Cabo 2012 fishing trip

The Bertram rides pretty nice with the two big CAT diesels which makes her heavy. She rides quite wet however. Those diesels are pretty nice and very torquey. When they yell marlin you better be hanging on!

Bertram wake.

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Here's a video of Fernando tying up more ballyhoo's on the run up the coast.



Another Bertram making the run in the swells.

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Continued...
 
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Good that you guys made the best of it, and that boat/captain had a half decent rep for a guy that would put you on fish without costing a fortune (2 seasons since ive fished cabo)That grabbing the rod crap ? Wow... If he knew you guys were fisherman, and must as sounds like one of you was a repeat customer, than that's unforgivable. I may be hot headed at times, but I would have called it a day right there and that would have been it (unless everything was prepaid, then what can ya do)

I've fished Gordo bank a couple times for yft up to 45lbs (not even a calf lol) but man are they fun. Biggest smile I have ever been photographed with was out there with a doubled over rod and bugged out eyes.

Still jealous, best I could do last week was casting to schools of skip jacks on essentially trout gear..... Fun for the first few hours, then you really want something that pulls hard enough to knock you off balance. Sorry you guys brought a bit of mexico home with you.... Hasn't happened to me (yet) and sounds a tad unpleasant from all accounts.
 
We got up North and veered offshore just North of the Finger Bank. We tried to raise a marlin for awhile then Mike heard on the radio of a big yachty that was into a tuna bite on the Finger Bank and we raced down there. The gear was deployed quickly and the wiskey rod goes off.

Fishtofino reeling in a yellowfin tuna (watch out for splinters there Shawn).

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The only tuna of the day. The porpoise unballed and spread out and we were off the bite just like that. The big yachty landed twenty an hour before. That's fishing.

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We trolled by a big ball of rope in the water and then wammo, a dorado smoked a lure and we landed that one. It was probably hiding under the ball of rope. So one tuna and a dorado in the boat. If I recall a ballyhoo got bit as well.

Mike thought maybe he could entice another tuna to bite by flying the kite way back away from the boat. I've seen video's of this before but it was even cooler to see in person. Basically you have a lightweight kite with a release clip on it's line. You send it out a ways and the release clip slides down the line. You attach your fishing line to the release clip and send the kite out even further. We were using an artificia flying fish (we saw lot's of live ones on the trip and they are cool) that just skips over the waves like the real ones do.

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I have a good gopro video of the whole deployment sequence that I will try to post up soon. We tried this for about 45 minutes with no luck. Back to the marlin lures and trolling our way back to Cabo.

Continued...
 
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Cabo can certainly be a pricey and sometimes not the best experience with guided fishing-however in the dead of winter it is the best place in southern Baja to get on fish. Once 1 mar rolls around it.s not a good deal. I would sooner go to Jose de cabo or up to the East Cape at Los Barriles. Everything is cheaper-hotels, bait and guides. The East Cape is where it all started before Cabo was even heard of-it's more laid back-not the atmosphere of Cabo and reflects old baja and it is still only 45 min from the Cabo airport. Check the area out on google-mid winter is beautiful weather but windy at times-we have great in-shore fishing. Got my first marlin this year last Feb 28 that's when the big stuff starts rolling in. If I can help out let me know-I live here half the year and have no axes to grind. Tight Lines
 
After a long boat ride on day three, fishtofino and I were feeling pretty ****** (pun intended) from something we ate the day before. Fishtofino was actually really sick the whole day fishing and was about a 1/2 day ahead of me. It really hit me when we got back to the condo. I tried killing it with alchohol with not too good results lol.

I did manage to play some pool with firelight in the games room at the complex.

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Nice marlin hanging on the chimney in the games room.

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In the morning I was feeling horrible from the drinks and the virus. I almost pulled the pin on the last trip of the week. I drank some water, an electrolyte drink, put my lady part away, and manned up lol.

Day four morning was interesting to say the least. After we bought our baits for the morning, Mike informs us that they want to intentionally kill a marlin for chunk bait for tuna fishing with a charter the next day. I guess this is moral's thing as I don't think it is technically illegal down there. Anyways it was not cool with the three of us (everything I have read and seen seems to be promoting catch and release of bill fish. I know it's the commercial sector that is putting the dent in the numbers and the US just passed a bill to ban importing bill fish meat into the states). So number one intentionally killing a marlin was not cool to us because we were not going to eat it. Number two to just cut it up for chunk bait wasn't cool with us. Number three was he wanted us to catch his bait for another client just so he could try to catch a big tuna that he is famous for. The whole thing stunk.

We didn't freak out but told him that it wasn't really cool but we didn't get an answer back. On the way out we eyed up all the pliers and knives and said let's see the look on their faces when we cut it off (if we catch one).

So we proceed out to the lighthouse right out front where a pack of boats had assembled and where catching more bait for the marlin bite that was going on there. We looked around on the sounder and found the bait after about 1/2 hr. This part is interesting as well.

The pro's that sell bait for a living were out in droves but charter boats were all around with them. The pro's looked like they were just using bare hooks on there stringer lines.

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We were using stringer lines with some yarn flies tied to the hooks.

