Shark Trip 11/29/2008

Fished Saturday 11/29 on a shark mission with Steve-O, James, and Bo. Left Newport at about 4pm and the O and I felt the 14 mile in our tummies... We were on a mission for T-Shark or Mako but didn't find any. After screwing around for a while, we set up for a long drift on the high spot around 6:30 and started our chum slick.

We started getting in to some small blues around 8. It was VERY dark! Almost no moon and could barely see the water right over the rail. Around 10, the O hooked into something a little bigger. Ended up being a big blue. The biggest blue I have ever seen. Our guess was about 175lb. he was about 7 1/2 feet long.

Contrary to what most people say, Blue Shark is pretty tasty!

August 16/17, 2008. Dan and James at Catalina, then 14 mile bank

James and I decided to make the run out to Catalina on Saturday night. Perry and Leah were out on the island, so we decided to head out and spend the night, then fish Sunday. About a mile out of Goat Harbor, Perry hit me on the radio, and invited James and I to join them for dinner. James was a little tuckered out after that as you can see in the pic.

Sunday morning James and I headed up to the rock quary, and James was able to catch a Calico bass, and a sea gull. After a while, we decided to make the run to the 14 mile bank in search of dorado and yellow fin, but we didn’t find any. However, the water was great!... and the 14 mile was a good spot to whip out the BBQ, and make some lunch.

Gummy Bear Breakfast

Calico and a SeaGull

James Relieving us of the left over bait...

August 10, 2008 - Fishing with Dave and LiAnne

Fished with my brother Dave and his fiancé LiAnne today.  Made the run to the Horseshoe Kelp with not a lot of action.  Did hook into a pretty sizeable bat ray.  It was LiAnnes turn, but she decided to fall in the pilot house as we hooked up and bust open her elbow…  So I got to fight the ray.  Check out the pic…  pretty bendo.  I would guess the ray to be about 75lbs.  My Owner Gorilla J Hook ended up as a sloppy L hook J.

 

After a few drifts, and a couple of short halibut bites we decided to head to the Bolsa artificial reef, then ended at the HB Flats with nothing to show for it.  Fun trip though…  Hope to get LiAnne on a good fish soon!

Hotel Palmas De Cortez - Boys Trip 2008 7/26/08-8/1/2008

I just got back from Palmas 7/26 - 8/1. The trip was MUCHO BITCHEN! We fished 3 days as follows...

Monday on the Tail Chaser - Santiago was the skipper, and Victor was the deck hand. Fishing for Tuna and Dorado, got a little morning bite with a few yellowfin, and amber jack, and some bone heads. Trolled for a while looking for the Dorado, and in our troll found a wide open yellowfin surface bite. Santiago called in the fleet, and we were able to keep them on the surface. Final count was 18 of that stop, and a couple were in the 25-30lb range.

Tuesday on the Marlintini - Chacho was the skipper, and Diego was our deck hand. Again fishing for Tuna and Dorado. Got on the football sized yellowfin early, and quickly had 13 of the larger footballs in the locker. Chacho decided to get us on the troll looking for Dorado with no action for the rest of the day, with exception to a slight injury. One of the guys in our party slipped in the boat and hit his head on the step... Ended up needing 6 stitches ... and he wasn't even drinking on the boat!

We took Wednesday off to hang at the pool, and let our buddy recover from his head dive. Got a couple of rounds of golf in at the pitch and put onsite at Palmas. It is actually a pretty challenging little course! After sweating like stuck pigs on the golf course, all we wanted to do was sit at the pool and work on getting to margarita paradise!

Thursday on the Tenacious - Carlos was our skipper, and Alan was our deckhand. Started the day on the dorado search, because everyone but me on the trip had never caught one... and that was the east cape goal. Got a few dorado in the 10-15lb range early, and picked up some more yellowfin, and some bone heads. I noticed that all the bone heads were set up in the tuna tubes, and while we were trolling climbed up into the tower with Carlos and Alan. I asked them what they wanted to fish for since the boys already got the couple dorado they had dreamed about. Alan said "we always want to fish for marlin!". I told him to let me go convince the boys and lets go get some bills. 

About 15 minutes into the troll, we had a sailfish come into the spread. Alan is the man! He slung a Bonito about 60 yards through the spread with a 30 wide and hit the fish in the forehead. Instant hook up! Only took about 15 minutes to land the fish, which was probably in the 100-120lb range.

Reset the spread, and another 20 minutes go by... I was up in the tower with Carlos and Alan, and we saw some birds working about 100 yards off the port bow. Carlos sped us up to get over there, and the second he did, hook up on the outermost of the spread. Blue Marlin! After a great show of tail dancing, a number of great runs, and so on... he got tail wrapped. Carlos backed down on him so we could put him under as little stress as possible. Ended up in the 200lb range... and got a clean release. This was a great day!

All together, some great fishing! The weather was great (warm but great) The drinks were great, the food was good!

Personal recommendations for those wanting to go to Palmas: 

Don't worry about bringing your own gear. Bring tackle, but the gear on the boats is good enough, and it is kinda a pain to bring your own stuff. 

Sunscreen early and often if you are not already covered in leather. Some guys that were down there got fried.

Bring ice chests not only to bring your fish home, but also to put beer in that you buy at the market. If your group drinks a lot of beer, walk into town to the market and the beer will work out to being less the $1 US each, where at the resort they will be $2 US. Bring some hard stuff down with you as well if you are the cocktail type. It will save you some cash.

Don't walk outside the resort after dark with open containers... It may cost you $40 to not go to the Policia office.

If you need stitches, ask the doctor up front how much it is going to cost... Our stitches incident only cost $50 US, which wasn't bad, but we heard of people not asking up front and ending up with a $600 bill (just hearsay though).

The Mexican lunch option on the boats is good! The sandwiches get soggy.