Isla Mujeres 1/27 - 'Qualifier' Goes OFF!

[Capten]

I just returned from the best day of fishing in my life! The sail bite out of Cancun and Isla has been fair this season....until Saturday when it absolutely went OFF!!

Teams NIMROD and BUSINE$$ flew down to Mexico to fish with Capt. Fin Gaddy on the Qualifier out of Oregon Inlet and practice with circle hooks. We figured we were a little early in the season but still hoped to have a shot at a dozen or so sails in order to get some circle hook time. What we ended up with was the trip of a lifetime. When it was all said and done we had gone through 10 packs of ballyhoo, successfully released thirty-four (34) sailfish and probably missed almost double that number as the learning curve with circles proved to be steep for us.

We arrived in Cancun Thursday and spent the day living it up in party central. The wind was kickin’ and continued to do so well into Friday. The wife and I headed to downtown Cancun to have a late lunch at our favorite local Mexican grille (Las Parrillas) then off to Puerto Juarez to catch the high speed ferry to Isla for some recon. Arrived on the island to find that the wind settled and the boats were coming in. Qualifier was docked at the local marina near the ferry docks with many other OI boats including Pelican, Obsession, and Swordfish. Phat Mann was also there along with many other first class rigs. Word on the dock was that the bite was fair with shots of 4-10 sails a day.

Capt Fin showed us around the recently re-done Qualifier and introduced us to his mate Chris. He informed us that departure time was 0630 and we would try to capitalize on the early bite. The marina was buzzing and it was good to be around a fishing crowd again as the winter has already become too long. Fin recommended we hit some of the local island establishments before heading back to party central. We heeded his advice and thoroughly enjoyed a few local restaurants and pubs. Had a chance to sit and chat with a few crew members from all over the east and gulf coasts. Very cool. I never made it to the other marina on the island but know that a few OCMD boats are there including Billfisher, Size Matters, and Par Five. One of my crew also thinks that he spotted Jim Motsko getting aboard the Keen M the morning we fished but I missed him.

I rounded the boys up at 0500 and headed back to the island Sat morning. Lost 2 of the crew to the demons of party central so that left the 4 stooges. The wind had laid out and the forecast was for a beautiful warm sunny Caribbean day. We arrived a bit early and left the dock as soon as our local amigo mate showed. Ran about 40 minutes and shut down after seeing some birds and free jumpers. First fish was on the left rigger within 3 minutes and was the first of many misses. Things were steady for the first couple of hours and with some one-on-one tutoring from Chris and Capt Fin we were getting better at the drop back and hook up but still had a ways to go. Capt Fin asked Chris to rig him an ‘eraser’ rod for up on the bridge. I later found out that it’s called an eraser because it ‘erases all of the f*ck ups down in the cockpit’. Of which we had plenty that morning.

It was probably around 1000 or so when all hell broke loose. We got onto a ball of bait along with 1 other boat and total chaos ensued. 20-30 sails all darting around along side and behind the boat. It was crazy. All of us had a rod in our hand and were hooking up and missing fish left and right. Multiple double headers, a handful of triples and 2 or three quads. It was so hard to stay focused on your one bait with all of this action beside you. We weren’t able to get photos or video during this time because of the mayhem. We stayed on ‘em for over an hour before the rest of the fleet showed up and we were forced to troll off. It still stayed steady on the troll until it was quitin’ time. Or so we thought.

Somewhere around 1600 we were at 28 fish. I figured we would be packing up soon but thought wouldn’t it be great to reach 30. More hoos were thawed and we keep at it soon getting numbers 29 & 30. The sun was starting to set and there were still a few other boats out with us. Most of my crew was getting anxious for a rum drink but mate Chris explained that the Pelican was fishing alongside us and he wouldn’t leave until we did. We certainly didn’t want to be quitters, so we kept at it and released 4 more sails before we saw the pale greened-hull Paul Mann boat pick up and head for the barn. With that we called it a day. Nearly a dozen hours & 10 packs of ballyhoo later we ended the fishing trip of a lifetime.

Personally, I (Rod Hog Hannum) ended up with 11 sails for the day and lost/broke off at least another 4. I got to wire one towards the end of the day but had missed shots at another 12+ fish personally overall. E-nuts (aka Stiffler as dubbed by Capt Fin) ended up with 8, Billy Backlash (aka Bonito Bill – again – Capt Fin’s nomenclature) also had 8 sails plus 3-4 bonito, and Mike (aka I wanna Rum Drink) ended up with 7 for the day. I have to believe we had over 80 legitimate shots at fish and had our skills been up to par we would have had 45-50 releases. Did I mention that we went through 120 baits!! World class bite in my book.

Capt Fin and Chris are a first class team and their ride is fish catching machine. Their knowledge and willingness to teach us was awesome. I highly recommend you check them out when in Mexico or OI. www.qualifiercharters.com

Sorry to ramble on so long but there is still so much more I could say. I am including some photos below and will have more if anyone wants to see them. There is close to 60 minutes of video for me to go through and put together but I will need some time (and help) before that is ready to go.

[Spellbound]

Great Fishing!! Seems last week was going off on both coast. I was down in Panama (Tropic Star) where the bite was going off the charts. Week before, the lodge set a single week record for most billfish caught in their history. Live baiters were doing Very Well with the offshore boats approx 7 -8 experiencing 40+ bite days (total) of mostly Blues some Sails and a few Blacks. Mostly SE Fla boats "Sorry Dear", " "FaLaMe", "Cut Nail", "A1A", Carolina boat "Mr B ll" and "Why Knot".

Second year in a row that Panama has been Very Very Good for us in Mid to Late January. Its worth the trip.

[Capten]

I had heard about the bite at Tropic Star. In fact, one of the guys that opted out of our Mexico day trip in the report above had done so because he was at Tropic Star the week prior and was 'fished out'. I think he said between sails, blacks, and blues they had released nearly 50 fish in 3-4 days. Incredible!

I think he was fishing on his brother's boat the Prime Meridian - a 65 Donzi.

Thanks for the report!

[cjd]

Congrats Paul on the great day of fishing. Can't wait for summer. BTW- is your boat docked at the bay bridge marina? I thought I saw it last week. Nice boat!

[surfdancer45]

What a great trip. Glad your timing was so good, the NC boys really do a super job down there. I hope you are happy that you have increased the offshore caibn fever for us back here. Pretty work. Bob

[thoward]

Nice Report! Did they have you wait a specific amount of time before reeling down?

[34Hatt]

Hey Paul great trip I bet the two crew that didn't make it must have cried all night with your stories.
These reports are killing me I just got back from Hawaii wanted to get out at least one day in Kona but it just didn't work out
Well glad others are hitting them

[Capten]

Congrats Paul on the great day of fishing. Can't wait for summer. BTW- is your boat docked at the bay bridge marina? I thought I saw it last week. Nice boat!

Thanks! Yes we are on E-Dock. Can't wait for the weather to break so we can clean her up!

[Capten]

Nice Report! Did they have you wait a specific amount of time before reeling down?

Well it was a steep learning curve for us. Like most dropbacks, so much of it was about the 'feel'. I would start counting but found that you could really just feel the right time to push up the drag and start reeling. No striking - no setting the hook - no picking the rod tip up. Very different for me.

There were a few times that the fish was so close you could simply watch him turn and know when to push up the drag. Its all about not letting the fish feel any resistance. Once I got it down it was second nature. Thank goodness we had so many shots to practice and perfect our technique. One or two more days like that and I think I would be deadly.