And take a kid fishing. Who knows? You might change his life and send him on a course that will make his soul sing!

[Captain Rich Adler]

Yes Bogan's is still there, they are now a very large extended family. They run the Paramount, the Jamaica, and the Atlantis from the site you are familiar with, Bobby Bogan runs a large boat from the Point side, Kevin has a custom rod shop in Point also, and Ray is a well known maritime attorney.

It's funny, we don't fish the bridges for stripers really, a few guys do it at night, the majority of our catch is daytime out front, livelining bunker or trolling spoons. In the spring we make the run up to Raritan Bay and clam fish them. We had an awesome season this year, 20 to 40 lb fish were normal, a few 50's thrown in. Here's our best spring fish, 46 lbs, we'll have them back again in late October. I'll let you know how this weekend's offshore trip goes, if the weather behaves. I have to try out a new toad, last year's got eaten and was lost....how'd that happen???

[redrich211]

those are some nice bulls be nice to get them that big around here