Although summer may be coming to an end for most of the folks back home and grabbing school supplies off the shelf may be the only “fishing” you’re up to, our boys are still hard at work trying to land everyone the big one!
We had a slow start to the week then watched as it got a little better only to be followed by another slow day. We can’t pinpoint exactly what has been going on with the fishing but we know that El Nino and the warm water that has laid up in our area is making things a little difficult and out of the ordinary for us. The good thing is that this is allowing the boys to try new things out, test some new lures and setups and dig deep into their bag of tricks to get our clients hooked up!
Last Sunday ReelRum, El Nuevo and 19′s Toy all stayed back for a little TLC from the crews. Our mechanic Rene even came in and was able to do a little update work on each boat. It’s pretty rare that we can even get in touch with Rene on a Sunday since he works hard Monday – Saturday troubleshooting and maintaining each of the boats in the fleet. Of the boats that did head out Gary Marek was the only lucky angler to hook into a billfish. He fished with Oscar and Omar on RedRum and they hooked him into a nice Sailfish! Garret and Tom Llewellyn fished on TantRum and although they saw a big Blue Marlin they weren’t about to get the fish to take the live bait that Humberto tossed at it.
Monday brought a lot of excitement for our anglers as most of them caught at least one billfish. The Catch of the Day goes to RedRum. Norman Shink, David Askins, John Wadlegger and Carlos Rivera (RedRum Boys) booked RedRum for 4 days straight!! These guys were awesome! They had a blast fishing with Oscar and Omar, maybe a little bit too much fun for that matter! Their first day they knocked it out of the park at Gordo Banks fishing live bait…. the group went 4 for 4 on Sailfish and 1 for 2 on Stripe Marlin. They were able to get all 4 Sails to the boat and release as well as the Striped Marlin. Great first day guys! The beginning of a great 4 days! Next, Jon Hurley and his group fished with Jesus and Jesus on RumRunnin and caught and released a Sailfish and a Striped Marlin as did Mark Robbins and his family after deciding to fish a fullday instead of a half to better his chances! Jim Newby, first time angler cuaght and released his first Marlin ever while fishing with Gaba and Noe on 19′s Toy to wrap up the day.
The following day the boys on RedRum were at it again! This time they landed a beautiful Blue Marlin that Omar estimated to be in the 250# class range. First mate Oscar got a good laugh at a certain member of the group that may have struggled just a little bit with bringing the fish to the boat (name not provided)!! They were also able to land another Stripe Marlin. Lexi Fulton caught her first billfish ever while fishing with Juan on TantRum! She was able to wrestle a large Sailfish to the side of the boat. Brice Bravdica also added a billfish catch and release to his accomplishments after catching and releasing a 6 ft. 130# Blue Marlin! Congrats Brice! The Baker group added another Blue Marlin to the days tally while the Schmidts caught and released another Sailfish. Rhonda Kirk and her party fished a half-day charter on TopGun and were able to catch and release a Stripe Marlin, a Sailfish and a Mako shark!
Midweek slowed down quite a bit as the boys worked hard to get fish to bite! There were plenty fish spotted and raised but none of them seemed to take the bait! The Baker party on El Nuevo spotted 2 Sailfish and a big Blue spit the hook on their charter with Alex and Charly. Mr. Lashlee was able to watch his son reel in his first Blue Marlin on a half-day charter aboard TantRum. The RedRum Boys caught and released a Sailfish on their 3rd day with Oscar and Omar leaving them with one more day to fish.
The Blue Marlin have been as strong as it has been in a while down here. The RedRum Boys caught and released about a 230#er on their last day aboard RedRum with Omar and Oscar. These guys brought some luck with them! With 4 days of straight fishing under their belts they were able to Catch and Release 5 Sailfish, 2 Stripe Marlin and 2 Blue Marlin! The cool thing is these gentlemen always kept a smile on their face, had a blast with their crew and came in just wanting to have fun! We’ll see you guys again next October! Thanks for the good times and all the laughs, welcome to the RedRum family!
The day didn’t end their though, Dr. Benedict caught and released his first ever Sailfish, about 100 lbs. The Larkin party fished a half-day on El Nuevo and caught and released another Sailfish and Mr. Newby fished his second day on 19′s Toy and this time landed a Blue Marlin! Kevin Bennett caught and released a Stripe Marlin aboard Never Give Up. The group also raised another Stripe that didn’t commit as well as a big Blue that was teased in.
Friday was the slowest day of the week here at RedRum. Omar and Oscar worked hard and found themselves on a small school of porpoise outside the “95 spot”. They quickly rigged up some cedar plugs and pulled ahead of the school and before they knew it Gene Boyette was sitting in the fighting chair wrestling a 50 pound Yellowfin to the boat!
Yesterday there was another small school of Yellowfin that showed up on the Sea of Cortez side about 15 miles out. Humberto and Ulysses fished with the Hopkins party and were one of the first to get on the school. They immediately had a double hook-up. Unfortunately, the Yellowfin that Rich Anderson was fighting attracted the attention of a shark and before he could get it to the boat that shark was able to take half of the fish for lunch! Rich only brought up the head of the fish! The other tuna weighed in at about 50 pounds. Ramon and Julio caught and released a Blue Marlin with Jon Kreig on his first day fishing with us. RedRum took the Saturday off still recovering from all of the action that the RedRum Boys had this week! William Kaynze was able to tag and release a trio of Billfish today, adding 2 Striped Marlin and a Blue Marlin to the day’s tally. Captain Gaba and 19′s Toy found the same small school that TantRum spotted in the morning. This allowed our buddies Garrett and Natalie Mason to bring out their light tackle gear and catch half a dozen of them. Garrett also caught a nice Amberjack. Aaron Larson, from Corpus Christi, TX. was able to catch and release a Blue Marlin fishing with Julio on Sniper and Never Give Up landed another Stripe Marlin to end this weeks report!
To all of the administrators, teachers and students that will be returning back to school soon, we hope the summer was good to you and that you go back fully recharged! Keep up the good work and keep us in mind during your next vacation! Best of luck to everyone!