November 24th Recap

I knew the fishing was good but man, it seems like it just keeps getting better!

To pick up where we left off on my last report...

Joey Minieville and Cesar did catch and realse 16 Stripe Marlin today at Golden Gate. I have never seen anyone happier to catch Marlin like that! It was awesome to see how happy he was when he showed into Tantrum slip as people actually had to stop because of all the flags she had on her out riggers. What I thought was funny is that Joey told me he might want to catch at least 1 Dorado for dinner tomorrow. We will see if Cesar remembers how to even catch one after the great weekend he had with Billfish!

Rum Runnin had an outstanding day with the Wilbur family. Mr. Bruce Wilburn brought his whole bunch down to do some Dorado and Tuna fishing. Dorado and Tuna is exactly what they got. Javier and Manuel took great care of them and hooked them into a school of Tuna where they pulled out about 10 Yellowfin and later in the afternoon they caught 6 Dorado! Great job guys! You have filled my freezer to the top!

The Deloney family on Reel Rum also had their fair share of Marlin as Omar and Americo really tired out mama Deloney! She was pooped after catching her Stripe Marlin as were the 2 youngsters! Awesome job guys and killer seahorse!

Mr. Bickel brought his family down from Dallas Texas to test their hand at the billfish on El Nuevo. Captain Alex was able to get each one of them (5) hooked into a Stripe Marlin before calling it a day. They had a little trouble with the last one but being that they were not going to give up nailed it and brought her to the boat for a few quick shots and a release! Nice meeting y'all!!

Off to Texas tomorrow for Turkey Day with the family! Be back in a week. Will try to keep the updates comming from home!

Saludos,

Luis
Team Redrum

Late November Recap

Sorry about the delay folks. With all the fish being caught lately I've been too busy with our vacuum sealer getting everyones catch frozen!! That's a good thing!

So here it goes..

November is shaping up well with the Marlin bite still being the best we have seen it all year. I was able to spend a few days out on the water myself with Ryan and his cousin Josh. We saw more Marlin than you could imagine and we were able to hook into quite a few tiring Josh out! I had never seen Golden Gate more lively than it was these days last week and the weeks prior.

Most fish are being caught by chasing a school of live bait or catching up to the birds. The birds are almost a sure sign that there are Marlin, Tuna, or bait under them. This style, known as "run and gun", can make it pretty interesting for clients who have never experienced this type of fishing before. With this technique our anglers get to see the kind of chemistry our captains and mate share. For example, for the folks like the Fitch party, the Garcia group or Roger Jump and his friend they got to see how Javier and Manuel can work all day without really having to shout at eachother. "They seem to be on the same exact page all the time", Jay Fitch told me after his day out with the crew. Cesar and Raymond on Tantrum are a little more lively in the way they catch their fish. Just ask Kandee Baird, Mike Matthews, the Narrods, and Joey Minieville who caught heaps of Marlin while running around Golden Gate.

Whatever your method may be you could almost be guranteed to come down here and hook into some Stripe Marlin. If Marlin is not your fortay and you want to head out for Dorado.

There has been plenty of Dorado near by, up towards the Lighthouse all the way to Golden Gate. Yesterdays performance by Javier proved this to be true. Jim Montagna and his friends were very interested in catching some Dorado for a large dinner. They also thought it would be fun for the 3 of them to "at least catch a Marlin a piece" like Jim told me in the morning. Sure as heck, Javier picked up quite a few Dorado on the way up to Golden Gate on the troll. Once they arrived to Golden Gate Manuel went to work and hooked them into 1, 2, and 3 Stripe Marlin.

How about Tuna?? Kandee Baird and Mike Matthews are long time Redrum anglers. They love to head out with Cesar as they have grown a friendship over the years. Yesterday I had them on Reel Rum as Cesar was occupied. Although they weren't very happy with this they agreed to it and the fish gods took care of the rest! Because they were understanding of the whole situation Reel Rum was the first boat to land on a school of Porpoise that had plenty of Tuna under them. After all was said and done they landed 11 Yellowfin Tuna all over 30 pounds! Mike had to leave some meat behind as he had filled his cooler to the brim! Great job guys!