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We watched closely on technique and the activities all around us. We were right on the huge ball of bait with the rest of the boats. I watched one panga closely and counted about 70 bait fish caught in 20 minutes. The other charter boats were averaging 15-20 in that time. We caught 2! In an hour and a half of trying to fill our live wells (we even tried lighter lines which had to be retied on board instead of having an extra set ready) we caught 4 live baits and two of them died. If I was chartering for 5 years in Cabo I think I would have become proficient at catching my own bait.

Continued.....
 
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We started fishing with the pack of boats out there. I would call it similar to fishing the starfish on a busy summer day except everyone was catching marlin instead of salmon. Pretty wild. Fishtofino was watching the boats around us closely and counted over 25 marlin hooked and played. I spent my time intimately getting to know the inside of the head on a 31 Bertram. I know every nook and cranny in that little room lol.

Double header on a Redrum boat.

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We had two hook ups on marlin that day that were on for 1/2 a minute then got off before the rod could be handed over. We did manage to catch two dorado that were pretty fun playing etc. They are kind of like a big scrappy hook nosed Northern coho. Mine was a larger one with a big head on it but it unfortunately flipped off the gaff and back in it went with a nice big hole in it. Firelight's made it into the boat to be the sole fish of the last day.

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We continued to fish until 2:30 and I gave Mike the tap on the head and thumb over the shoulder to tell him we're outta here. Heading back to the dock was a bit of a sigh of relief as the few negative experiences on board left a bad taste in our mouths.

I am not slamming Mike at all. I know he has a following and has lot's of repeat clients that say nothing but good things about him. He is one of the most reasonable guys down there, speaks English, and is known for his big tuna so maybe that is the attraction. I am just reporting the experiences good and bad that we had with him over 4 days of fishing. The trip all in all was a good one and like FB pointed out I will not let one person ruin a good time. I think I did a pretty good job of highlighting the positive moments and I hope the negative ones didn't take too much away from that. I needed a vacation to reflect upon life, family, and work. It was a healing moment for me anyways. I will go back to Cabo in a heart beat. I probably won't go back to Mike but will explore other great options like Dream Weaver, one of the Picante boats, or one of the many other boats down there. That's the beauty of Cabo, there is no shortage of charter boats down there lol.

I think that's it. Thanks for reading the report and I hope you enjoyed it.

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Cheers,
John
 
thanks for reading? thanks for writing it up John!!

I know how long it takes to write a good report after a long trip. There is a pressure to do it because you hope that there are a few people interested in your adventures that are waiting for the report... Thanks for the great write up....Next time I'm sure you will find a boat and crew that more than makes up for this lackluster guiding experience.
 
Very well done, Dr Yamamoto...............Sculpin, lol.

I appreciate you putting together a detailed report of our trip. There were definately some negative aspects to our trip but a good time was still had by all. As usual i really enjoyed my time on and off the water with you and Firelight and hope to fish with you guys again soon. The comraderie overcame anything negative regarding our captain and that's what what a trip like that was all about.

Thought i would just add a video of pancho the free loading sea lion
 

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Nice report John, probably the best documented I've seen all year. Probably better you didn't land a marlin on the last day or they would've chopped it up for chum!
 
Hey Sculpin! Great thread ! Thanks for posting this! I wish we could get more reports like this on this forum!! Awesome!

I don't know about your crew members giving up all the goods, something’s are best left to speculation ;)
Never the less without a doubt Sculpin,you have set the bar for future reports…
 
Very well done, Dr Yamamoto...............Sculpin, lol.

I appreciate you putting together a detailed report of our trip. There were definately some negative aspects to our trip but a good time was still had by all. As usual i really enjoyed my time on and off the water with you and Firelight and hope to fish with you guys again soon. The comraderie overcame anything negative regarding our captain and that's what what a trip like that was all about.

Thought i would just add a video of pancho the free loading sea lion

Yak at your brother today..was surprised about what the happening of your trip were.... :(
 
I forgot to mention that we kept the 5 tuna caught and took them to this place for processing.

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They are the most recommended in the Cabo area and are located right at the marina.

We took home around 56#'s of processed tuna loins to spit amongst the three of us. We packed them in 50 quart coolers with wheels and handles and just duck taped them closed. We checked them in as our main luggage so no extra cost. They can't weigh more than 50#. They were totally still frozen by the time we got home. Highly recommend it.

I know firelight has tried it and said it was great. I am planning on trying some tonight sashimi style.

Cheers,
John
 
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I forgot to mention that we kept the 5 tuna caught and took them to this place for processing.

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The are the most recommended in the Cabo area and are located right at the marina.

We took home around 56#'s of processed tuna loins to spit amongst the three of us. We packed them in 50 quart coolers with wheels and handles and just duck taped them closed. We checked them in as our main luggage so no extra cost. They can't weigh more than 50#. They were totally still frozen by the time we got home. Highly recommend it.

I know firelight has tried it and said it was great. I am planning on trying some tonight sashimi style.

Cheers,
John

I hate to say it but it's way better than Albacore. Need more....

Sashimi was great and so was it seared with a wasabi/sesame seed crust
 
Well done John your gonna love the sashimi for sure.

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Check out the shorts, lol.

Get a real camera dude lol:D.

Ah those iPhone guys.........I tell ya:rolleyes::p:). Those phones do everything except take good pictures. Hey man I paid good dollar for those shorts at Minerva's. There AFTCO's and I was trying to look cool lol.
 
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