Fellow Anglers:
The El Niño event has caused some interesting water temperature swings especially in the Galapagos. We have found the last few weeks excellent sea conditions, dark blue water and lots of tuna as well as some varied marlin action. The seas have been quite calm considering it is late May. While the marlin action is not yet enough to brag all the charters going out lately have had reliable marlin action daily and there has been a good mix of blues and striped marlin. We still believe that the Galapagos Islands are perhaps one of the most reliable natural marlin fisheries left on the planet. If you put the time and days in to fish for marlin you most likely will get multiple shots at stripes and perhaps even blue and black marlin. Manta on the other hand is having a phenomenal bite as the summer begins and there have been plenty of black marlin, a nice surprise!
San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands:
Captain Ronnie Yagual along with Captain Fernando Yepez as a mate set out to fish the Espanola May 28, 2016 with Galapagos native Marco Ballesteros. Fishing the waters of Espanola they encountered tuna action of 40 to 70# in the morning. Near mid day they raised a triple of stripes and released 2/2. Later in the day they raised another striped marlin that took the bait and spit the hook. Before picking up lines a nice blue marlin around 400# hit the bridge teaser several time. As mate Fernando tried to get it to eat a bait a second blue slammed a lure out of the right rigger. They ended up hooking two blues and releasing one.
May 29, about 15 minutes into the troll a double of striped marlin came out to the teasers. One was caught and released incredibly in less than two minutes while another mate was still winding in a lure from a the first stripey that ran about 300 yards and spit the hook. As the lure was about 50 yards from the boat a huge explosion of fury by a blue marlin lead the crew to fight a third fish. Within a matter of 15 minutes the blue was subdued and released estimated around 230#
May 30, fishing Española Banks onboard Jhonamar 2 Captain Ronnie Yagual hooked a large big eye around 9:45 AM. Fish went down for a fight over and hour before a hoard of sea lions came close to the boat and eventually as luck would have it the tuna spit the hook less than 40 feet from the boat amongst the chaos. The big tuna was estimated over 300 #. An hour later trolling near the edge of the bank the crew encountered a triple of striped marlin managing to release 2 out of 2 bites. One of the youngest guest was feeling sea sick and after catching two marlin on a beautiful Galapagos day they decided to head for port by 12:45.
The Inshore: wahoo & tuna bite in general was much slower May 27-30 in San Cristobal than the previous outstanding weeks.
Manta:
The waters of Manta shifted May 27-28, 2016 and the bite slowed down to 2 or less bites a day for the skiffs on average of blues and striped marlin or so we thought?
May 29, The current changed due South and a black marlin bite from 12 to 18 miles out has been good for a few days as well as blue and striped marlin. 4 skiffs reported 2 to 4 bites from black marlin. One skiff caught 3 blacks, a blue and a striped marlin. Some skiffs reported seeing as many as 3 to 6 black marlin tailing in a day’s time. Manta can be a box full of suprises!
May 30, one skiff reporter a blue around 600# and two striped marlin caught with a black marlin over 800# lost. A second skiff reported a black around 500 # and a blue around 200#. Another skiff saw 7 black marlin tailing in the day and caught 3 out of 4 bites of blacks plus a striped marlin. 4 more skiffs reported a combined 6 black marlin, 4 blues and 5 striped marlin caught. Just some amazing combination of marlin.
May 31, Captain Andres Calero went for a half day fishing to test engines on 27 ft Miura and went 0/2 on clack marlin. One bite and one looker, both blacks were seen tailing. He caught 2 very nice wahoo. 3 skiffs combined caught 3 blue marlin, 3 black marlin and 5 striped marlin as well as wahoo and at least 7 more striped marlin were lost between these 3 skiffs.
Wow this is impressive fishing when you consider that Manta can experience days like this year round.
More reports to come. Folks there is still time to book Manta or any of our Galapagos destinations this summer.
Peru:
Just to keep you posted on Peru we will soon begin to take bookings for Mancora/Cabo Blanco marlin. We are open for business for inshore/surf fishing for sea bass and flounder.
If you are looking for safe travels, adventure for the whole family, honey moons or just incredible fishing then go ahead and contact us. If it is done in South America chances are we can put it together.
Keep those reels screaming!
The Ecuagringo Fishing Team
