My Morning and the October 29th Report

People may not believe me but today was ANOTHER great day of fishing!

We will start off with this morning...

Tantrum had a no show so Rene (our mechanic) decided it would be a good oppurtunity to change out the air filter on Cesars boat. Once I the McElligot showed up for Rum Runnin, the Kytes on Reel Rum and the Boden part that were fishing on Nuevo all got sent off the guys that stuck around got a little bored. Cesar decided he was going to make a test run with the new air filter. Myself, Jesus, and Raymond decided we would head out with him. We were not prepared to what would come next.

As soon as we made the turn past the Arch to head up the Pacific side we noticed about 25 boats all fishing around the Lighthouse. Needless to say, we couldn't resist! Without even having to communicate with the other, Cesar gunned the boat right toward the ball of boats. The Lighthouse isn't too far at all and maybe took us about 10 minutes to get out. We dropped one line to see if we would have any luck with bait... sure enough Raymond brought in about 8 mackerals! The 3 of us, minus Cesar all grabbed a rod, made sure the hook was still good and got ready to rock! At that time Cesar gunned the boat towards a group of birds that were crashing on top of a large bait ball just about 250 yards away. We waited for his word and once he placed the boat in the perfect spot we all casted the live bait out. This may seem not possible to you guys but I promise, within 25 seconds each one of us had a fish on! None of us could believe it.

Trying to maneuver a boat with 3 Stripe Marlin hooked on is not easy, unfortunately after a good 5 minutes of fishing my fish would be the one to get off - leave it to the rookie! I looked up at Cesar and all he could do was laugh and give me the "oh well" face. After about a half hour Jesus had to cut his line because it darted in the complete opposite direction than Raymonds Marlin. Being that Raymond is Cesar's full time mate, he had to help his boy out! About another 25 minutes Raymond got his to the boat. He passed me his camera phone and I snapped a few shots. We released the fish and all had a good laugh about what just happend. Not to forget that Jesus and I pushed Raymond in the water and tried to push Cesar but if you knew Cesar once he says no, its NO!

The rest of the day was great as well. Ramon on El Nuevo was back into the slip by 12:30pm with 5 Stripe Marlin all caught and released. Erin Boden and group were more than happy with Juan and Ramons performance.

Omar also had a great time with the Kytes party. The four of them were able to catch 5 Stripe Marlin as well!

MrElligots had another great day fishing on Rum Runnin. Today they caught and released 5 Stripe Marlin and were fortunate enough to catch a 93" Pacific Sailfish. One of the bigger Sails that I have seen in a while! Great job guys!

Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading about how terrible my job is!

Saludos.

-Luis-

October 27th Report

Just Another Day in Fish Paradise

If you are one of those folks that sits and watches FishTV dreaming of being able to catch at least one Billfish in your life you should be emailing me yesterday getting booked to fish on one of Redrum's boats!

Golden Gate has not let up a bit in about 2 weeks. The amount of Stripe Marlin being spotted is amazing. Thankful to a large majority of our clients that are practicing catch and releasing we have been in "high" Marlin season a lot longer than we were last year.

Today was no different. Tantrum headed out with Mr. Paul Powell and his son Jon. They had the pleasure of fishing Mr. Popular Himself, Captain Cesar!! To repeat one part of the day from Paul, he said "as soon as we got to what I think was Golden Gate Cesar opened the boat up to full steam, threw it down in reverse, all while Raymond was getting the live bait ready. Next thing I knew we were hooked up into a Stripe Marlin. Raymond grabbed another rod that was rigged with a live bait hook, took a livey from the bait tank and tossed it out to another Marlin swimming around. He hooked that one too! Cesar maneavered the boat in such a way that we were able to get them both to the boat for pictures. We were exhausted after fighting the fish for over an hour each and it wasn't even 8:15 yet!"

They crew went on to catch and release 2 more Stripe Marlin and headed in early after such a great day on the water!

Our other group came off of the Oosterdam Cruise Ship and were off their tendor and on El Nuevo by 9:00am. Alex got them to Golden Gate about a little under an hour, it was on from their! They were able to catch and releasae 5 Stripe Marlin as well. Off El Nuevo and back to the cruise ship before 3:30! Not many places in the world you can go to that will give you that kind of fishing!

Look for more fish to be brought in as our weather has been excellent lately and November just around the corner!