Back to Cesar on Tantrum. Joey Minieville from Lousiana came down to do some "Marlin Fishing". "That is all I want, the more the better, I am going to release each one of them but Marlin Marlin Marlin" he told me. I knew he came to the right place and especially on the right boat. Cesar headed out with Joey yesterday and they caught and released 8 Stripe Marlin. Mr. Minieville could not believe his day and was extremely happy with the outcome. Cesar just radioed me a little while ago and said that his clients were comming back and were very disappointed. He told me I should get ready for an a** chewing when they returned. When I began to ask him why he began to laugh with Joey in the back ground saying "'cause we only caught and released 16 Marlin" in his LA. accent! Needless to say I hung up on them. Cesar is always a good time!

With Omar on Reel Rum and Alex out on El Nuevo I will have a full report later this afternoon but some people like Jorge Flores just can't wait for of our boats to get back before a report! HAHA enjoy my friends!!

Adios,

Luis
Team Redrum

Captain Cesar Rides Marlin for Release

After this young Marlin came up to the boat very tired and slow Cesar thought it would be best to try to revive her. We tried the manual way but it did not work and Cesar offered to get in the water to move it around and pump some air back in her gills. This is the video we caught of it and glad to say the Marlin was fine and fully reenergized.

November 12th Report

With a moon a little larger than normal last night I was a little worried about today. Thank I remembered that I was in Cabo and that full moons have not affected our fishing in the 2 years that I have been here! When the boats came back in this afternoon I remembered why!

Reel Rum was the first boat back in her slip this afternoon. Hilary and Ryan Leifheit called me last week and wanted to get on a boat for a fun day of fishing. Omar was the right guy to head out with, he and Americo landed 8 Stripe Marlin for the catch and release as well as 1 Pacific Sail. The couple had a great time as this was there first off-shore adventure. Rest assured they will be getting off shore again, hopefully with us! Great job guys.

Steven Turner fished with Cesar on Tantrum this morning. "All I want to do is catch a Marlin, get it up to the boat and take a few pictures of it" is what Mr. Turner explained to me this morning be for he headed out by himself. Cesar was the guy to do it with and was able to get 2 up to the boat for photos! Great job Mr. Turner!!

Mr. and Mrs. David White brought their friend Jancie Bruce to fish with them. They headed out on El Nuevo with Juan and Alex and had a great day. Slim was able to get each one of them hooked into a Stripe Marlin for the release and also a nice Dorado for dinner! They will be headed to Misiones de Kino for that awesome platter that Israel and the gang does so well! Making me hungry.

Tomorrow is the start of another busy weekend for us with the Juaquin Classic starting up again! We are excited about having our good friends down and hope the fishing keeps up for them!

Guess I was wrong about the moon!

Redrum Takes Home 1st Place at WON Tuna Jackpot!!

2 Hour 45 Minute Fight Leads to Record 244 Pound Yellowfin!!

This past weekend Redrum Sportfishing was fortunate enough to fish in the Western Outdoor News Tuna Jackpot. El Nuevo led by Bob Kuerner, Rum Runnin with Bobby Smith and Reel Rum led by Redrum owner John Donovan represented the line up for 3 of the 97 teams that entered this years event.

Omars boat, Reel Rum was entered in as team #85 and consisted of Americo as our mate, John and Ryan Donovan along with myself as the anglers. We spent Wednesday and Thursday fishing all day to no evail. We landed 2 small Dorado on day 2 that was it. Finally on Friday all of our waiting around paid off as we landed the big one.

