Fishin' with Jim and Jack and Kevin

 

This is our week to spend with friends Jim and Jack on the big boat Fin-atic.  ( http://www.finaticsportsfishingbaja.com/home ) . 

 

Jim and Jack brought their nephew Kevin, who will be 12 next month.  He has never been ocean fishing before so we told him he could catch the first fish.  Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be a 385+ pound Blue Marlin.  You can't really tell from the picture how big this fish was although you get some perspective from the orange & yellow lure you see (18 inches long).   He was HUGE and it was very exciting for us as it was our first Blue Marlin - not Jim's.  Took about 1.5 hours to bring him in.  Kevin reeled in the leader 3 times before he finally had to hand off to "The Closer", Uncle Jim.

 

350+ pound Blue Marlin

 

 

While Jim was busy on the stern (back of the boat) with the blue, Mike was heading to the front (bow) catching a shark!  Yep, we had 2 sharks show up while the blue was on the line.  Mike's job was to keep the shark away from the blue so we could bring him in. 

 

Mike's Shark - he was about 7' or 8' long

 

 

Jack caught a dorado for our dinner and then it was Mike's turn at another fish.  His was one of our standard 120 pound striped marlins.  Look how it is 'lit up' (electric blue stripes)!  Never saw that before when we caught one.

 

Mike's Striped Marlin

 

Second day out we were looking for tuna or dorado closer towards shore but nothing was biting.  So we headed out to where we'd caught the marlin on Sunday.  Captain Tony found the porpoises that travel with the tuna eating the bait they drive to the surface.  We were so excited that we'd get tuna for sashimi but that was not to be.  I was set to catch the first tuna when we hooked another Blue Marlin so I handed off to Mike.   The water was getting very rough as there was a hurricane off the mainland Mexico coast pushing wind in our direction.   Mike worked the fish for 30 minutes but his old golf injury (lower back) started acting up so he handed off  to "The Closer" for the final 30 minutes, resulting in an even bigger marlin.  He was over 500 pounds! 

 

As we headed back to shore, we were traveling with the waves and I didn't notice anything out of ordinary before we got close to the dock.  That is when we were told we had to quickly jump off the big boat onto the dock because the waves were dropping up to 6 feet.  I said 'no way' because I don't do quick and Mike stuck up for me (bless him!!!)  Then it got worse because it was too dangerous for our boat to get to the dock because it was too rough. They brought in this little dingy, row boat thing and told us we still had to move quickly from boat to dingy and then again from dingy to dock.  I said I am staying on the boat!  And everyone kept trying to talk me into it.  I should have stood firm and insisted on going back to the marina.  Mike could have come over to pick me up - it is a 45 minute drive.  But NNNNOOOOOOOO!!  Stupid me listened to them.  I almost did a face plant and went overboard getting on the dingy.  Luckily Mike and the guy driving the dingy grabbed me...water is 220 feet deep there and me still not swimming, ya know.  Then we get to the dock after bobbing around on the way, getting soaked by the waves.  I have no balance to speak of, no speed of motion and I'm supposed to stand up in a severely rocking dingy, stand on it's side rail, and pull myself up 6 feet on to the deck!  Ha!  If the big boat's owner, Warner, wasn't standing on the dock, hadn't grabbed my hand, and somehow yanked my hefty ass up very quickly, I would have been squashed between the dock and dingy.  Scared the crap out of me!!

 

Needless to say, I did not go fishing on Wednesday but did go back out on Thursday.  Again we found porpoises but no tuna were biting.  Captain Tony was sick so the boat's owner, Warner, was our captain for this final day.  We thought we hadn't caught anything but did hook a nice striped marlin in the final hour.  I should say Jack started reeling it in but Kevin was the one who actually landed it and brought it into the boat, this time without any help from either Mike or Jim.  He did a great job and had it all under control.  It was fun to watch this kid go from novice to experienced in a week. 

 

So Jim and Jack and Kevin have headed home to California and we are in our last 3 weeks at Los Barriles.  We are off of the big boat and back to our half day panga trips.  Next scheduled outing is  going out on Wednesday morning (July 13th) with Jorge.