This was an
example of why when planning an overnight trip to the seamounts, plan on at
least a couple of nights. Most of our
trips are 4 nights and 3 full days of fishing, a grueling trip, but no better
opportunity in the world to experience the kind of morning that we had today. An abbreviated version of 3 nights/2 days
(chugging there and back overnight) is perfect and allows you to go where you
may need to go. The trip we took was
too short.
Our
departure was delayed a day due to a generator rebuild and repaint that took a few
more days than planned. Pat Renfro, one
of my partners in the Dragin Fly, we had plenty of patience watching out
investment come out shining like new.
We headed
out mid morning yesterday, hoping to run into the tunas and catch enough of
them for the trip and to take down to the lodge where I will be tarpon fishing
TOMORROW! By late afternoon we should
be arriving at our first seamount for the afternoon bite. Everything went as planned, found the tunas,
caught the tunas, got to the seamount and missed a blue marlin. That was the only marlin we were to see that
day.
Today, after
a nice night and calming seas, we got up at daylight, had coffee and hot
breakfast while steaming to another seamount.
Arrived. Fished. Fished some more. Caught bait.
Live baited. Nothing. Honestly, we were pretty bummed out, having
to be due back in Los Suenos by late afternoon.
On the way
home we passed by the seamount that we fished with only one bite the afternoon
before. I’m glad that we did. First bite on a lure we pulled off. Second bite on a bitch bait. Sancocho.
Another sancocho. Wow, talk
about feeling low, then another lure bite and we’ve got a release. Another Laceration Lure on my side and
another blue marlin release.
Immediately, on the same green Pedro, we hook up again, Pat getting that
release. Then we concentrated on the
pitch baits, throwing to marlin now coming in hot on the teasers. With 3 blue marlin releases, really quick,
we’re tickled to see our fourth on a pitch bait after the dirty work we were
doing earlier. Pat was putting out the
pitch bait when a marlin came up on his bait, but it wasn’t a blue, this time a
striped marlin. The next fish that
popped the rigger out of the clip was also a striped marlin. He was holding 3 blue marlin releases and 2
striped marlin releases before 10:30 in the morning.
Our thoughts
wandered to a grand slam, but with Pat having two of the 3 necessary billfish
releases to qualify, with a pair of sails, he could accomplish few have every
done, a double grand slam in the same day.
We make bait
and fill the tuna tubes, hoping to run into those tuna on the way to the edge,
which has been having a good sailfish bite, with some of the charter boats having
as many as 20 bites in a day. We find
the tuna and now everyone in the lodge and the village is having tuna. I’ll leave it at that.
Up on the
edge is where the black marlin live, all we need is a pair of sails for Pat’s
individual double grand slam in a single day, but a black, now that would be
something. I think that they call 4 in
a day a Super Grand Slam.
Here we go, into the fleet of 4 or 5 charter
boats and we quickly raise a sail. Pat makes
a sancocho. (A sancocho is when you miss a fish and you real in only the mashed
head of your bait. Sacocho is the names
of a soup made out of mashed vegetables, not pure like mashed potatoes, but
squashed, kind of like the head of your ballyhoo. Sancocho can be used as a noun or a verb,
for example, I sancochoed the last three sailfish, but I’m going to get the
next one. It can also be used to describe
one who makes many sancochoes, also called a sancochero. ).
The pressure is on.
Pat cleaning
hooks his next sailfish giving him one grand slam, only one sailfish to go when
BAM, the left teaser explodes with a marlin bite. I felt a little guilty at the time, but I
pitched my marlin pitch bait at the same time Pat’s hit the water, I may have
even beat him, but either way, I wanted in the game…….and I got the bite,
dropped back, nothing, the bite again, dropped back and hooked up this
time. We clear the lines and Pat brings
in his pitch bait just as my fish jumps, it’s a damn SAILFISH (that ate the marlin bait) and the
marlin is still behind the boat, but Pat’s
bait is out of the water and the marlin fades off. My sailfish jumps off, serves me right, and
we never see the marlin again. We can
only guess if it was a black or a blue, up on the edge like that, chances are…….
Pat still
needs a sail to finish his double grand slam and he’s having a little trouble
connecting, missing the next two fish in a row, then he hooks up solidly when
another rigger pops and we’ve got a double header. Release on both and we are heading to the
dock, leaving that marlin for another day.
Blue marlin,
sailfish for me today, hopefully a tarpon TOMORROW
In short, we
were 4 for 9 on blue marlin, 2 for 3 on striped marlin and 3 for a bunch of
sailfish. Oh, and the tunas.