Trolling a green imitation squid about 200 feet off the back of the boat we all began to get a little restless. John and Ryan were sleeping down on the bottom of the boat while Omar, Americo and I sat up top sharing conversation that only seem to come up when you have been on the water as long as we were without any action.

I went for a snack while Omar headed to the front of the boat to have a little time to himself and wonder why things had been going so slow for us. Americo and I BSed for a while about life back in the US and his previous home of Mazatlan. Omar sat back down in his seat saying that he thinks he saw a boat chasing some porpoise a little ahead. I went down to get the binoculars and handed them to Omar. It only took him a split second and he decided we were going to run and see what was going on. To our disappointed it was only a couple of Frigget birds and no porpoise anywhere. That led Omar to even more disappointment and he headed turned the boat hard North and things quited down again.

About 15 minutes after the sighting heading NW off the Lighthouse (maybe 30 miles) our luck changed! In one split second the only Penn 80 that we had in our spread started screaming and screaming hard! Ryan jumped up from his "boat sleep" grabbed the rod/reel and started yanking on it to make sure the hook was set. Once all the chaos settled down on the boat and we were sure the fish was hooked we all began to try to guess what it was. Omar cancelled out the possibility of it being a Marlin or Dorado because there was no action immdeiately after the strike. Our next thoughts began to be either Wahoo or Yellowfin. Being that no Wahoo was weighed in on day 1 we were happy with either.

Ryan began to fight the fish stand-up style until the strength of the fish broke the stand up belt. 20 minutes later Omar cancelled out the possibility of a Wahoo because of the style of fight that the creature was showing us. About 20 minutes later the Yellowfin Tuna serviced for a few seconds and we got to see what kind of animal we were dealing with! As soon as the Tuna saw the boat for the first time she slammed down deep and in that moment the fight began!

For the next 2 and a half hours John, Americo and I took turns making sure Ryan was as comfortable as possible. When we talked about it later Ryan and I agreed that he drank at least 8 12 oz. bottles of water! The important part about fighting a big Yellowfin Tuna is not to rush it, stay patient and take your time. Ryan did just that. My attention span is about is small as hoochie lure so I was all over the boat. I even found myself doing pull ups from one of the metal bars that runs across the boat just to keep me from going insane!!

The fight was blow for blow the whole time. Each time Ryan would get a few cranks in and make up some of the line he had lost the tuna seemed like she was allowing it only to gain her ground as soon as Ryan would stop. This went on for over 2 hours. I still do not know how Ryan is functioning after a fight like that! Knowing that we had to be back to the weigh station at 5 pm Omar started to get a little nervous. There is nothing you can do when fighting a big Tuna except wait it out, unless you want to lose the fish. This fish we were not going to lose and Ryan made sure of it! Ryan slowly increased the drag by the milimeter until there was enough on it to pull this freight train to the boat.

Americo and I were assigned to gaffing the fish as soon as the leader came to the boat. Mind you, I have never gaffed a fish that size in my life. I have gaffed plenty of smaller Dorado but a fish that size and that importance I was a little apprehensive. Luckily for us she came up with no gas left in her tank, we were able to gaff the fish precisely. It took everyone on the team to haul it over the side of the boat and onto the deck. After I took a second glance I noticed that the fish had nearly straightened out my gaff.

As soon as we got the fish to the boat, hugs and high-fives were shared all around until Omar said "alright, this fish no count until we get to scale". Americo got the boat ready for the run and Omar began putting the pedal to the metal. It took us about 2 hours and some change to get back to the Marina. On the cruise over when we began to be able to spot land I looked over and Ryan as we decided to take a seat on the front of the boat for the ride in and said "Cabo has never looked so beautiful". He agreed and our nerves sat in.

