February has brought us some beautiful weather as well as a bit of rain. Water has warmed up considerably in the last week from 74 F average to 79 and 80 F in most areas. Bait is present in most places we fish. The rains in mainland Ecuador have been bringing nutrients out to the Galapagos which in turn have helped the baitfish numbers increase.
Feb 6, 2012– the very first day of marlin fishing for Lane Haywood and Hank Haywood in the Galapagos was flat calm and sunny. Onboard the Big Fish we made a run to 88 Bank. Hank and Lane had been to Guatemala, Panama and Mexico without any luck on marlin. Their unfortunate non marlin streak would end in Galapagos. On their first day they raised 7 stripeys of which two bit the circle hooks and Hank Lane managed to release a striped marlin around 150#. Water held calm and temp was 79.3F.
Feb 7, 2012– trying our luck in Rosa Blanca we set out for a calm overcast day, It was a bit rainy. There were plenty of tunas on the bank. So many that we had to fish around them to look for marlin. Nevertheless the Haywoods caught 7 tunas and released a few more. One striped marlin around 90# was caught by Hank. This completed their initial life long dream of catching marlin in a father and son trip.
Feb 8, 2012– making our way to 88 Bank, the Haywoods were ready for another day of marlin fishing. It was full moon. The seas were a bit windy and the sky was cloudy and rainy. Water was 78.6 in the AM. There was plenty of bait on the bank but the marlin did not seem to be feeding. We managed to raise 3 on the Big Fish but none would bite.
Feb 9, 2012– the day started a bit rough so we changes course and headed to 0-30 Bank. The bank was loaded with tuna around the shallowest parts. We fished for a bout 2 hours and headed towards Santa Fe. The Big Fish followed the current breaks which were marking plenty of bait but no marlin were found. A large storm had moved in and things got rainy and the seas choppy so we called it a day around 3:20 pm.
Feb 10, 2012– nice day after the storm. The skies were clear and sunny but it was still windy. The day would lay down as we headed towards a new area that we have barely scratched the surface. We named this zone the Easter egg. Not a far run from port we had noticed birds, tunas, marlin and dolphins on many days while making our way to other areas. This was the first time we were going to commit a whole day exploring the area and boy are we glad we did.
We raised in deeper water 3 blues all around 200# before 11:00 AM. One fish was teased and took a bait with a circle hook perfectly on a TLD 25 outfit rigged with 40# Momoi Diamond lined. Hank fought the fish for 35 minutes so we could get some good jumps pictures of his first blue marlin ever! The day flattened out and became very sunny. Towards the end of the day we decided to fish water around 700 feet. It did not take but about 15 minutes of fishing the shallower parts when a rather larger marlin thought to be possibly a black from what we could see charged the right long bait twice but did not eat. The short and thick bill looked much like a black marlin. This was a very nice ending to a well deserved trip for the Haywoods.
Folks there are very few spaces available to fish left this year so don’t hesitate to book now if you want to fish the best marlin waters in the World. Chances are you will not be disappointed. There is perhaps no safer place to fish and stay in the Eastern Pacific than San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands!
