Marlin and sailfish have taken center stage on the East Cape this week. Less dorado then previous weeks and smaller tuna are also providing action. There are still a few cow tuna in the area for those lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time.
Walter Russo was one of the lucky ones and landed a 200 pound tuna on Jen Wren III. Fishing about 5 miles off Punta Pescadero we sighted a pod of bottlenosed dolphin. They were moving very slow and just milling in the area. Our first pass trolling marlin lures through them showed huge marks on our fish finder. I suspected the marks were tuna but we couldn't get them to go. We changed to cedar plugs and smaller lures then started chumming live sardines. Every pass over the dolphin huge marks appeared in the fish finder at about 20 feet but there was no surface action. I decided to stop the boat and pitch out a live mackerel. As the boat slid to a stop our short teaser rod went off.
Before we could get the other lines cleared the top shot and more than half a spool of 80 spectra had been ripped off the Accurate BX2-30 reel Walter was holding. I was just getting ready to back down on the fish when the spool finally came to a stop. The fish stayed out toward the horizon and I was beginning to wonder if in fact it was a tuna. My thought was maybe a blue marlin or even that we had hooked a dolphin. Walter kept the pressure on but there was no sign of a tail beat. We didn't know what to think. Finally the fish came to color and we were all very pleased to see a cow tuna.
Some guys have all the luck. The following day we fished the bouys off Punta Perico and hung another tuna about 90 pounds.
Fat chick fell for the teaser
Walter with a trophy
It doesn't get any better than this!
I couldn't resist posting this flat footed boobie using a sea turtle.
Mark Rayor
http://www.thejenwren.com
http://www.vistaseasport.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
