Hanging 10 ...

We did something this week that was someplace between “special” and “amazing.” We had a group from San Diego that came over to celebrate a birthday and hold a bachelor party. Besides being fishermen, these guys were surfers. On their first day, they requested two boats for a surfingfishing trip. We took them to shipwrecks, La Fortuna and sand castles to surf; these are areas beyond Los Frailes, about 30 miles south. They said that the waves were unbelievable and it was one of the best surfing trips they had ever experienced.

On their way back to the hotel they completed the doubleheader by catching dorado and tuna. There were eight anglers, four on each boat.

In regards the fishing, all the action was concentrated on tuna, which is currently a wide-open bite. In the words of one angler, “They are everywhere.” Most sailfish have been found near the porpoise. There were a few dorado, which has been the case for several weeks.

[B]Numbers for this week:[/B]
(R Indicates Released)
1 Blue Marlin R
14 Sailfish 14R
24 Dorado
103 Tuna
2 Snapper
1 Shark R
1 Pompano
2 Roosterfish 2R

Fish Tale –Today was it was a World Record day. Three times. But I will have to see what officially stands after I apply to the IGFA for certification.

This year, the IGFA started a new program for World Records called “Length.” It’s catch and release using an eight inch wide tape measure purchased from the IGFA. Since this is the first year of the program, and there is such an abundance of the species of eligible fish, I thought “Why not?” I may get my name in the World Record book at least for a short period of time.
So, today was my first day to try for records. I grabbed the measure, packed a couple light line rods, picked out some bottom jigs and then loaded up on a whole lot of sardines.

After discussing the day’s strategy with my boat captain Juan, we began to target different places where I knew there would be a variety of the eligible fish. The program identifies fish that are hardy and easily handled for measurement. Yeh, right … not!

I identified about a dozen species of the 65-plus that are eligible. We made passes over seven fishing holes and ended up with three fish that should be World Records: A Red Snapper, Black Skipjack and a Ladyfish.

The rules are fairly simple: Catch the fish, lay it on the measure, take pictures and release it so it will swim away. When measuring, the mouth of the fish is to be closed. HA! Good luck on that one. But, even better, try and get a live fish to hold still for five or more pictures. These fish are not interested in their 15 minutes. All they want to do is get back into their watery environment.
The first fish I caught was the Black Skipjack and in all the excitement of the first catch, I forgot to take a picture of me holding the fish (which is required). Duh!
We’ll just have to see what happens with the other two.

Life is good.
Beerman