East Cape -
Nice twins
OMG! For the
first time this season I put on a sweatshirt.
Yes, the chill of winter has finally hit the East Cape. Until now sea temp has managed to stay above
80 degrees but we will watch it plummet now.
Normally we are in the mid 70's by Thanksgiving so it is happening a
little late this year.
We finished
our season moving our boats to Cabo San Lucas to compete in the Los Cabos Tuna
Jackpot. With 168 entries this year it
was again the largest tournament in Baja.
The theme of the tournament is "Fish hard party harder" and we
did both. Both Jen Wren III and Vaquera
made great showings finishing in the top 20.
First day I
just couldn't get it going on Vaquera but Jen Wren III skipper Polo found a
school of porpoise late in the day and hung two nice tuna. After a few minutes one came unbuttoned and
now the battle with the other fish was a race against time to make the scale
before it closed at 6PM. Still 25 miles
away Polo called on the VHF with the news that they finally boated their
fish. There was no time to waste and I
had my fingers crossed and told him put the hammer down you can make it. Just a few minutes to 6 it was a relief to
see them turn the corner for the scale. After all teams weighed Jen Wren III
was in 5th place.
Day two was
better for Team Jones Fish on Vaquera.
In the morning I spent a couple of hours looking for the porpoise school
that Polo had found the day before. The
Sea of Cortez was getting grumpy so we moved more inside to Gordo Bank. Chunking squid on the drift we landed a 120lb
tuna at about 10:30AM. The highspot is
small and looked like a parking lot with boats.
As the day wore on the wind picked up making it difficult to drift bait
and navigate the other boats. It didn't
appear anyone was getting bit and I was getting restless.
Looking
through my gyros it appeared the inner high spot 3 miles away did not have much
traffic. I decided to make the
move. We only chunked a few minutes in
our new location and bendo. We were bent
again. When quality tuna bite it is hard
to get a handle on how big they might be until they settle down. Ripping line off our Accurate ATD 30 I
thought this might be the one. In a few minutes it settled down and turned out
to be another 120lbs tuna. The action
was fun but we were looking for a cow.
All we could
do was keep fishing hard. Tournament
rules are lines out at 4PM and time was getting short. I was just checking my watch at 3:30 when
bendo, we are on again. This one is
acting like a good fish. Twenty-five
minutes into the battle it hasn't sounded and I have to continually back down
the boat to stay with it. Now it is
after 4PM and we haven't even slowed this fish down. I'm finding we are in the same time
predicament Polo was yesterday. Finally
the fish goes straight down and the tug of war is on. Inch by inch we start to gain line until
color can be seen. This is the one we
have been looking for. 4:40PM Team Jones
Fish wins the war and the tuna comes to gaff.
Diego and I slide it through the transom door and there is no time to
waste.
There is no
other feeling like cruising to the scale with a contender on the deck. Just beating the 6PM deadline we tied up to
the scale dock waiting our turn to weigh.
When we swing open the transom door the fish can be seen by spectators
and I can hear the buzz. Jonathan Roldan walks by and shakes his head yes,
"looks like the biggest of the day".
Our turn comes and Pat McDonald announces the official weight to be
251lbs. In first place for day two there
is only one more fish to weigh and I'm sure we have it in the bag . Then, I can hardly believe my ears when
McDonald's voice comes over the loud speaker "official weight 274lbs"
the crowd cheers and we are out.
We had a
great 2016 season finished off with an exciting time in Cabo San Lucas. WON, Pat McDondald and staff do an incredible
job every year putting together the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot. There is no
tournament that is more fun and I look forward to participating again next
year.
That's my
report. Now I need to go search for my
Ugg Boots. Brrr!
Turtles nested late this year. This little guy was released in front of our place
Dressed up for the "Show us your Costa's" contest
This one's for Jack. It's all about the reel!
Rob Jones, Team Jones Fish with our 251lbs cow
Chick Stix team captain Bob Solee puts Jen Wren III in fifth place. Check out skipper Polo and mate Armado hugging the fish.
Nice twins. We were so busy weighing the cow I forgot we had twin 120's in the fish box
Diego on the wire.Bill Frevold had never caught a marlin so after the tournament we took him to the Finger Bank. It was going off and he released five.
Changing the
game. That is Accurate's new Valiant 300
in my hand. We put five of them in
service this year. It is the biggest
innovation in reel technology since the ball bearing. Looking forward to adding the just released
Valiant 400 to the arsenal for 2017.
Got my
sleeves rolled up. All in a heap for
service are the oil/fuel cooler, heat exchanger, after cooler and air cleaner
from Vaquera's port motor. One by one
each of our motors will get the same service One of my favorite sayings is
"it is not a matter of it will break, It is a matter of when it will
break". Personally I'd rather act
then react and do what we can to keep our boats in top shape.
Posted 19 hours ago by Mark Raynor, Jen Wren Sportfishing