“Here is the story of Dr. Gary's fish: Doc was on the kite when a nice fish blew up on his flyer. He took one crank and the fish started pulling drag. After the tuna ripped off a hundred yards, Gary lost a bit of mental focus. I believe he was mentally preparing for his cover shot for Mr January in the next Angler All-star Calendar. During that brief lapse, the fish won his freedom along with a brand new 770 XXH and 80 Okuma reel. You may be wondering how we know the weight, as the story continues…
About six hours later, Jeff Shapiro hooked a fish that felt pretty big. It happens that the fish was wrapped in spectra. Roy then attempted to figure out the angler guilty of not paying attention. However, as he pulled on the loose line, it pulled back fairly aggressively. The next thing you know is Roy hand-lining the fish giggling and laughing all the way around the boat twice and finally brought the fish to gaff. As you can now guess, it was Gary's fish with his rod and reel attached. We then spent about an hour trying to retrieve the rig and ended up winding a thousand yards of spectra trying to lift the gear. Unfortunately, at the end of the line was a piece of tape and Gary's gear is now part of an artificial reef.”
Mag Bay!
“We are very excited about being able to head down to Magdalena bay this fall,” posted Bruce Smith for his Fortune. “It looks like Alaska airlines will be flying into Loreto everyday in November from LAX. All of the Fortune trips are scheduled to leave on a Friday and return on a Wednesday whether it is a fly fishing trip or conventional tackle trip. We will shuttle you from the Loreto airport to San Carlos where the Fortune will be waiting to take you fishing. Here is the schedule as it stands:
Trip type Leaving Returning
Fly Fishing October 25 October 30
Conventional November 1 November 6
Fly Fishing November 8 November 13
Fly Fishing November 15 November 20
Conventional November 22 November 27
“On Sunday morning, April 28th I will be the special guest on Let's Talk Hook-up and May 1st will see me doing a presentation at Kern River fly fishers concerning the offshore fly fishing outside of Magdalena bay.
“The Fortune arrived at 22nd street landing on Friday and we are ready for the spring season. Water temps. are much warmer than this time last year and there is already sign of yellowtail at San Clemente island. Keeping our fingers crossed for a good SeaBass spring!
“We do have the Mother's day Sunday (12th) open for Charter in May and the Father's day Sunday(16th) open for charter, otherwise the weekends are full for us through the two months of May and June. April is wide open if you would like to charter the Fortune. We do have two spring time open party trips on-line right now, both are almost full. Get ahold of me or Jen at the office or book on line through the Fortune website.”
W/O Marlin
John Ireland reported about last week at Rancho Leonero: Water, 72 degrees, a couple of windy days midweek, otherwise flat and clear water. Air, Cool mornings, beautiful spring weather, with highs in the low 80's.“Very, very good billfishing on the East Cape. The marlin bite has improved throughout the week, with all boats releasing at least one Striper and most with multiples. The billfish are close, three to eight miles offshore and south to Las Arenas. Trolled lures are really working, multiple hookups are the norm. In the last two days fishing on Luna Sea, two different times, we had five fish on at the same time, three and four fish on at once have been common. A wide-open Marlin bite. Mixed with the billfish are some nice Dorado, a number of Bulls in the 30-pound range have hit the beach this week, almost all on trolled marlin lures. The Roosters have finally shown up. Lots of nice Gallos in the 15 to 40-pound range were released over the week, most by fly fishermen. There are Skipjack everywhere. Anglers are picking up lots on the lures.
“Striped Marlin- Some big fish in the 200-pound range. These fish are fighting hard in the cool 72-degree water. All anglers are releasing fish daily. Almost all taken on squid colored lures. Multiple hookups are the norm. Twice yesterday we had five on at once. Three or four different times we had three and four fish all hanging at once. There was only one single strike in two days! The fish are close, at the most a 15-minute boat ride.
“Dorado- Some nice bulls are being taken on lures in the same areas as the billfish.
“Inshore- The Roosterfish are back! Some very nice fish in the 15 to 40# range are being released, best south of the lighthouse. Most taken this week were by Fly fishermen.”
Paddled By Mom
“After such a spectacular week two weeks ago,” wrote Jonathan Roldan about the week ending April 14, “Mother Nature kicked up again to remind us that there are some things we still can’t control and we really had a difficult week of fishing. The bugaboo winds that really determine all things down here howled and blew demonically and either damped the fishing or outright, kept our anglers off the water.“It’s too bad because we were really charging into what I thought was high gear. The previous week we had our first big tunas, the best wahoo bite in severe seasons, big rooster fish showed up, first dorado of the season, big pargo and cabrilla finally kicked in, some solid yellowtail still biting, we were kicking up our heels and ready to charge!
“And then this week came on. As they say, “…in like a lion.” The winds roared.
“Actually, our weather seemed to reflect what much of the west to middle of the U.S. and Canada got cold temperatures, high winds One day we just brought all the boats back to shore. Another day we just “suggested” it might not be so good to go out and told everyone to just stay back on the beach rather than get beat up (they had other extra days to make up the missed day). Two of the rare occasions when we maybe could have gone out, but why? Go out and get beat and wet? It’s supposed to be fun.
“On a few other days, it was just too rough to even get bait or get to the fishing areas. So, this resulted in really slow fishing. So, that was pretty much the story of the week.
“When we did get out, we did get a few yellowtail, some dorado. Some sierra. Some nice rooster fish were also caught. We did get two marlin hooked and dropped. As well, some pargo were taken. But, I need to be honest; it was a stinky week. We’ve had better. The good thing about fishing the Baja is it doesn’t stay bad for long. We should turn the corner again, probably by the time you’re reading this.”
http://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com
AT THE RAIL: Long Range Fishing
The biggest, best-illustrated book on long range fishing: At The Rail: Long Range Fishing, by Bill Roecker, is available from tackle stores and Oceanic Productions. The big new 208-page coffee-table volume is saturated with color photos on every page about the best bites ever seen, the closest calls, oddest events, the most gratifying results and heartbreaking losses of the original extreme sport. It’s printed on high-quality slick paper and comes in hard and soft covers.At The Rail showcases fishing for giant yellowfin tuna, and wahoo, dorado, yellowtail and other species. It covers the area from San Diego to Clipperton Atoll and Panama, the Revillagigedos archipelago, Baja’s southern banks, northern Baja’s offshore islands, and open waters south of San Diego, where most of the summer fishing for albacore, bluefin tuna and yellowtail takes place. Winter long ranging goes to the southern waters, targeting giant yellowfin tuna and wahoo.
This extra-large book is loaded with sharp photos of the scenic spots and action shots of anglers contending with the huge fish encountered on long range trips. History of the sport and profiles of best-known skippers, manufacturers and anglers are included.
At The Rail is a landmark saltwater book for expert anglers and a general audience, with colorful high-quality photos and art, species information, fishing locations and tackle, war stories from fishermen, stories of the most significant catches, details of record fish and Roecker’s personal long range adventures over the past 30 years. At The Rail: Long Range Fishing is an absolute necessity, a must-have for all saltwater anglers.
http://www.fishingvideos.com/shopping.htm