HOW ABOUT THOSE TCU FROGS?!

Weekend Recap

The Redrum Fleet did not slow down a bit during this past weekend with the Bisbee Black & Blue Tournament going on. We stayed busy all weekend and although we did not have any boats rented out for the tournament we did have a great time catching Stripe Marlin and Dorado.

We are still fishing the Pacific side and catching multiple some time double digits in Stripe Marlin. Longtime Redrum anglers Steve Bergey, Brad Bowen, and Ray and Bob Young came down for their annual trips and slaughtered the Stripe Malrin Catch and Release count hitting double digits everyday.

Steve and Brad caught 19 Stripe Marlin, 3 Sailfish and countless Dorado during thier 4 days fishing with Omar and Jesus on Reel Rum.

Ray and Bob Young did about just the same fishing on both Reel Rum and Tantrum.

Our CCA group from Texas also fished very well with Alex and Juan on El Nuevo. Their first day they landed heaps of Stripe Marlin and yesterday the guys went out again and landed 11 Stripe Marlin and a couple of nice Dorado.

Today the fishing is just as solid. Rum Runnin, El Nuevo and Reel Rum headed out and caught and released a combined 23 Stripe Marlin. Omar and Alex were able to hook into some Dorado as well while Javier focused mainly on the Stripes!

Bring on another week!!!

- Luis -

October 21st Fish Report

A slight breeze was delivered out on the Pacific waters that helped cool off our anglers today from all the hard work they were doing reeling in plenty of fish all day.

Brad Bowen and Steven Bergey shined again today on Reel Rum with Omar and Jesus. Again they were able to catch and release 5 Stripe Marlin and 1 nice Sailfish. They estimated the Sailfish at nearly 130 pounds. These guys have fished with us for 2 days and have caught over 10 Billfish! They were also able to bag 2 Dorado for the freezer during thier outing this afternoon. These crazy guys still have 2 more days fishing with Omar so he better keep it up as they have already hit their par twice!

Brett and Elizabethe Miller and Mr. Erb had another great day fishing. Today they headed out with Alex and Juan on El Nuevo and they were certainly glad they did. Aside from the 5 Stripe Marlin they were able to catch and release, El Nuevo was also able to pull in 6 Dorado for the boat. This group has also done some serious fishing in the last 2 day, 8 Stripe Marlin and 6 Dorado is not bad way to finish off a 2 day fishing excursion. Great job again guys and we look foward to seeing you again next year.

Brent Harris and his group spent their last day out on the water with us and boy are they glad to fish with Javier on Rum Runnin. Javier and Mickey took the boys that had not had a chance to catch Marlin yet. The boys put the pressure on him, Javier loves fishing under pressure! Sure enough, as soon as the boat came in the Marina I could hear the whooping and hollering comming from Don Ferguson and Brent Harris. Javier worked his magic and was able to put the guys on 8 Stripe Marlin! They had the day of their lives and enjoyed every second of it! Don Ferguson caught a beautiful Stripe Marlin measuring 96" and over 135 pounds. Great job Don!

Jim and Holly Candia had a wonderful time "hooking" Marlin today! They had a little trouble keeping the finicky critter on the line. For some reason the Marlin keep shredding the leader and would get off. They were able to finally get one up to the boat but Holly unfortunately wasn't able to get hers. Cesar was able put them on 4 nice Dorado that they did boat. Dont worry, we are determined to get Holly her billfish so we already discussed their plans for their next trip down here!

Jill and Paul Kohner headed out on Red Beam with Marshall and "Lobo". Luckily they were looking to hook into Billfish! 3 nice Stripe Marlin and another large Pacific Sailfish were caught and released on Red Beam. The Kohners had a great time enjoyed their time on the water with Redrum. We will be expecting their pictures because Jill told me that the picture that she took of Paul and his Sailfish showed the Sail of the fish drapping over Pauls shoulder.

It's crunch time down in Cabo right now as we are only a short time away from The Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament. There is a lot of hype and the town is starting to really pick up. With the 870 pound Marlin that won the Bisbee Offshore it is going to be interesting to see what special fish is going to be brought up to the scales for the Black & Blue.

-Luis-

October 20th Fish Report

As fate would have it the bite was crazy the day after the tournament ended. All of our boats did extrememly well today leading with Cesar on Tantrum.

