BajaNomad - Speaking of Dorado

Speaking of Dorado

Osprey - 6-28-2008 at 06:23 PM

Speaking of Dorado

Couple of days ago it calmed down a little so Al Hettinger and I took my panga out looking for some dorado or tuna. I like fishing with Al because he’s 20 years my junior and doesn’t mind doing most of the heavy lifting chores like loading the gas tanks and the big rope box. We shoved off at seven and I ran the 55 Johnson up to the sweet, fast spot right into the sun until I could see our white sand beach begin to disappear – seven miles out mas o menos.

Put a hoochie on a light rig out long in the middle for bait, a cedar and jethead on each corner and began to troll east. The bait rod went off and we boated a small barillete which I threw in the bucket for maybe later skip or chunk bait.

Hadn’t gone a half mile when I spotted the turtle. Even from a distance we knew something was wrong – wrong color; the pale blue nylon netting material almost completely covered his head and half his body. Al pulled the lines in while I closed on the turtle. If it was an olive green Ridley it was the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Without much conversation we knew what we had to do. Al would hold onto the net, the animal, keep his head up while I cut away each web of netting. It was gonna take a while.

When Al had the net in hand I killed the motor. The baitfish in the bucket was dead so I quickly cut it up for chunk bait, baited up two small boat rods, lowered the bait down to about 30 feet, put the rods in holders, the reels free on the clickers. We knew darn well dorado can often be found beneath almost anything that floats. My big butt was just barely touching the upturned bucket that was meant to be my seat while I freed the turtle, cutting knife in hand, when one of the reels went off. I was closest so I grabbed the rod, took up the slack, set the hook.

Whooa! A big bull dorado – he ran, jumped, ran again and just then the other reel went off. Al grabbed the rod and muy pronto we had us a nice double of big bulls. As they came to the gaff we could see the rest of the school circling below. When we got the big boys aboard they had both swallowed the hooks so I cut the lines, tied on new hooks, rebaited and watched the chunks sink down into the shadow of the boat. Bait didn’t get out of our sight but it was grabbed up again by hungry bulls and in about 20 minutes we had another two big fish in the boat.

The smallest fish was over 40 pounds and the largest must have been about 55. I covered them with a big piece of heavy burlap I keep on board just for this kind of thing then emptied the whole ice chest of ice on top of them. We could still see the rest of the school circling below. I don’t know which of us asked the question, who answered but we both agreed we had our limits, we headed home while the fish were still fresh.

Cold beer, big smiles, high fives as we motored home. I think the best fishing days come along when you know you’ve done the right thing.

Skeet/Loreto - 6-28-2008 at 06:59 PM

thanks Osprey! does good to read a very desc riptive account of catching those Nice big ole Bulls.
My wife still has me beat with a 57 Lb. Off of Delefonso Isla.
Good Fishing.
Skeet/Loreto

rpleger - 6-28-2008 at 10:25 PM

What happened to the turtle?

vandenberg - 6-29-2008 at 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rpleger
What happened to the turtle?

Yeah, George :?:

You do this on purpose or just to see if we can read and ask questions ? :biggrin:

Osprey - 6-29-2008 at 06:38 AM

No use waiting any longer. 101 views of the story, 3 posts: Skeet "nice catch", Leger "What about the turtle?", Van, "What about the turtle? (I'm guessing about Van).

I just wondered, in this scenario, what fishermen would consider "doing the right thing". About 100 of you either didn't care to post or didn't care much what happened to the turtle and were probably pleased to read: 1. somebody caught some nice dorado and 2. they quit at their legal Mexican waters limit.

Could have gone the other way you know -- 100 people might have jumped up and down about "what the hell did you do with the turtle? Did you take the time to help him, did he swim away, did he die?"

There were no dorado, there was no turtle. I write fiction. I just wanted to see just how many turtle huggers there were out there compared to fishermen whose only agenda is to act responsibly toward the fishery and enjoy an honest sucess at fishing when they had the chance.

Two guys near the Gordo Banks found a floater, a dead body in the water while fishing. They caught hell at the port captain's office in Cabo when they gave their written reports about the body and then admitted they caught 4 dorado each under the thing before they used the radio to make the first report.

Cypress - 6-29-2008 at 06:51 AM

I was thinking maybe the school of 40 to 50 pound dorado just ate the turtle. :spingrin:

vandenberg - 6-29-2008 at 10:02 AM

Thing is Fishhawk, most all seasoned fishermen in this sea know there is no such thing as a "school" of 40 to 50 lb. Bull Dorado. :no:

Wish it were so.
So I thought right of the bet that there was a alternate reason to your story, and the Turtle served your purpose. :biggrin:

I would be more interested in saving that turtle in such a scenario, and the hell with the fish

But that's me. :saint:

vandenberg - 6-29-2008 at 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Osprey

Two guys near the Gordo Banks found a floater, a dead body in the water while fishing. They caught hell at the port captain's office in Cabo when they gave their written reports about the body and then admitted they caught 4 dorado each under the thing before they used the radio to make the first report.

I heard they found 3 bodies, tied them together to make a "great paddy", but maybe that was an exageration :?:

Osprey - 6-29-2008 at 10:29 AM

Van, there are certain times of the year that the female dorado and male dorado each keep to themselves and don't generally mix. It is at these times I have seen, and caught several big bulls in the shadow of paddys and other floating debris. Some were huge! I had photos but in a lot of them the fish were so big, the pictures wouldn't compress, I didn't have room for em and had to delete them. Otherwise I'd post the shots here, of course.

Pescador - 6-29-2008 at 10:30 AM

Now I have new license to report things the way I would like to see them rather than the way they really are. If someone comes along with a scale that measures the fish differently than what I thought they weighed, then all I have to say is "Osprey made me do it". I write a weekly report for mexfish.com but by following the lead of Osprey, the stories can be expected to get much better in the future. Maybe I can sneak in some kind of a disclaimer about the fiction part, but have not figured out how to sneak it in like they do on the prescription adds. Perhaps boilerplate like the reports you are about to hear may be proven to be fiction unless otherwise substantiated. :smug:

Osprey - 6-29-2008 at 11:25 AM

Pescador, I'm one of those fish reporters for Mexfish myself. Rarely have I sent them stretch pictures. As to my posts: as a fiction writer I think it's only natural that sometimes I'm prone to a little embellishment or even exageration. It's for that reason that I've posted a million or more disclaimers about it on this very board. I'm on the record and in the clear.

Cypress - 6-29-2008 at 01:58 PM

You don't want to hear my fish report.

It's fact, not fiction. :no:

vandenberg - 6-29-2008 at 03:11 PM

Jorge,
No matter what,
you just keep them stories coming.
Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks !!

Pescador - 6-29-2008 at 07:18 PM

Osprey, my daddy used to say, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Klondike_Kid - 7-1-2008 at 12:17 AM

I just figured you had too many Pacificos celebrating your catch and by the time you got to the keyboard you couldn't remember what you did with the turtle. Better check inside the boat. :biggrin: