Cabo 2012 fishing trip

[Sculpin]

Here is a short video of Fernando setting the outrigger and spotting the porpoise school.



We're fishing. Neat trick with the rubber bands to keep the two rear lines low. Fish strikes and rubber band just breaks.

Fernando rigging up some ballyhoo's.

The eyes are popped out then a slip sinker weight is tied on with heavy wax string through the eyes and around the nose. The weight makes it swim nose heavy and gives it some action.

Continued....

 

[Sculpin]

a good weight loss system......

You bet. I lost 8 lbs on this trip lol.

 

[Sculpin]

One of the smaller lures kicking around the boat ha ha!

We were fishing along side little tenders like this the whole trip lol.

We tried for some tuna but couldn't find them. We spotted a marlin and cast back a live bait to it. It was only on for about 15 seconds and jumped right behind the boat. It was about a 100 lb. baby blue. Really cool to see a marlin with my own two eyes for the first time. It shook the hook right after the jump and before Fernando could pass the rod off.

A little while later they spotted another marlin and again casted out a live bait to it. This one stayed on long enough for Fernando to pass the rod off to me. The guys let me go first because I was the marlin virgin. These things pull pretty good to say the least. It took out quite a bit of line and seemed to be going out and down. I played it for around 10 minutes. I finally was able to gain some back when it started to surface then jumped behind the boat and shook the hook. It was a striped marlin around 120#. I think fishtofino may have some video on his iphone of it.

Firelight say's my cherry isn't popped just bruised cause I didn't get it to the boat .

Anyways no action after that for day one.

Continued....

 

[Sculpin]

On the second day Mike showed up. The crew seemed to have a wee bit more step that morning. Things looked busy at the boat when we arrived and we all had a good feeling. Are ambition was to knock out a good sized tuna this trip like a 100#er. The Gordo Banks on the East Cape side was too windy to drift fish properly so we headed straight out South of the Cape looking for schoolies.

Awesome sunrise..............again!

We put out the smaller lures and started trolling for tuna. It took a little while to get into a patch of them but we ended up hooking a 4 banger. I fought a huge 12 lber that almost kicked my azz lol. I was in first so I grabbed the camera and took some shots.

Fishtofino and firelight still fighting some schoolie yellowfin tuna.

Firelight getting some hard love instruction from Mike on the biggest tuna of the bunch. This was right before the full contact fishing occurred lol.

Mike had told us that we needed to get the fish in the boat as quick as possible so we could stay on the bite. Fair enough as we do this albacore fishing up here. This fish was not co-operating and Mike lost his patience and this is what happened.



We were there for a good time, not a long time, and were a little disappointed with that whole situation. I like it when firelight looks up at him like "WTF?" and tries grabbing the rod back! I told firelight he should go buy one of those leather mexican wrestling masks and show up the next day ready for the next round of full contact tuna fishing lol.

At least Christian tried his best to smooth things out near the end.

Continued....

 

[Sculpin]

The biggest tuna of the trip. Guestimate around 40-45 lbs.

A couple of albacore sized units.

My monster sitting on top of the ice lol.

The team effort tuna. This one was first played by fishtofino, then passed off to firelight during a line cross up, and finally landed by the captain.

Continued.....

 

[Dogbreath]

Nice fish-can't say the same for the boat though-if what shows is that rough imagine how poorly the rest is maintained.

 

[Aces]

Nice fish-can't say the same for the boat though-if what shows is that rough imagine how poorly the rest is maintained.

Yeah, it was an eysore.....how shoddy

 

[Sculpin]

Nice fish-can't say the same for the boat though-if what shows is that rough imagine how poorly the rest is maintained.

You got that right Carl. What do they say about first impressions?............hmmm. The rear deck of the boat is all spongy too and needs replacing. The aluminum frame on the flybridge cover is held together with ratchet straps because of broken welds all over the place. I think the engines and fishing gear are pretty looked after however. We were not very impressed with lack of maintenance and that floor could be dangerous if a heavy enough client was aboard.

 

[hambone]

The videos arent working for me......

 

[Aces]

Yeah, i forgot about the ratchet straps......... real classy. The rubber bungy cords must have broken earlier

 

[Sculpin]

The videos arent working for me......

I just click on the image and it starts playing in my Windows Media Player. Anyone else having a hard time watching the vids?

 

[Aces]

I just click on the image and it starts playing in my Windows Media Player. Anyone else having a hard time watching the vids?

The one with Fernando did but not the one with Mike hogging the rod

 

[Fish Assassin]

I just click on the image and it starts playing in my Windows Media Player. Anyone else having a hard time watching the vids?

They are slow loading but they are working fine here..

 

[Finished Business]

having trouble viewing the videos as well (could be because I use the Linux Op. System)....given the description of the problems, it sounds like a few things were left to be desired. I'm sorry to hear that...I had a tough outing this year where all that was left was to focus on the great experience and fish that was had...Beautiful weather, y'all hammered a few Toons, and the evenings prior to the Toilet Bowl was I'm sure a good time!

Don't let one person ruin what looks like a hell of a trip.

Thanks for the great photos!

 

[profisher]

Up here that is a cardinal sin....the guide's (captain..whatever) job isn't playing YOUR fish. Between grabbing the rod and then knocking you out of the way...wow!!! I would have reduced what I paid him at the end of the day. Maybe a 1/3 for the boat ride and let him absorb the rest as the playing the fish component.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Thanks for the report, its to bad it didn't work out quite as planned but glad it was still a good time. I would have been furious if the guide put on that kind of show however.....

 

[sammyslabber]

Great report Sculpin,I'm only left to wonder who recommended Mike's guide service.

 

[Sculpin]

Great report Sculpin,I'm only left to wonder who recommended Mike's guide service.

Actually fishtofino has been out with him 3 times or more and always got lots of fish and never had a problem until last year. He booked a trip with Mike, showed up in the early morning, and Mike had forgotten to renew his license so he couldn't leave port. Professionalism at it's best right there. Mike got fishtofino on another boat and it was a good trip after all.

 

[firelight]

If any of you guides out there thought it was a good idea to take the rod from your client and reel in the fish let me just say it's a bad idea, it will **** them off and they won't go out with you again. But this is only day two, it gets better, now back to the story.

 

[Sculpin]

We had a day off in between two day runs and we did some shopping, drinking, etc. We had to meet Mike at the boat at 4:00 to go over the next couple of days. He felt bad about fishtofino's experience the trip before so he said we would make a run 60 miles up the coast where there was a good tuna, marlin, and dorado bite going on. We would just have to pay for fuel an the crew and he would come along for the ride. We agreed to this and all was fine. He then asked us to front him the fourth day's trip in advance due to cash flow problems..............this we said was not cool and did not agree to it.

Day three morning sunrise on the big run up the coast.

Mikes Bertram cruises at around 20 knots so it was a long boat ride (the Sculpin would have been there in flash! lol). I sat up top with Mike for most of the way and pounded him with questions. I actually learned quite a bit talking to him. He's from San Diego and fished there for quite awhile and has done many long range offshore trips on the big boats. He would help deck hand or whatever to get a cheap trip and then he would sit in the wheel house and talk with the captains trying to learn as much as possible about fishing for big tuna. He used to trailer a boat down the baja and fish that way for years before starting his charter company 5 years ago.

The ride up the coast was interesting with lot's of change in the land etc. It gets more mountainous just North of the Cape where we were heading.

Some small building out on a point.

A different structure that looked like just 4 walls with arches.

A cell tower and mountains.

Continued....