ENSENADA FISHING BOAT BAD DOG CATCHES ITS FIRST MARLIN

Aug. 14, 2004, Steve Ross, Bad Dog Ensenada marlin fishing out of Marina Coral, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico:

We went marlin fishing, really...for marlin specifically. And low and behold look what showed up in our jigs.

Best part of it was that we only had to go 15 miles from Ensenada to get him.

This is our first marlin for Bad Dog LUHRS.

Gail was the angler and it wasn't easy for her as we took the fish from the bow and Juan Lu was the gaffer. The seas were 2-3' high and the bow was bouncing up and down and she said she assumed a stance she learned in her karate class. When she first arrived at the bow of the boat all the line in the reel was gone and she was looking at the last few inches left on the reel. This could have been a "one that got away" story had it not been for her stubborness, or should I say perseverance.

We also caught 4 yellowtail and two mahi mahi to round off the day.

For those of you pros...it ate a traditional 7 Strand clone 1210 in good ole reliable sablefish color, single hook. But, it did have a little rubber bird in front of it.

I gotta pat myself on the back, as I did do a good job on the wheel and we boated the fish in 20 minutes.

The trip was a result of Tony on the "Magic" tipping us off with several marlin he fought on Friday the day before and one he released.

On Sunday, "Wide Open" Tom, went to the same spot and caught a marlin that must have been this one's brother as they weighed the same at 130 pounds. He caught it on a live bait drop back..

Then on Monday, Tom went with Ron on his 31 Cabo "Wahoo" and caught another marlin for Ron's first. Ron brought Tom along for technical assistance and Tom ran the boat to boat this fish in 30 minutes. This was caught on a drop back on live bait. We were there as well. The humorous part was that we returned to the same spot where we caught our marlin on Saturday and Wahoo was running all around us. I kept running over the same spot for hours. When I finally moved a few miles away, Wahoo moved in and caught their fish RIGHT ON MY SPOT.

After Wahoo boated their fish and left, I returned to do laps on that spot to no avail all day long for the rest of the day.

This tells you that one marlin a day is moving into the area and we're taking them out one by one. So don't send down a fleet of boats, as we are seeing nothing, there are no birds, there is no bait on the meter, there are no tailers, feeders, but we did see one jumper and I think that was the fish Tom took out. There are also no sleepers as we were on the spot at greylight with plenty of live mackeral to feed one breakfast.

These are the first marlin to show up in the past 5 years of nothing.