Fishing world: W A N T E D A L I V E!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

W A N T E D A L I V E!

The best game in town is striped marlin fishing. There has been a few dorado and wahoo in the counts but not like the last couple of weeks. As the hot marlin action off Punta Pescadero died a huge body of fish popped up south of Los Frailes. It is a bit of a run for us but once there the action has been non-stop. In shore the roosterfish are cooperating one day and gone the next. Live bait has been tough to come by making it hard to target the roosters. Tuna? We are just holding our breath.

The marlin action has been very entertaining but somewhat frustrating at the same time. By far rigged ballyhoo has attracted the largest percentage of fish. The problem has been they are grabbing the baits and just holding them in their beaks and not swallowing them down. We found rigging the ballyhoo with circle hooks to be most effective. The J hook swing was just yanking the bait away from the fish and tearing it up. With the circles we just point the rod at the fish and apply the brakes. If the we don't get a hook set the bait is not getting as torn up and the marlin will come after it again.

This method was working well and we thought we had it figured out until yesterday when we went 2 for 10 and ran out of ballyhoo. We released 2 fish and had action all day so it wasn't all bad. It was just amazing how many fish were there and how much opportunity we had.

I must say the smooth drag of an Accurate reel does make a difference. The twin drag is the real deal. It takes less inertia to start the spool turning with the brakes applied which results in less jerk. With less jerk greater pressure can be applied with less risk of line breakage. This week we had four guests catch their first marlin ever. Smaller reels and smoother drags makes even a beginner look like a pro.

Snapped a few good shots this week