coming on board

[la fortuna]

folks, I am a new fisherman and have just retired to a small town in the southern part of Mexico on the pacific coast.

For the past 30 years I have visited this area and now have purchased my own boat to try my hand at sport fishing. I have bought a boat similar to the rest in my area, Imensia 26'. I have had the boat modified with a central control point and installed two out riggers, a down rigger ,live bait well and track plotter. The boat is powered by 2 new Yamha 60 hp motors. I have recently purchased 5 new rods reels and a kite rod with a few kites.

I am ready to go but now just have to learn how to fish. the main species of fish in this area are sail fish, dolphin fish, marlin and tuna.

The main reason for joining this form is to gain some experience and learn what I am doing right and wrong.

I have been fishing daily for the past few weeks and have caught a few sail fish and dolphin fish but not on a consistent basis. I would like to do better!!

Currently I am trying to catch a marlin and after 4 days of not raising a fish I am thinking that I am doing something wrong and need some advice. I have been trolling with 2 motors going at 9 knots, in clean water. Should I be using one motor or two and what is the correct length behind the boat should the hooks be?

Brian

[dustin]

Hey there Brian,

You're certainly fortunate to have a capable fishing platform in what sounds like a decent place to fish. From just starting out to aiming for a marlin in a few weeks is a pretty sharp leaning curve!

Not sure exactly where you are, but a couple of marlin nutters fish in the Manzanillo area (Marko and Pepon). You'll be able to pick up some info from their posts I'm sure, especially Marko - and don't hesitate to contact them directly as they are both decent fellows.

Apart from that, you need to be sure you're fishing where they are. You probably don't need to be moving around at nine knots, and the distance your lures are from the boat isn't really critical: if you are fishing in the right place, ie somewhere other people are catching/hooking them, or you are seeing them yourself finning on the surface or free-jumping, plus or minus one knot of speed or whether you're trolling on one engine or not probably won't make a difference when they are in hunting mode. Concentrate on figuring out the right area and staying on it till it's bite time.

ps. I never fished your exact area of the Pacific but it does seem a lot of marlin in your area are sighted on the surface or by other visual signs (birds etc) and by casting live bait so a pair of good binoculars might really help (and will certainly help finding tuna and dorado). There is some info on bait casting in the archives including from Dave Brackmann who was one of the team that caught 170+ striped marlin in a single day pitching livebaits. Happy reading!

[Carl Z]

Mexico's Pacific coast has been scraped clean by longlines run from pangas like yours-if you don't see any that's because even they have largely given up after killing everything in sight for decades.

Hard News I know but you're 10+ years too late for the kind of action you want.

There will be weeks when pelagic oceanic currents swing close enough to bring in some Tuna schools and the Marlin will follow-run your lines back of your outboard wake for best results.