VERY GOOD STRIPED MARLIN FISHING
FOR 19 HOOKUPS AND 4 RELEASES

Oct. 22, 2006, Craig Collins, San Carlos fishing, Sonora, Mexico:

I fished at San Carlos on Saturday with Capitan Fernando Almada and his guests Alejandro and Fernando Liogon of Hermosillo, Mexico.

We fished on his charter boat Catch-22 Rubina, out of Catch-22 Sportfishing in San Carlos.

The fishing water is cooling rapidly at San Carlos, with temperatures from 77 to 80 degrees, and a lot of green water showing up.

We ran out at 180 degree for 22 miles before hitting blue water, at 79 degrees, and spotted our first striped marlin of the day. We set up a full spread of Pakulas, and within 30 minutes ran up on a "wolf pack" of 5 marlin finning. They jumped into the spread and nailed four of the rigs!

In the heat of the moment, we managed to only keep one fish hooked up, the first marlin ever for Fernando Liogon. He released a 150 pound striped marlin after a 40 minute battle, and we headed off for more.

Fishing from 22 to 28 miles out of San Carlos and ranging between 175 to 180 degrees, we had many more multiple fish sightings, and every group we saw would bite at least one of our lures!

We ended up the fishing day with 19 hookups, although we had a hard time getting most of them to stay on for too long.

We did release four fish at the boat, one for each of us over the course of the day. Alejandro and I scored simultaneously on a double, releasing both at the boat after an hour-long battle.

The fish were REALLY hot, nailing our teasers many times before jumping back for one of the Pakulas. It was one of those days you live for, beautiful weather, with 1 to 2 foot seas, a cool breeze most of the day, and marlin jumping anything that moved.

We left wishing October was a 6 week month, but knowing the change of the season is almost on us. Lookout yellowtail!

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Carlos and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Carlos may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Carlos page.