Ryan estimated the fish weighed 214 pounds, John 412, and I undershot and said 207. When we finally got the boat to the weigh station there were over 400 people waiting there as the buzz had picked up on the Marina that Redrum was bringing in a big fish. We woooed and wowed the crowd as soon as we pulled in. I over heard one of them tell the other, that there is no fish that would even come close to ours. That's when I knew we were in good shape. We made our way through the applauding crowd to the scales. The group of people had formed a large mass surrounding the scales as there were rows of people 10-15 deep.

I have never been the focus of so many camera flashes in my life. It kind of makes you dizzy after a while. But we had a blast. The second we got it to the scale and hanged the fish the crowd grew silent. Ryan decided he was going to give a good slap to the fish as it hung. This cancelled the fish and we had to do it all over again. The second time the fish hanged there we made sure nobody touched it as we did not want to have to lift the Tuna again! As the crowd grew silent Paul from WON announced the number "Two hundred and Forty Four pounds" everyone went crazy!! The fish was over 30 pounds than we estimated and over 100 pounds from our nearest competition.

Interviews and parties occupied the rest of our night and into the early morning. Working the next morning was a little difficult!! It was well worth it.

There will be pictures to follow as soon as we get them pulled up on the computer.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

Saludos,

Luis

November 3rd Report

Just a few days before the WON Tuna Jackpot starts we are beginning to see a lot of Tuna around! We are crossing our fingers that they stick around for a while but we are definately enjoying them while they are here!

The Kruger party headed out on Rum Runnin today and had an excellent time. Javiers boat Rum Runnin was an awesome showing of Blue Marlin Flags and White Tuna flags when she pulled into her slip. They counted 8 catch and release Stripe Marlin and countless yellowfin tuna! Great job guys thanks for filling our freezers!

Mr. and Mrs Goodnight came in off a cruise ship today and caught and released 3 Stripe Marlin as well as a Sailfish. They were only on the water for a couple of hours and definately stayed busy the whole time. Alex and Juan had a great time fishing with them as well.

The Vela party from the South Texas CCA fished for their second day with us today and continued their success of Stripe Marlin. On day 1, Baldo Vela and his freinds reeled in 14 Stripe Marlin, today they were able to catch and release 6 of them and spent some time reeling in Yellowfin Tuna as well.

The Yzaguirres and Guerras also joined the Velas in thier Father-Son trip this year. The kids fished great with Omar and Americo on Reel Rum. On day one they spent their day catching and releasing 8 of them. Today the group caught 6 Stripe Marlin.

It was great having all the CCA groups down here. We have a great time putting you guys on fish and everyone is first class!

Saludos,

-Luis-

November 2nd Report - Tuna Landing!

Yellow fin have finally arrived!

Red Beam was the first boat of the fleet to arrive in her slip today. When RedBeam pulled into the slip today she was sporting some flags that I had not seen in a long time. Those white Tuna flags sure looked great on one of our boats. It had been too long since I had seen them and they were a beautiful sight to see. It got even better when I saw the size of the Yellowfin that Jay Simmons and his dad pulled in. 4 nice 50+ pound Yellowfin Tuna!! They hit the school early and fished it for a few hours. They were back early and plenty tired! Great job guys!

Our CCA group of the McCoys also had a great time fishing with Javier and Rum Runnin. They caught and released 6 Stripe Marlin and also were able to catch 4 Yellowfin Tuna. They were ecstatic about the catch and had a great time fishing with Javier and Manuel.

Dean Patsko from the West Coast came in off of the Oosterdamn Cruise Ship early this morning. He had just gone through 4 surgeries on his right shoulder after seriously injuring his bicep. Cesar told him that he would take care of him and help him out if they might hook into a Marlin. Might they sure did! In 5 hours Cesar and Mr. Patsko were able to catch and release 14 Stripe Marlin and a Sailfish! My hat goes off to Mr. Patsko, great job my friend!

Dave Kruger and his gang had a great time fishing with Alex and Juan. A few mechanical problems did not slow them down as they were able to catch and release heaps of Stripe Marlin as well as Yellowfin Tuna! Great job guys!