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Published: February 15th 2010
Capitan Manuel
Fearless Marlin hunter and captain of the Edith, our boat.Saturday was our day to go deep sea fishing. We made the arrangements at our hotel several days earlier. The choice was to get our own boat or share one with a couple other people. We chose to go with the share idea and get a 28' boat with 4 people on board. The other decision was to go for the 8 hour fishing trip rather than 4 hours. This was because we were going Marlin fishing. We (Bob) wanted to get a chance at a really big fish. The Marlins that are here right now are the Striped Marlin, not as large as the Black Marlin or the other one I can't remember right now. But they are pretty large fish going about 150 pounds.
When we got to our boat at 6:30 in the morning, we found out that there was only one other person going with us. Our boat was the Edith and our captain was Manuel. The crewman with us was Luis. Neither one could speak 4 words of English. The other fisherman with us was a young guy from New york named Gildo, (pronounced jilldoe), (I know, I've never met a Gildo before, but he
said it is short for a very long Italian name.) Gildo is in the investment business and came down here on a whim. He originally was going to go to Australia with some other people and the trip was canceled, so he made arrangements for Cabo and took off the next day. He made the trip by himself. Since the Australia trip was canceled and they were expecting a foot of snow in New York, he just got on the internet and booked it. He was a very nice guy and we had a lot of good conversation with him the whole day. He, like us, had never gone deep sea fishing before. I guess I have been deep sea fishing a couple times 20 or so years ago in Acupulco, but those were customer events and I let the customers catch the fish. Those were sailfish and we did catch at least 2 every day we went out. Even though I didn't get to catch them, they were exciting to see, jumping and tail dancing during the fight.
We left the marina full of anticipation of our day of fishing. We headed out to the Pacific side and
told them we would like to catch Marlin. Gildo really wasn't interested in catching any other types of fish. They catch a lot of Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and Tuna around here, too. We were out about 30 minutes when Manuel spotted the fin of a Marlin! He spun the boat around to go to the area he saw the Marlin and Luis grabbed one of the poles with live bait on and cast it in the area the Marlin was. That was along with the 3 other baits and lures that were already in the water from outriggers. No luck! We didn't get him to take anything. So we continued further out into the Pacific and continued trolling for Marlin. Soon, we had 2 fish on at the same time, so Gildo took one of the seats and rods and I took the other one. We had no idea what kind of fish were on since Luis couldn't speak enough English to tell us. I grabbed the pole wondering just what I might catch. We both caught African Bonita, probably weighing about 2 pounds each. Not exactly Marlin, but at least something was happening. We were told that they would
The Big Fight
Jan's working her fish in. be used for bait later. I must tell you something else about Gildo now. When we got on the boat in the marina, I asked Gildo if he spoke Spanish since it was apparent that our crew wasn't exactly bilingual as advertised. He said he spoke a little Spanish and could get the gist of what people were telling him. Well, after about 4 hours on the sea, he admitted that the only things he picked up from their sometimes long sentences to us was: Marlin, Mackerel, live bait and Dorado. Just the same as me. A lot of help that was. I should have listened to my brother-in-law Tom and gotten a boat with an American captain. He even sent me the website of a charter company. Of course I lost the link to that. It would have been so much better with an English speaking crew.
The sea was a lot rougher out about 5 miles than close to shore and both Jan and Gildo were getting a bit seasick. Nothing too bad, but the constant up and down in the swells were stomach turning at times. I kept hoping they could hang in there and they
Exhausted
After the battle, Jan's arms were aching. did, although neither of them could eat their lunches and were still a little queasy when the day ended.
We headed in closer to the entrance to the Cabo bay and we got another fish on. This time it was Jan's turn and after some convincing, she got in the chair and took the rod. She had her hands full for a while and finally landed----another Bonita. But she had fun catching it.
After a couple hours trolling about 10 miles out in the sea, they spotted another Marlin---same routine, no luck. This happened once more during our day to no avail. Earlier Luis asked us if we wanted to go closer to shore and catch Mackerel-at least that's what we were pretty sure he was asking through sign language. Gildo and I both agreed to just keep trying for a Marlin because we wanted to catch a big one, not Mackerel. I kept thinking that you never know when we might get lucky. Well, the answer is: not all day. But, I still won't second guess the decision.
As time was nearly running out and we were on our way in, we got another fish on.
Gildo's Dorado Fight
Gildo had a nice Dorado on. This time it was a Dorado. Gildo got his chance and brought the fish into about 6 feet from the boat when he got away. Luis had the gaff and was ready to get him when he broke the line. It was a pretty fish and Manuel said it was about 25 pounds. It would have been nice, but not to be on this day. Manuel asked me if I wanted to give it another hour to see if I could get a Dorado and I said yes. 10 minutes later Luis was pulling in the lures. The quickest hour of the day.
As we got into the marina area, Pelicans and Frigate birds started following the boat. Theyswooped in by the dozens. The Luis started flipping the bait fish into the air and the birds, particularly the Frigates, caught them in mid-air. The Pelicans came right in and landed on the bow of the boat. Next thing we knew a sea lion was at the bow. Luis gave him a couple fish and we were able to get a some good pictures of him. This was the most excitement we had during the entire day.
It
Frigate Birds
These guys could catch the bait fish in mid-air. turned out hardly any other boats caught fish. No Marlins, just a couple Dorado. I guess it was just one of those days in fishing. Same old fishing story: You should have been here yesterday.
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Ben
non-member comment
Very GOOD