The wife and I went to Cabo at the beginning of November for a week long FREE trip.  Yep, free, I got lucky this year in our sales contest and ended up south of the border.  I have heard all the stories about the famed stripped marlin fishing at the Baja point but I was a little skeptical.  Not anymore.

We met our captain at the dock at 0600 and were a little worried.  The captain was YOUNG and the first mate spoke two words of English.  Yes and No.  I was assured by the charter company that these guys were 2 of their best and not to worry.  Okay, sure I say.  The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” was true.  These guys were fantastic!

We headed out of the harbor and picked up 10 live mackerel for bait which I found odd.  I figured we would have the live well full but the law in Mexico (at least in this area) allowed for 10 live bait on the boat.  After getting the bait we headed over to a pier with several men dressed in fatigues with M-16’s slung on their shoulders.  Now I was getting real nervous but the captain said we had to show them our fishing licenses so we could head out. 

Finally with all the formalities out of the way we headed out.  We past the famous Arch and was immediately in 700’ of water.  Obviously a big drop off.  2 hours later we hit the fishing grounds along with 25 other boats.  I thought we were gonna do some trolling but going for the Stripped you mostly live line with the mackerel.  After 30 minutes of wet lines we get a hookup.  The fish heads for the depths right off the bat and pulls out 100yds of line.  Charley, one of my clients was in the chair and was making good progress.  The fish came to the surface and gave a little aerial show and we saw it was a small Mako.  We boated and threw him in the cooler.  Okay, the stink is off and it was time for some serious fishing.  We had several boats around us with hookups and we were getting antsy.  Finally the port line started to scream and it was on.  I got in the chair and held on.  150 yds of line rip out in a few seconds and my heart is racing.  5 minutes into the fight and the line goes slack.  Damn, I lost him.  I start bringing in the line and it suddenly goes tight and another 100yds of line peels off.  At the same time the starboard reel goes off and Charley gets in the belt.  Double hook up!  His fish heads towards the bow so Charley and the mate scramble up front.  Did I mention we are on a 35’ Cabo Flybridge?  Well, we were and Charley had a tough go at it.  We are both close to 30 minutes into the fight when another boat with a double hook gets wrapped up with us.  My line is under both of theirs and Charley’s is off their bow but not wrapped.  Our captain and the other boats captain start to work their magic.  We put it in reverse and back up within 4’ of their port side.  Our mate grabs my rod, hands it to the mate on the other boat and he proceeds to go under their two lines, around to the starboard side and up to the bow.  He hands the rod back to our mate and I’m back in the chair ready to go.  Another 30 minutes goes by and I finally get my fish to the boat after Greyhounding several times.  The captain and mate man-handle the fish aboard and we get a measurement, tag him and drop him back over.  The fish was 102” and the captain estimated it around 170lbs!  Hell yea, my first stripped marlin.  Charley gets his fish to the boat; haul it aboard and the same routine as my fish.  His was 99” and estimated at 150-160lbs. 

Two marlins tagged and released and we are feeling great.  Charley’s wife is next up and she lands another nice one at 99” again and same estimated weight.  We boated all these babies within 3 hours.  I am a big practitioner of catch and release so we told the captain that we wanted to head out and catch some eating fish.  Off we go.

We end up catching 2 dolphin and one Bonita so we kept the larger dolphin and called it a day.

The stories of fishing in Cabo are true.  While we were at the “marlin grounds” we saw at least 30 marlin caught and all were stripped.  I highly recommend this area if you ever get the chance and use the guys at Picante Sportfishing.  They have a nice fleet of boats and the crew is well experienced.

Sorry for the long report and here are some of the pics.  Take notice of the lighted stripes on the marlin.  Unbelievable.

The Arch

Mako

Swap

Greyhound

Stripes

My Marlin

Charley's Dolphin

My Dolphin

Thanks for the pictures.

Jim

Jim Summers

www.PensacolaHouseHunter.com

www.fhtmus.com/jimsummers

www.PensacolaSharkFishing.com

Hot Spots Bait & Tackle
211 Gulf Breeze Parkway
Gulf Breeze, FL 32563
www.hotspotstackle.com
(850) 916-7176

TEAM GET RIGHT!!!

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Ocean Man (11/23/2007)

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Awesome pictures That sure looks like a hectic scene with all the boats in the background fishing the same spot. That must be one productive area.

It was VERY hectic.  Like I said, I thought we were gonna troll but it was all drift fishing.  There must have been 25 boats within 2 square miles and at least 2/3 of em boated a marlin in the few hours we were there.  All I can say is AMAZING!

I'm sorry to hear of your loss and I'm happy that this report brought back some good memories.  I hope you have many more to come.

Chris D.

1801 Century CC

Malibu eXtreme

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