EAST CAPE ANGLERS TOURNAMENT SCORES
13 MARLIN RELEASED FOR 17 BOATS OFF PUNTA PESCADERO

July 10, 2004, Bill Burkett, East Cape, Baja Sur, Mexico, Los Barriles, boat Fat Cat:

WOW! What an exciting week we've had on the Fat Cat.

We started the week fishing the July 4th East Cape Angler's club tournament. There were 17 boats fishing and they racked up a total of 13 Marlin (more than half of which were blues), 1 Sailfish and 15 Dorado. All the billfish were released to fight another day.

Fat Cat contributed one Striped Marlin and 3 Dorado. Most East Cape boats fished in the area of Punta Pescadero, from 2 to 12 miles out. All the Blue Marlin were caught in that area.

On July 7th, my wife, Silvia and I went out to the Pescadero area in calm seas and water temps in the 83 to 85 deg. range.

We'd been trolling about an hour and were only about 2 miles off the point when the short line was clobered. I was looking right at the lure when the Marlin hit. It's tail came clear of the water and was as wide as I am tall (I'm 6 foot)! I yelled that we'd just hooked a BIG fish and grabbed the rod from the holder.

Silvia manuvered the boat away from the strike in order to clear the other lines during what we expected would be a wild aerial display from a large blue. But, very little happened! Line was leaving the reel at a steady, but not fast rate and seemed to be going down - not out.

I made the statement that the fish wasn't doing much, when everything changed very quickly. I noticed that the line was now coming through the water right at us and it was leaving a sizable rooster-tail behind it. I yelled for Silvia to alter course, but not quickly enough and the line sped by the boat, scraping the rub rail all the way. We lucked out and the line stayed together, but was now disappearing from the reel at an alarming rate. All I could do was watch it melt away.

The reel was a Tiagra 50 Wide LRS with 3/4 of the spool filled with 80 lb Spectra and topped with about 250 yards of 80-pound mono. I was down to less than a quarter of a spool when the fish finally stopped it's run and started jumping. It was at least a quarter of a mile away, but it still looked huge!! It was so fat that it looked short. It made 5 consecutive broadside jumps which are forever etched in my mind. After jumping the fish settled down and I was able to work the fish close to the boat in about an hour (thank God for two speeds!).

We got the line to within 3 feet of the swivel three times. But each time the fish would simply swim away. Each time it did so it swam under the boat and one time it nearly pulled me in with it, as I was wearing a harness (we have no fighting chair - so it's all standup fishing). I managed to loosen the drag on the reel in time though. Either sadly, or happily, on it's third surge under the boat the line rubbed just the right place and parted.

We planned to release it any way, which was why we were trying to get the leader so quickly. We were afraid the fish would die if the fight lasted too long. I really don't think she was too tired at the point of escape and she's still out there waiting to give another angler the thrill of a lifetime.

How big was she? I really can't say for sure. Much larger than any marlin I've ever seen in person - dead or alive. Looking at photos of granders though seems to fit the image in my minds eye. I know I've never been attached to anything anywhere near that large before.

After talking to some of the local East Cape Mexican Captains, we think the fish was a Black - not a Blue. That's based on the way it fought and the fact that when it was jumping it looked very silver and not the bronze color the Blues display.

We did manage to catch a nice Striped Marlin on the way home that day as well.

The next day I took a friend out to the 10/10 area. That's a spot 10 miles from Pescadero and 10 miles from La Ribera and is where the Pescadero and Trinidad canyons meet. It's a great place for East Cape blues and it didn't let us down. My friend, Dick Villinger, caught a Blue Marlin of about 175 lbs. that we released. We had a Striper on for a short while as well, but he came off. Seas were again smooth and water temps. were 85 degrees.

There have been lots of Blue Marlin caught or lost here on the East Cape this past week. And some real toads too!

We fished Pescadero again today (Saturday) and got skunked! There were several other boats from East Cape Angler's out there as well. Only one managed to catch a Blue. The water is still nice and clear/blue, but there seemed to be a lot fewer flying fish in the area today.