Again Cesar wowed his clients with his Marlin catching skill. With Americo on his boat for the day the boys got right to it. They hooked their first Stripe Marlin at about 9:00am and didn't stop until they pulled thier lines at a little past 1:00 pm. 6 Stripes Caught and Released in total as well as a Bull Dorado well over 30 pounds.

The "Catch of the Day" was a 350+ Blue on the Red Beam. Jennifer and Dean Hogencamp headed out with Marshall and "Lobo" on Red Beam. A little before Golden Gate the crews brought down the outriggers and the crews got to work. Their Dorado bite stayed consistent all day catching 8 over average male and female fish. During the mist of all the Dorado bites Marshall was able to hook the couple into a nice Blue Marlin. The fight lasted almost 2 hours according to Dean. Congrats on the great catch guys and we look foward to having you fish again tomorrow!

Javier took good care of Brett and Elizabeth Miller. Their friend Mr. Erb headed out with them as well. The 3 of them were able to hook into 5 Stripe Marlin, catching and releasing 3 of them and having the 0ther 2 get off. They are out again today on El Nuevo so we will keep you guys posted.

Omar had one heck of a day with Redrum Longtimers, Steve Bergey and Brad Bowen. These 2 anglers come down once a year, when they come down they are here to fish. Omar will be hosting them 2 days on his boat and Cesar will take over for their 2nd two days out on the water. Omar started them off on a good note yesterday (once the boat problems were taken care of) catching and releasing 5 Stripe Marlin and a Pacific Sailfish! Not a bad way to start off a 4 day fishing excursion, now the par is set!

Alex and Juan headed out again, this time with Mr. and Mrs. Lauber. The couple was really interested in catching Dorado or Tuna. The Dorado Alex thought, shouldn't be a problem. The couple hooked into a pair of really nice size Stripe Marlin. Double hook-up, Double-release. Well done. Than Alex was able to hook them into a nice estimate 40 pound Bull. As soon as that was boated Juan had a slam on his live bait and they were able to boat another large Bull. Great job guys, and way to work!

Kenneth and Barbara Arthur had not had a chance to fish this trip since their sons were the ones elected to fish with Alex and Juan on El Nuevo for the Bisbee Offshore. There was no way they could come to Cabo and not fish so they decided to get the whole family together and head out with Rene on Utopia. After a long night around Cabo the night before the 4 couples headed into the office! Eventually we got them all together and out for the day. They had a great time on the beautiful yacht and also had some great fishing. 4 Stripe Marlin by the end of the day. Mr. Arthur was a little disappointed that the boys only let him get one of them but "oh, well"! It is always great having you guys down. Take care and see you soon.

I sent a half-day charter out this morning and the boat already returned with more Dorado than they could even carry in my office!! We used a partner boat and the captain and mate said that everyone that ran towards Golden Gate should have a great shot and catching plenty of fish.

Where are the Tuna???

Tournament Coverage Bisbees Offshore

As most of our readers know Redrum was fortunate enough to have 2 of our boats fish in the Bisbee Offshore Tournament this past weekend.

The Arthur family from Concan, TX buddied up with Alex and Juan to fish on El Nuevo. They did a great job both days. The first day Alex lined them up on a Blue Marlin and they got a solid strike. Unfortunately, the fish drove straight down for at least 15 seconds and finally popped the line. They said it was like a freight train pulling at the end of the line. We didn't get a weight, specie or size of the fish. All we knew that it was huge! That's how fishing in tournaments goes! The rest of the first day resulted in several strikes but to no avail. The second day was a little bit slower as not many boats were hooking into much fish at all. They ended the tournament with no qualifying fish but had a great time.

Team Utopia was also unsuccessful in raising any qualifing fish to the boat but being the first large tournament the boat has entered laid some good experience for the crew and the boat.

Thanks for those who participated in the 2008 Bisbee Offshore Fishing Tournament and to those who supported Team REDRUM!

October 14th Fish Report

We had yet another great day on the water today. Reel Rum fished a half day and caught and released Dorado almost from the time they set the spread out 'til the time they came in! Jim Giles is going to be one tired old fart tonight! It's always good to have him come down and fish with us, even if it does mean having to put up with his fish stories the next few days, the boys love him!

Javier and Americo had an excellent day with the Sherards. They were able to catch and release a nice Stripe Marlin as well as several Dorado.

Guy Dansie and his family had the time of their lives fishing with Cesar on Tantrum today. They caught more Dorado than they could imagine, had a few big boys get to the boat that couldn't be boated but they had a blast doing it! Great family from Utah! Hope to see you guys again in the future... GO TCU!

Dave Olson had a day cleaning up on some massive Bull Dorado. Slim told me they got 5 bull Dorado to the boat that measured up to my shoulder. Now, I am not a very tall dude by an means but a Dorado that goes as high as my shoulders is a big Dorado! We hope you had a good time Mr, Olson and that we work with you again in the future.

Utopia headed out for the day. Bottom line, had a monster Blue Marlin on the line for over an hour. Unfortunately the fish popped the leader.... moving on.

We are looking foward to having an exciting weekend here at Redrum as we have 2 of our boats entered in the Bisbees Offshore Fishing Tournament. Longtime Redrum angler, Barbara Arthur and her family will be fishing with Alex and Slim on El Nuevo. They have had some excellent luck in the past with us catching big Dorado and Marlin.

Ryan "Picoso" Donovan, Frank "Pancho" Zoch, Stephen "White Pants" Draper and Rayner "Liquid" Smith will make up our second team representing Redrum. They will be heading out on Utopia for the 2 days with Rene and Mickey. This salty team has fished our waters plenty of times in the past and should be able to make an impact on the leader board early!

Stay tuned for updates on the 2 participating boats and keep your fingers crossed!

-Luis

More pics of the monster!!

October 13th Report

Danny Blue

I know I haven't posted in a while. I sat and wondered all day today on how I was going to cram 2 weeks of awesome fishing into one report. As I was sitting behind my desk thinking I got a call from Captain Omar on Reel Rum. I could barely hear him as we had a pretty crappy connection. He was fishing about 25 miles out and all he kept saying in Spanish was to "get the camera ready". Last time Omar called me with such news it was back when he caught his first ever Swordfish.

As he got a little closer about to where I could talk to him he told me he had a big Blue on and that he thinks it may be over 500 pounds. Dave Haverkate came in off of the Holland Cruise Ship with his 2 brothers and father. They headed out on Reel Rum a little bit after 9 o'clock this morning just wanting to "catch a few fish". Their first catch was a nice Dorado, right off the bat. After the Dorado they trolled around for a while until something big struck the white, blue, and black lure. The fish damn near spooled the reel on the first run and did so on 3 other occasions. The Haverkates passed the rod around 3 go's each person until finally about an hour later the fish was boated. It took all 5 guys to get the fish to the boat.

As the fish came to the dock, Ryan and I hopped on the take pictures and head to the weigh station. By this time a crowd had already formed around the scale as word had passed quickly around the Marina of the monster fish. Before we could get the Haverkates to the scale the fish had been weighed and it was all over the radio. "650 pounds, six - five - zero"! The family stood proud as they had their pictures taken by the random tourists walking the Marina along with their wives and friends who had also caught word and headed down themselves.

Once the fish was lowered I put the measuring tape to him and it measured 148.5 inches. That has been the biggest fish caught since I have been here, Omars first Blue over 500 pound and Jesus' 2nd largest fish just slightly behind his 700 Blue some 10 years ago!

Congrats to Omar, Jesus, and the Haverkate family for such a nice catch!

Pictures and further reports to follow ASAP, time to celebrate with the boys!!

Cheers.

-Luis

From the Inbox

I recieved this email and photos from Mark Sweetwood upon his arrival back to Seattle.

"Guys,

My dad and I had a fishing trip with Redrum this week that exceeded all expectations. Altogether, we caught 17 Darados, 4 Marlin, and 1 Wahoo. I was also treated with a tuna hunt that was right out of a National Geographic film! The highlight was seeing my 76 year old dad spend an hour bringing in a large Marlin. I really enjoyed the passion for fishing shown by Javier and Americo. Javier is a wild man when it comes to hunting down the Marlin which was a key to our success. Americo was a great mate and was as thrilled as we were to catch fish! Thanks for an expereince of a lifetime and we'll see you again next year!!"

-Mark Sweetwood

Seattle,Washington

Vela Escuela - Rum Runnin, October 3rd

The Hunt

Yesterday I headed out with Javier and Americo on Rum Runnin for my latest "Vela Escuela" expedition. Mark Sweetwood had been fishing with Redrum a couple of times this week prior to our trip out on Rum.

With the Dorado and Marlin bite the way it has been Mark wanted to try for something new Over the past 2 days fishing with us he had tired himself out catching over 5 Billfish and up in the higher -teens of Dorado. Mark suggested that today he wanted to try for Tuna. Now the Tuna bite hasn't been strong but Javier is not one to back down from a challenge. Immediately he got on the radio and starting asking other boats if there was any report of Tuna.

We arrived at the fuel dock early and Javier began to mingle with all the other captains waiting for their morning "fill 'er ups". He had gathered information that there was a school of Yellowfin about 15-20 miles straight off The Arch. Now that we had our full tank of diesel we were on our way.

Once we past The Arch we headed directly towards the sunrise, the sun an awesome mixture of yellow, orange, and red with a clear blue sky back ground. It looked like something you would see in a painting. I thought to myself "why am I leaving this"!

Mark and I got to get to know eachother a little bit as we watched Americo get the gear ready for the day. Americo began to change leader out, check line and hooks, make sure knots were tight enough. He began to explain to Mark that the bill of a Marlin can scratch and damage line or leader to a point where it pretty muchs acts like a saw and saws through it. That's why he likes to change out the line every morning.

After getting my "Knot Tying 101" lesson from Americo I headed up top to see what my buddy Javier was up to. I sat next to him on the tower continuing to watch the sunrise making small talk with him about his wife and kids who I have gotten to know over the years. He pointed at his GPS and showed me where we were heading. He explained that we were heading to a spot where the water drops off to about 4,500 ft. and is a big playground for Porpoise. "Maybe 30 minutes" he said. We talked the rest of the way out and Javier was even nice enough to share his morning snack with me. Think tuna fish salad made from Dorado. I think I may have pissed Americo off by eating his half of it!

We finally arrived to our spot and set out our spread. The water was blue, calm, and all looked pretty promising. Some time went by as we trolled and glassed the water looking for porpoise, birds, or sunning Marlin. We spotted a group of 10-15 birds flying up the Pacific, Javier followed them but to no avail. Shortly after we recieved a report that there was a small school of porpoise crashing around about 5 miles towards the shore. The excitement grew while Americo switched out the lures to smaller hoochies and cedar plugs. We understood it was a smaller school and that the Tuna were "hit or miss". We arrived and spotted the school of about 15-20 dolphin. It looked more as if they were playing with eachother rather than slamming on bait. Javier executed a couple of pass throughs but "nada" as he would say. "The Tuna no hungry" Americo explained to Mark.

We strayed from the school of porpoise to follow another flock of birds that seemed to be crashing on a bait ball. Some porpoise were crashing around but still, no Tuna to be found. After a while of not seeing anything at all Americo spotted a large group of birds, not crashing on bait, but just cruising. Sure enough they were trying to catch up to a huge school of porpoise. The school must have been 50-60 large. When 50-60 dolphin are jumping out of the water at different times it looks like there are hundreds and hundreds of them. We slowly trolled through them, making several pass throughs. To our suprise no strikes. Javier yelled at Americo to pitch a live bait and that he was going to run the boat slowly as if we were trolling the bait. I even got in on the action and pitched another "livey" thinking the more bait in the water the better. Nope!

We passed through hundreds of porpoise, changed our lures and gear out all day we even had Americo do a little Tuna Dance for us. The only thing that made us accept our defeat was that none of the other twenty plus boats were catching Tuna either.

Javier was not going to bring Rum Runnin back empty handed, we headed away from the boats, closer towards the show and up towards the Pacific a little bit to see if we could at least land a Dorado. Sure enough, as soon as got up North just a little a nice 30+ pound Bull Dorado struck!

Now at least we didn't have to head home skunked in October!

Next week I will be heading out with Cesar on Tantrum. Let's hope he doesn't throw me off the boat!!

Early October Report

Kickin' Off the Month with a Bang

The new month has brought no lack of excitement in it first few days. The bite has continued to be outstanding up and around the Golden Gate area. Our boats have been comming back to the slips with 3-5 Stripe Marlin releases daily and more Dorado flags than you can imagine. It has been an exciting start to the month and we are looking foward to it getting even better!