Galapagos Islands
San Cristobal
The last few days of fishing have been an up and down roller coaster of emotions between non aggressive fish on one day and very aggressive fish the next day. I always think it is better to see them and not catch fish than to not see them and not catch them. Galapagos is one of those places where you have days seeing lots of fish and they won’t eat and then it all changes from one day to the next.
March 23, 2012– I had the pleasure of fishing with Jeff Courier and Sam Vigneri on board the Big Fish. Two very nice guys who love to fly fish. We headed to Rosa Blanca in hopes of raising a few blue marlin as we had done the day before with Byron Johnson. On this day Rosa Blanca had beautiful blue water that started at 76 F in the morning and warmed up to 80 F. We spent until around 13:00 searching without raising a fish in areas near the Honey Hole. Our next attempt was to run to the Easter Egg about 19 miles. This island drop off had more life and it did not take long before we spotted a tailing marlin. The fish was aggressive and teased into the spread trying to eat all 3 teasers. The stripey would not tease in close enough to cast the fly.
March 24, 2012– Jeff and Sam headed to 88 Bank where the water was 76 F upon arriving on the bank. Seas were flat calm with beautiful weather. The morning went uneventful but in the afternoon the fishing picked up a little as we had visits from stripeys into the teasers. A total of 4 striped marlin were raised. The last two came as a pair and one fished teased right up to boat to get a fly cast to it. Unfortunately the amount of bait in the area caused the fish to loose interest in the fly and turned away quickly.
Gus Hernandez raised 7 fish On The Hook and released 3 out of 4 bites on lures.
Pete Santini on board the Vertigo reported raising 5 stripeys and releasing 1 out 3 bites on lures.
March 25, 2012– Jeff and Sam decided to take a break from marlin fishing and we went on board to the Big Fish to do some snorkeling and bottom fishing. After a day of fun and catching groupers, African pompano and several other species of fishes we went in to prepare part of the delicious catch.
March 26, 2012– we headed out to 88 Bank. The water was greenish in color but clear and the wind blew a little in the morning but eventually calmed down. The bank greeted us with pods of striped marlin that went from 3 the smallest to 8 the largest. Some may have been the same fish but there is not way of telling for sure. Many singles were seen. Depending on how the numbers skew we saw between 15 and 25 tailers possibly. The fish were not aggressive and we were not able to raise any in the spread. As frustrating as it was we knew there were fish there.
March 27, 2012– on the final day of Jeff and Sam’s fishing we headed again to 88 Bank. The day was perfect with the water dark blue and flat calm. Sea surface temp was 82 F when we arrived on the bank. The bait seemed to be active on the Southern side of the bank and the morning started pretty hot raising 8 fish before 11:40 am. Sam was able to get a bite out of two fish from 4 that he was able to cast at. Jeff cast a second fish after Sam hooked up and we came very close to double hook up with only inches between teh fly and the fish that turned off at the last second. Sam fought the fish for about a minute when it broke the 20# tippet. Earlier in the day he had hooked a fish on a frontal bite that spit the hook. We wound up raiding 12 striped marlin, casting at 5 and getting 2 bites.
Folks there are still a few openings left in April and May if you want to be part of our great marlin fishery. Don’t hesitate to book or you may be left out.
