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A mixed bag of fish
http://www.jsonline.com/outdoors/dec04/287289.asp
?Panga? angling in Mexico delivers variety of action
Bob Riepenhoff
Dec. 25, 2004
San Jose del Cabo, Mexico - The first rays of orange sunlight glistened on the blue waves of the Sea of Cortes as we arrived at the San Jose del Cabo
beach.
Gary Wroblewski, of Bluewater Outfitters, and I had rented a car to make the half-hour drive from Cabo San Lucas, headquarters for our six-day
deep-sea fishing trip.
So far, we?d fished for big game species in a large charter boat that traveled many miles up and down the coast of Mexico?s Baja Peninsula and out to
sea.
This would be a change of pace. We would fish from a smaller ?panga? boat.
A typical ?panga? is a 22-foot open-hull fishing boat powered by a 75hp outboard with a canvass tarp that can be set up to shield you from the sun.
Although Cabo San Lucas offers ?panga? boat fishing, we went to the trouble of renting a car and driving to San Jose because the near-shore fishing is
better here, according to Wroblewski.
?It?s very close to a variety of near-shore reefs and underwater islands,? said Wroblewski, of Eagle. ?They hold all the species of game fish found in
this area.?
Part of the fun is that you never know what you?re going reel up next.
?In panga fishing, you can catch everything from red snapper to blue marlin,? Wroblewski said. ?Although catching a marlin from one of these boats is
quite a feat, it has been done.?
Bustling beach
When we arrived, the beach was alive with activity. There were pangas with bait fishermen casting nets near shore for sardines and anchovies, pangas
with fishermen already heading out to sea, and pangas high and dry on the beach waiting to be launched - a process that takes at least a half-dozen
men.
We met our guides, Francisco ?Chico? Gonzalez of La Playa and his son, Francisco ?Poncho? Gonzalez Jr. Neither spoke English, so we had to rely on my
rusty Spanish and some improvised sign-language.
We climbed onboard, were launched into the pounding surf by a group of fishermen and headed south and east along the coast, which was mostly rocks and
sand with mountains in the distance.
I don?t believe we were ever much more than a mile or so from shore.
The bow of the boat served as a bait well, holding a few buckets of sea water and a large quantity of bait fish for fishing and chumming. Chico and
Poncho took turns at the tiller or standing over the bait. Wroblewski and I sat in the middle seats and strapped on our fighting belts, which hold the
butt of the fishing rod when you?re fighting a big fish.
The tackle was lighter than we?d been using on the charter boats. We had six-foot rods and reels suitable for both trolling and bait casting, strung
with 40-pound monofilament.
?Being on the ocean in a small boat is a unique experience,? Wroblewski said. ?It adds a level of excitement and an additional challenge. Even the
smaller saltwater fish fight very hard and are hard to control on light tackle.?
He compared it to fishing big water in Wisconsin. The guides talk with each other on radios to share information, just like on Lake Michigan
?It?s very reminiscent of Wisconsin-style fishing,? Wroblewski said. ?Midwest anglers are used to fishing out of a small boat with light tackle. This
is what the pangas offer. It?s similar to the type of fishing we have in Wisconsin, except the fish are bigger. You?ll catch small fish, but you can
also catch big fish.?
Fast and furious
After motoring for a half-hour, we arrived at our spot, an underwater reef about 60 feet down, surrounded by deeper water. Poncho dressed our small
hooks with live sardines and we cast out, let out some more line and began to slow-troll with our thumbs on a free-spool reel.
?When you feel the fish strike, give it a couple seconds, then flip the drag on and set the hook,? Wroblewski coached.
It didn?t take long before I set the hook my first fish, a scrappy dorado. It wasn?t half the size of the biggest ones I?d caught on the charter, but
on light tackle, it was every bit as much fun.
It was the same story with tuna, which we caught the same way: The fish weren?t as big, but the battle was exceptional.
?The fight is more personal,? Wroblewski said. ?You?re in a small boat and you?re hooked up to a large fish.?
Later, we tried a different spot, a reef where we tied on half-ounce sinkers to drift bait along the bottom in about 40 feet.
We?d let our bait drop to the bottom, reeled it up a foot or so, free-spooled with our thumbs until we felt a hit, then flipped the drag, set the hook
and started reeling.
Quite a haul
This method produced several hours of non-stop action and an amazing assortment of fish By quitting time, in addition to some tuna and dorado, we had
a mixed bag that included:
? More than 20 trigger fish, which look like bluegills on steroids, up to about five pounds. They had nasty looking teeth and used their wide flanks
to put up some stubborn resistance.
? Two red snappers, about four and seven pounds. They fought like big smallmouth bass.
? A pargo, which is similar to a red snapper only it?s yellow.
