Galapagos Islands
San Cristobal
The last month has been some of the calmest water this year. Beautiful dark blue seas almost everywhere we go fishing. The last 10 days of marlin fishing have not been the best experienced and probably not the worst. Yes the numbers have been less than impressive by Galapagos standards but nevertheless we are still catching striped marlin and at times more than that. The weather has been hot. Some rain is helping cool down many days.
Feb 6, 2011– Craig Zoufally and Steven Mc Millan were sent to us by South Fishing thanks to Herb Rossell and Al Schafer who run South Fishing. The Big Fish headed to Rosa Blanca. Water conditions were calm and nice. The bait was scarce and fishing was very slow. Only 3 marlin were raised but no bites were had.
Feb 7, 2011– the Big Fish headed North to the Black Sheep Bank with Craig and Steven. The fishing was about average with a very calm morning and some fish being raised to keep it interested. Over 40 marlin were seen tailing throughout the day with groups of 2 to 8 fish tailing at the same time.
The crew bridled rigged a live bonito and fished it through tailing marlin for over an hour with no bites! Amazingly no tailers would take a live bait. 12 marlin were raised which had 12 bites several fish spit the hook and Craig Zoufally got his first striped marlin release.
Feb 8, 2011– The Big Fish went to Rosa Blanca Bank with Craig and Steven. The fishing was very slow with virtually no bait anywhere. One tuna about 40# was lost at the gaff and a possible raise on a rigger from a marlin was suspected. The Big Fish ran to Espanola Island with the same results there and went inshore and caught a wahoo about 35#.
Feb 12, 2011– Guests Greg Huljack, Anthony Berado and Roger Locandro went North to Black Sheep Bank. The calm seas allow the Big Fish to arrive in roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes the 68 mile run. The bait was scarce and the fishing was really slow until after 1 pm. Having no success on teasers and baits a shotgun rod was put out long. It didn’t take long before a striped marlin ate a 7 inch tuna lure purchased on e-bay for around 5 dollars!
Another stripey came up on the left rigger but did not get a good hook set. Greg Huljack fought his fish about half way until it spit the hook. Next up at bat was Anthony Berado who caught and released a nice striped marlin about 170# again on the shotgun rod. Getting close to quitting time the long rod went off again with the red and black e-bay lure. 35 minutes later we had the release of a 300# blue marlin.
Feb 13, 2011– Wanting to shake things up a bit we decide to try our luck by running 50 miles to Floreana Island onboard the Big Fish. Fishing 3 miles offshore around Post Office crew and anglers Greg, Roger and Anthony were hoping for a big blue that lurk these waters. Lots of bonita and small tuna were seen busting and after a moment a few bonita were caught and bridle rigged to swim live.
Trolling them for over 2 hours only attracted the attention of sharks which are not legal to catch so it was time to go back to trolling. Trying to cover as much ground as possible the boat chugged along at 8 knots pulling all lures as the target was something big. At 2:50 pm on the mark a huge head came out of the water followed by a tremendous explosion. Anthony Berado grabbed the captain’s rod and began a fight on a Shimano Tallus 50/80 stand-up rod with matching TLD 50 reel.
The fight lasted 1 hour 5 minutes before the beast was subdued. A very nice big eye tuna that Pete Santini weighed and measured later at 357 pounds was brought to the boat. Pete is an IGFA certified weight master. Since the fish was caught on 50# he suggested it be submitted for a world record.
Folks, the Galapagos Islands are still a magical place where anything can happen and surprise you. The striped marlin fishing will pick up soon but in the meantime we are having fun with the mixed bag of tuna, wahoo, some striped marlin, blue marlin and who knows what else we will have around soon. There are very few dates left for the 2011 calm season so don’t wait, contact us now.
