Tuna time:)

[traveler]

Heres a pic from last week...

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo341/traveler222/Tuna.jpg

156 yellowfin, personal best, and also a near death experience on poorly fitted standup gear! We managed a couple smaller tuna, some Dorado, 6 striped marlin and 1 sailfish in 4 days. Not too shabby:)

[mainbutter]

Wonderful! I'd be going after fresh sashimi after a catch like that!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Come on you cant just bait us with "a near death exp"... tell us the story.. and I dont want the readers digest condensed version.. I want it all!!!!

Nice fish by the way.. that thing is huge!!!

[traveler]

OK, OK...maybe "near death" was a little strong, but it was the most brutal fight I've had with a big fish for sure!

I've fished in Cabo once or twice a year for about 10 years now (yeah, I know how lucky I am:)

This trip it was myself and 2 buddies from WI. We had 4 fishing days scheduled, with a couple different charters we've used before and knew would put us on fish. The first 3 days were fairly rough, and the bite had slacked off in the past couple weeks (never heard that one before, have we?) We did manage 6 striped marlin over those 3 days, along with 10 or so Dorado. We were looking for tuna, and did find them several times, but could only manage 1 small one, which was really frustrating as we were in schools with lots of 20-50 lb. fish busting bait on the surface. But they were feeding on small flying fish and sardines which we didn't have...

The 4th and last day we were with the one charter we hadn't used before, but were very anxious to try as we'd heard great things about them. They didn't dissappoint:)

The wind let up overnight, and we had a great day to look for fish. We hadn't had lines in for an hour when we hooked a very nice sail, and my buddy landed his first. Soon after we added a small striper, and a couple dorado, so we were pretty stoked.

A little slack time, then one of the riggers went off like a rocket, and I was on the rod for what I hoped was a blue or black marlin, but once it settled down we figured it was most likely a big tuna. No problem there:) as my biggest tuna to date was only 50-ish lbs.

I settled into the fight, useing my normal stand-up fighting belt, which I've caught lots of marlin on. He pulls pretty good:), but after a 1/2 hr or so we actually have him on the leader and then we comfirm what the crew was already pretty sure of, big tuna! Well, he gets one look at the boat and says "see ya!" No big, I'm only start to hurt a little. He doesn't go to far and we settle into a give and take, with him surprisingly close to the boat most of the time, sometimes in sight. Pretty cool sight at that:)

We did get a good look at him and the crew puts him in the 150-200 lb. range, so they put a harness on me, which clips to my fighting belt and aids greatly in fighting heavy fish, allowing you to pull with your legs and back, rather than your arms. The fight was into the 2nd 1/2 hour by then and my arms were tiring, so it was a good thing (or so I thought).

But...(theres always a butt, isn't there?) By the time an hour rolls around I'm getting beat up pretty bad.....my fighting belt isn't made for use with the harness they strapped onto it, and It's digging into my lower stomach or upper thighs, depending on which I favor. And my arms are too tired to take much pressure off. The harness isn't doing me much good at all at that point. I can literally feel each time that tuna thrusts it's tail (it's mostly just in sight all the time at this point) and it's like someone repeatedly hitting me on the thighs with a bat. Well, a small one

Somewhere around 1 1/4 hours my nose starts running, why I don't know. And I've got salty sweat in my eyes. Things are not looking good, but mostly it's the da^%$ harness digging itno me. We did get him very close to the leader again about this time, but no joy:)

I've had long fights before, but nothing like this:) One brutal fish... we've got the drag locked down as far as we dare, and although he stays close, I'm not able to gain anything on him.

So I weigh my options at that point.......Hand the rod off? I'd sooner cut off my arm:)

Give up on standup and sit in the fighting chair?? Naw... real men fish standup:) But I was toast, and you lose big fish when you can't keep putting the hurt on them, so I took a seat:( at about the 1 1/2 hr. point.

Now it's a whole new ballgame:) Rod in the gimble, pull with the legs...we leadered the fish about 1/2 hour later. One heck of a sight at the transom:) Back and forth, just out of gaff range, the mate doing a dang fine job keeping him on the leader till he finally gets the gaff shot and he's ours! A quiik second gaff by the cappy and they're pulling him over the side of the boat. Biggest tuna I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on a boat I was fishing, let alone getting to fight.

We didn't want to take him to the scales (more time in the sun, not so good for fish) so we did a measurement weight (143) and when we took the meat in they did a meat-live wt. calculation and came up with 156. So I'm calling it an even 150:)

I went thru about 5 bottles of water in 2 hours, about an even split between drinking and pouring down my back:)

Thats my story and I'm stickin to it:)

[Shawn Kellett]

That's awesome. I'm going down to Cabo on Oct 6th and I can't wait! It's been 20 years since I was down there last. We're going out 4 days so hopefully we can get some marlin (on my bucket list) as well as some sushi!

The pic is great. It looks like you have the gaff in your back.

[traveler]

Shawn; it is kinda odd where that gaff ended up...I had no idea till I saw the pic!

So 20 years huh? Be sure to report back here after, I'll be interested to hear your perception of Cabo now as oppossed to 20 years ago. It's changed a LOT in the 10 years I've been going down, and I hear lots of comments about how it's not like "the good ol' days"...whenever the heck that was! For sure it's getting more crowded, more commercial...if you want Mexican authenticity go elsewhere. But for fish, especially marlin, it's pretty hard to beat it:)

I imagine you have your charters set up already...who are you fishing with? I don't suppose you remember by any chance what company you fished with 20 years ago?? Interested to see if they stood the test of time.

It's been a good late summer for fishing; more blues and blacks than usual, with good amounts of big tuna mixed in. You should do well:)

I'm back down on Halloween for 6 days. We have a small, bragging rights tournament we started 4 years ago that runs Nov. 1 & 2 this year. 11 boats and about 100 people at the Awards banquet...all started on an internet travel site, go figure:)

[Shawn Kellett]

A friend of the family has a place in Los Brelas (sp) up the Baja coast about 60-90 minutes. Back then there wasn't really too much there. Their place is right on the water and we used to run the 4-wheelers up and down the beach all day. I guess those days are long gone and the little town has been built up.

Back then our friend had a 22' Sea Dory. We caught tuna and dorado, but no billfish back then. I hear the fishing is much better now that the commercial boats aren't around. I'm not too sure which charter we're talking, but our friend who spends a few months down there a year has his favorite guys so I'm sure they're good. Hopefully I'll have some good fish pic's to share.

[Deitz Dittrich]

DUUUUUUUDE.. awesome story.. much thanks for posting it!

[traveler]

No problem Deitz:) Hopefully I'll have a story of an even bigger one in 6 weeks!

Shawn...I think it's Los Barrilos (close:) Do you figure you'll be fishing up that way then? The sea of Cortez fishing can be quite different than out of Cabo. I really don't know how well the season coincides with peak season in Cabo. Kind of strange as it isn't that far away... Well, we'll see how we both do next month, good luck to ya!

[mrklean]

nice that thing is a hog would be a blast to reel one of them up

[Shawn Kellett]

We'll probably be fishing up there so long as there's fish being caught. If it's dead then we'll go for Plan B and fish south further (or so I'm told). The reports I've been hearing have been pretty good so I'm excited. Hopefully I'll have a few good stories to tell.

[DTro]

Very cool story, thanks for sharing!

[dobiel]

Wow Traveler, nice Tuna! My body hurts just looking at that monster!

[Valv]

Great fish Traveler. I just get more jealous every time I look at the picture