? Two sierras, or Spanish mackerel, which have long slender bodies and fight up and down the water column; every inch of the way.
? Two bonitos, a close cousin to the tuna.
? One amberjack, a fish prized by anglers for its strong fight with short but powerful runs.
In the midst of all the action, Poncho yelled, and I looked up to see a vision that I will always remember. Off in the distance, I saw a big blue
marlin - a fish of 300 pounds or more - exploding from the surface of the water, once, twice and then a third time
Afterward, I asked why the big fished had jumped, since it wasn?t hooked.
Chico answered in Spanish. ?The marlin jumps,? he said, ?because he wants to.?
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Going to great depths is easy
http://www.jsonline.com/outdoors/dec04/285013.asp
Porpoises, birds key to finding yellowfin tuna
Bob Riepenhoff
Dec. 18, 2004
Cabo San Lucas - The fish of the day was yellowfin tuna, and we were looking for big ones.
?You can catch smaller tuna close to shore, but the larger ones are mostly found offshore in deep water,? said Gary Wroblewski, my host and companion
for a saltwater fishing trip off Mexico?s southern Baja Peninsula.
How deep? That was a real good question. One thing?s for sure, proximity to deep water is big part of what makes this area one of the best saltwater
fishing spots in the world.
?At the rocks in Cabo, you?ve got 500 feet of water,? said Wroblewski, who operates Bluewater Outfitters. ?Motor two miles out and you?re in 2,000
feet of water.?
But seven miles southeast of Cabo, where our search for tuna began, the depth issue gets a little murky.
?Our sonar only goes to 3,000 feet,? Saul ?Kiko? de la Paz Velarde, First Mate on the Guerita II charter boat, told me. ?It might be 4,000 feet, maybe
5,000. We don?t know.?
As we rocked and rolled in white-cap waves, that was a little too much water for me to fathom.
Wroblewski?s friends, Chip Burgett, of Wausau, and Milt Mooney, of Barrington, Ill., were also onboard to fish with us. They could have picked a
better day
In six days of fishing, this was our farthest boat trip out into the roughest seas. It was a real ?white knuckler.? You had to hang on to something to
keep your footing. And the fishing action got off to a real slow start.
The yellowfin tuna is a strong, bullet-shaped fish, prized among anglers for its line-stretching power-surges.
?The yellowfin tuna is a very powerful fish,? Wroblewski said. ?They never jump, but they?re known for their speed, endurance and stubborn
resistance.?
Can weigh up to 400 pounds
The yellowfin is the most colorful tuna. As the names suggests, it has yellow fins, but it also has a deep blue back and silvery sides. Its dark meat
makes delicious table fare.
Yellowfin up to 100 pounds are not unusual, but there are occasional monsters. A 200-pounder is exceptional and it?s possible for them to reach nearly
400 pounds.
As we hung on tight and watched the lures being trolled behind the boat, Wroblewski said that we were looking for flocks of birds -gulls or frigate
birds - out on the horizon. The birds would lead to porpoises and the porpoises would lead to tuna, he said.
?The Mexicans say the tuna work for the porpoises,? Wroblewski said. ?Tuna are schooling fish. They drive the bait fish to the surface. They surround
the sardines and herd them up to the surface, where the birds and the porpoises feed on them. The key is to find the birds and troll among them.?
We left the harbor at 6 a.m. and looked in vain for several hours. Along the way, we picked up a couple dorado, which we kept for supper.
But the tuna eluded us.
We were 27 miles offshore and it was almost high noon when I heard the excited voice of Capt. Efren Beron Zamora yelling in Spanish. He turned the
boat abruptly and cranked up the speed.
Sight to behold
I looked and, off in the distance, I saw the birds. They were hovering near the surface and, as we drew close, I saw one swoop down to pick up a
little bait fish.
Suddenly, I noticed that we were surrounded by porpoises. Some were jumping in the far-off waves, while others played nearby in the boat wake. It was
a fascinating, beautiful sight.
But there was no time to watch.
Just then, the drag of one of the big deep-sea reel?s started to scream. Then another one started, and a third.
We were into tuna and we were into them good.
?At the initial strike, you see hundreds of yards of line peel off in a matter of second,? Wroblewski observed.
All you can do is just hang on tight and keep your fingers away from the fast-moving 80-pound-test line. When the tuna finally stops, you put the butt
of the rod into its holder in the fighting chair, and start pumping up and reeling down. You feel the fish?s strength, mostly in your forearms,
shoulders and back.
It takes a long time, especially when you hook a big one. Fifteen or 20 minutes later, we had our first three yellowfin in the boat.
We made another quick pass and hooked another one that took me even longer to get under control.
?Is he wearing you down?? Wroblewski joked as I struggled to gain line.
