Donde Esta

Where are the Fish?
It was a spectacular week of fishing in San Carlos. The rain rolled through for the first time this year and the fishing turned on. After a break of not getting out much farther than the bay, I was on the water for six days straight. Day One saw us out for six hours, and we caught a couple of small dorado and a small striped marlin. On Day Two we caught a small marlin and a sailfish; on Day Three we had two sailfish; on Day Four we caught a marlin, sailfish, and three small tuna, and on Day Five, two more sailfish and a dorado (before a mishap).

Last weekend San Carlos and the Sonora is Safe group put on the first Hooked on San Carlos Fishing Tournament. Finally we had a tournament with amazing fishing and weather. Sixteen boats caught and released 61 sailfish and marlin and weighed 14 dorado and three tuna. Team D’Becca won overall with nine fish, a weighable dorado, and also won the Sunday jackpot with five released fish.

Team Kryptonite took the Saturday jackpot, second place tuna, and overall billfish releases by catching their first fish thirteen minutes before Team D’Becca. Mary Margaret took overall dorado with 171 pounds of dorado over the 15 pound minimum.
The weather was glass calm both days and the tournament was a complete success. Well, except for our teams’ “mishap”.

Our tournament didn’t start off great, nor did it end great. At the beginning of the day, I had a large sailfish on the line for about 25 minutes. I’ve never had a fish fight so hard, and ten feet from the boat, the hook pulled. Things were looking a little better the second day, and at midday we finally capitalized on a double hook-up to add to our fish. I had the first fish to the boat fast and as the leaderman was attempting to line up his fingers with the camera, he may have taken his eye off the fish. The small sailfish shot up and its bill went straight through the radius and ulna on his forearm — right through. The bill came right out and then the fish proceeded to try to jump in the boat a few more times before he let go of the leader. I cut the fish off before we had gotten the picture, and the other angler lost his fish because he was watching us and his line went slack. We immediately raced all the way home and straight to Rescate. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

The lesson here is to keep your eyes on the fish, keep the boat in gear, and if a fish goes crazy, let go of the leader and back away. Fishing should not be a contact sport!