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A few days behind us, but the memories are still fresh. I had gone to PV last thursday to bring a replacement turbo line for Pacifico and friday we got it installed and had Pacifico up and running. She had her injector pumps rebuilt as it was just a precaution going into what looks like a full steam season ahead, and some other minor stuff just to be fully prepred for what lays ahead.
My Captain, Manny, also runs my friends 35' Cabo FB 'Aleta' , and he had been jonesing for some big fish to show and showed up on Saturday. Clarke got in around 4 , we had some dinner, loaded up 60 pieces of goggle eyes from our own bait reciever, and headed points south to make more bait, get a little sleep and start from a closer launch point.
Our destination was the Sand Bank, a large high spot about 70 miles to the south of PV. The reason for that target was that for the past month our local high spots have been cursed with pea soup, and though fish have been around, and the Sailfish have been plugging our near shore fishery just north of Punta de Mita, it's just not consistent and not what we are looking for.
We leave at 0300 and arrive at the grounds soon after first lite, Josh had been motoring all nite at 8 knots and was to the south.
Our first shot was early as we came up on a six pack of sleepers of Striped Marlin. A couple of pitch baits resulted in a couple of whiffs and they sunk out. But no worries, the day had begun and we were destined for a fantastic day. The nite before when we made bait, a large school of bullet tunas were screaming thru our lites and we managed to catch 4. We stuck them in the cooler on ice and had them ready for the day ahead. And they were well recieved by our pointy targets.
Our first strike came on the starboard short rigger and nailed the Joe Yee Super plunger twice without sticking and then moved to the center and got hooked on a jethead that was trailing a bird. Manny hooked the Blue up, Juan gunned it forward, and I reeled in the Joe Yee after whiffing. I brought the fish in standup with the Avet 50 and a short bent butt, we tagged the fish and we were on the board. The marlin went about 250lbs.
Our second shot was on one of the dead bullet tuna and Juan called it 10 minutes earlier saying for sure the bulito was going to get hit. Each of the fish that hit were as aggressive as any group of blue marlin I had seen, they would annhilate the baits and do their tailwalking dance for about a minute straight. Absolutely incredible shows. The second fish went about 350lbs , we got the tag and off she went.
The third fish in was epic. Big fish, big strike, big show, great fight. Hit the dead bait again, danced for a minute straight all the while while charging the boat at 20 knots. You can probably see the smoke in the picture as Manny is gunning the engines to stay ahead of the fish. Clarke hooked this fish up and fought her for about 25 minutes before the release. He was using his new avet 50 with the new Blackwater 100lb hollow spectra and he did a great job of bring the fish in. What a fantastic show. We put this fish at about 450lbs.
THe 4th fish was mine, and another good sized Blue hit the Joe Yee on the port rigger this time. This fish decided to run the other way and when she broke the water for her first show she was WFB. Lot of line out, she did a sideways jump, and spit the hook. Aaaarggh. No worries, beautiful day.
Tally for the day, just for the Blues, was 9 raised fish, 4 strikes, 3 released. Sweet. Joe Yee makes an awesome fish raiser. We have half a dozen on Pacifico and it's just an incredible lure. And Manny and Juan are as good as it gets when setting up the spread.
We headed into a quiet cove by Cabo Corrientes that nite, and headed out at 0500 toward Roca and then el Banco. For the day we ended up with 10 tuna with the big one going about 70lbs and we caught it on a spinning outfit, Cabo PTS80 on a Cape Fear Tortuga and a 4 oz Ranger. Great trip with some really great people. Drew
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