At last, I brought the big fish to the boat. At an estimated 50 pounds, it was our biggest tuna of the trip.
It was a real thrill, but I?ll admit that I was ready for a break.
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Dorado provides golden opportunity
http://www.jsonline.com/outdoors/dec04/282990.asp
Bob Riepenhoff
Dec. 11, 2004
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Two miles out in the Pacific Ocean, with the green hills of Baja Mexico looming in the distance, we were trolling big plastic
?squid? baits at high speed when my first dorado hit.
I sprang from the fighting chair, grabbed the trolling rod from its holder and lifted up to set the hook. When I did, maybe 65 yards behind the boat,
it was showtime.
The fish was a good one, and it launched skyward, clearing the water by 3 feet with a head-banging ferocity that made my heart pound. It was a sight
I?ll never forget
This was the first day of a six-day fishing trip to Cabo San Lucas with my friend Gary Wroblewski of Eagle, Wis., who operates Bluewater Outfitters.
Deep Sea Fishing
When the big fish jumped a second time, and then a third, I couldn?t help myself. I had to hoot, holler and laugh out loud. I was ready to sign up for
the dorado fan club
The dorado, also called dolphin fish or mahi-mahi, is a long, blunt-nosed, tapered fish with a dorsal fin that runs the length of its body. It
inhabits the warm-water oceans of the world. They swim with great speed and spend much of their time near the water?s surface.
It?s known as one of the ocean?s most beautiful fish, with colors that vary widely from iridescent gold, green, blue and silver-white, and can change
during the course of a battle
?They are the most amazingly colored fish,? Wroblewski told me. ?They literally glow in the water.?
Sport anglers love the dorado because of its powerful runs and surface acrobatics, especially the amazing jumps. For that reason, during the course of
this trip, I came to think of them as the smallmouth bass of saltwater fishing.
?They?re a highly prized game fish because of their aerial maneuvers and awesome speed and power,? Wroblewski said. ?They?re such a strong fish, and
their delicate white meat makes excellent table fare.?
Five- to 15-pound dorado are common, but they can grow to in excess of 50 pounds
After a 15-minute battle, I finally brought the big dorado to boatside. But the fight wasn?t over. I could see the big fish, but it put the brakes on
and we stalemated.
?Now it becomes a battle of wills,? Wroblewski observed. ?They turn their bodies sideways and leverage their mass against you. You can?t move them.?
It took another 5 to 10 minutes before we finally got my first dorado in the boat. It was a beautiful fish that must have weighed close to 40 pounds.
We caught dorado every day. But on this day out, we concentrated on them and caught the biggest and the most.
We fished onboard the Guerita II, a 33-foot boat operated by Capt. Efren Beron Zamora and his first mate, Alfredo Espinosa. Their English was better
than my Spanish, so we had little trouble communicating.
We met at the Cabo marina at 6 a.m., which, at that hour, is bustling with activity as dozens of fishing boats prepare to head out. There were anglers
boarding charters, boats lined up to leave the harbor and small boats with men selling bait fish to the fishermen.
We bought some bait and motored out past ?El Arco? - a natural arch formation in the rocks that is Cabo?s landmark - then turned north past a series
of shear cliffs, sand dunes, resort developments and craggy rock formations jutting out into the deep blue Pacific.
?Cabo has a tremendous variety of underwater canyons, sea mounts and reefs which concentrate game fish,? Wroblewski said. ?There is extremely deep
water close to shore. You don?t have to travel far to get into big game deep-sea fish.?
About 25 miles north of Cabo, we started trolling at higher speeds than I?m used to, about 10 mph.
We put out some ?squid? baits, which are multicolored artificial lures with a cylindrical plastic head followed by long soft-rubber strips that, when
trolled, give the impression of a bait fish swimming on the surface. The big brass reels had 80-pound fluorocarbon line
?Look,? Wroblewski yelled at one point. ?You can see the dorado chasing the lures.?
I studied the white wake made by the lures trolled behind the boat and, sure enough, there was another perpendicular white-line wake being made by a
dorado approaching the lure at a 90-degree angle. I was amazed by its speed. You could actually see the fish hit the lure.
When it did, I picked up the fishing rod, set the hook and waited for another amazing jump.
We caught that first big fish, plus a few smaller ones, on the troll. But when we spotted a cluster of fishing boats and headed over to join them, we
really got into the action.
I learned that, on big water, the little things mean a lot. There was a small piece of floating debris, probably part of an old cooler or buoy. That
was all it took to attract the bait fish and, in turn, the dorado.
Here, we switched to lighter gear to slow-troll live bait, the sardines we?d bought that morning. You?d thumb the reel on free-spool until you felt a
bite. Then you?d flip on the drag, reel up, set the hook and wait for another jump.
We had non-stop action all afternoon. I?d say we caught close to 30 fish, from 5 to 40 pounds. We released most of them but kept a few to eat that
night or to freeze and take home.
I ended the day with another big one that jumped more times than I could count. But it was at least a dozen.
?To have that kind of action all day long,? Wroblewski said, as we motored back to Cabo, ?it just doesn?t get any better than that.?
I was more than happy to second that motion.
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Deep appreciation for Cabo
http://www.jsonline.com/outdoors/dec04/282980.asp
Saltwater fishing a real experience
By BOB RIEPENHOFF
Dec. 11, 2004
At the southernmost tip of Mexico?s Baja Peninsula, there is a place where the land ends and the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortes. Its name is
Cabo San Lucas and it is one of the top saltwater fishing destinations in the world.
I traveled to Cabo at the urging of my friend, Gary Wroblewski, with whom I have hunted and fished for more than a decade. Wroblewski, of Eagle, began
fishing off Cabo two years ago.
?I?d fished for saltwater species in other locations and hadn?t had much success,? he said. ?I heard from friends and associates that Cabo and San
Jose del Cabo had some of the best saltwater fishing available for many species of fish, so I decided to check it out.?
He made several trips, staying in hotels and fishing with both deep-sea charters and on smaller ?panga? boats.
?In two years, I?ve been down there eight times in all four seasons,? he said. ?The fishing is consistently spectacular.?
Cabo has very deep water close to shore with reefs, canyons and other underwater structure that holds large concentrations of a wide variety of
deep-sea game fish..
Wroblewski was so impressed that he decided to start his own angler outfitting service called Bluewater Outfitters.
?I thought about all the fishermen in Wisconsin that have never experienced this kind of fishing,? he said. ?After trying numerous guides and
charters, I selected what I considered to be the most productive. In March, I bought a condo a few hundred feet from the marina (in Cabo). In August,
we began Bluewater Outfitters, offering a combination of lodging and fishing.?
He offers packages that range in cost from about $700 per person for three days of lodging and fishing to $1,100 per person for five days, for groups
of four.
Our trip last month included six days of fishing - four on a deep-sea charter and two on a nearshore ?panga? boat. Round-trip airfare from Milwaukee
was another $500. I also bought about $100 worth of groceries and a one-week Mexican saltwater fishing license for $25.
Packing was simple. While fishing, we wore T-shirts, shorts, tennis shoes and sunscreen. All fishing equipment was provided. The airline lets you
bring home up to 50 pounds of frozen fillets.
Cabo is resort town with no shortage of shops, golf courses and nightlife. But we spent almost all of our time on the water. Along the way, under
sunny skies and with temperatures in the 70s and 80s, we saw sights that would make an eco-tourist drool. There were porpoises, sea turtles, seals,
pelicans, flying fish and even a whale.
The fishing was nothing short of spectacular. We caught exotic species with strange-sounding names such as dorado, yellowfin tuna, red snapper,
triggerfish, Spanish mackerel, amberjack, bonito and more. And we were fortunate enough to land what is probably the most coveted of all saltwater
species - the marlin.
In short, it was one of the best fishing trips of my life. Stories about my experiences run today and for the next three Sundays.
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Juan
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Posts: 76
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Olympic Peninsula and Baja Sur
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Mood: Life is good.
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Rip off in Cabo
Gary Wroblewiski, Blue Water Outfitters, and his friend "Bob Rip em off" are the kind of people some of us just hate to see at the launch or dock. I
wouldn't spend a peso to fish with people like this.
If Mr. Rip em off or his friend do not know the legal limits in Mexico they probably don't know the limits in their home territory either. Just the
kind of people you would like for fishing companions, not!
Sorry for the rant but poaching is one of my pet peeves. I'm not talking about a fish or two taken in error but these guys can destroy a fishery much
faster than you think. I know, every one else does it, and there are so many fish that it doesn't make any difference, or any other BS excuse
offered. It's illegal and besides, it is just wrong to take more than you need.
Cabo is one place I would pay the wages of an fishery enforcement officer if I could supervise his activities. I couldn't afford him year around but
I think others on this site would cover a few months when I run out of money.
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mrchuck
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Posts: 82
Registered: 11-6-2002
Location: Gun Barrel City, TX
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Right on!!
And this scab bullchit about buying a Condo and starting a "business". Yeah, really? Then where are your legal documents for a Mexican Business??
This is just another one of those so-called "scab businesses" that gringos do at the expense of the legal Mexican fisherman trying to make a living in
his own country.
I surely hope he gets turned in, spends some jail time , and gets his sorry ass deported out of Mexico forever. Make an example of him,,,
Saludos, mc
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