Cancun vacation fishing report 5/06 & 5/08/2013

[Reel McCoy]

Spent the last week in Cancun, Mexico with my wife and two of my children.  I had arranged to charter Pete from Atlantic Bait & Tackle's Grady-White Sailfish for a couple of days of fishing while down there.   Pete hooked me up with Capt. Carlos and even gave me his Mexican cell phone to use so I would not have any problems contacting the Capt.   I checked the Bouyweather forecast and picked Monday and Wednesday, the Capt agreed and we were all set.

Here are my reports and some pictures:

Day 1,  Capt. Carlos and his deckhand Oscar of the 25' Grady-White "Tenacity"  met my son Dan, daughter Maggie and me at the dock at 8am.  After a short stop to pick up fuel we were off to troll the waters off Cancun and Isla de Mujeres.    The Capt slowed the boat when he saw bird action ahead and Oscar got to work quickly putting out squid daisy chains on downriggers,  and skirted ballys on the outriggers.   The Capt said we needed to catch bait for later.   Maggie quickly put a few Bonitos (false albacore) in the box when one of the deep lines was hit but no hookup.   Oscar was getting ready to reset it when it was hit hard, he set the hook and handed the rod to my son who fought and landed his first sailfish after a nice battle.  Back on troll again with the bonitos rigged on the deep rods and ballys on the surface.  We slow trolled for a while but came up empty as something chopped both baits in half.  The Capt speed things up again and we quickly boated a few more bonitos.  While Oscar was straightening out a tangle something gr abed the ballyhoo on the port outrigger, Oscar quickly set the hook handed me the rod and said Dorado or Sail.   I held on while the fish was making a slow run away from the boat.  A few seconds later the fish decides to show himself and show us how fast he was.   Oscar sees the fish start greyhounding his way to Cozumel and starts yelling Azul, Azul, Azul.  The Capt translates what did not need translation, "Blue Marlin".   By now I am yelling backing, backing backing as the TLD 30 is just about to be dumped but for some reason the fish decides to turn towards us and I was reeling as fast as I could to get all of the line back on the reel.   I then get my son to take over with this magnificent fish about 100 ft off the port side on the surface,  we got to see this guy up close as he was staying up top and close to the boat.   He then made another run almost dumping the reel again,  my son was able to gain most of the line back but this time when the fish saw the boat he sounded  in 800ft of water.  I took over the rod again about 40 mins into the fight, and sadly for us after about 5 more mins of an up and down tug of war the leader broke off at the snap.  The Capt estimated the fish to be 300-400 lbs.    Oscar quickly went back to work getting the lines back in the water and we soon began to pick away at the bonitos, barracuda and a Spanish mackerel.   My turn when a white marlin hits a ballyhoo and after about a 15 minute battle the fish is in the boat.  This fish looked like a toothpick compared to the Blue we lost.   We pulled the plug about 2pm and were back at the dock in about an hour.

Day 2,   Maggie decided she had enough excitement for the week so it was just Dan and me on this trip.   The plan was to try some bottom fishing on this trip so the Capt started off trolling to catch some bonitos for bait.   Out went the squid daisy chains on the downriggers and center line and ballyhoo on the outriggers.   With a few bonitos in the box a white hits a ballyhoo and it was game on again.  I was able to land this guy and it was off to try some bottom fishing.   We caught about a dozen strawberry grouper and some triggerfish in about an hour.    It was getting hot so we decided go troll the area where we lost the Blue on Monday.   After a couple of knockdowns we hooked into another white, Oscar hands the rod to Dan and starts to clear the other lines when a second white hits.  We had 2 jumping at once behind the boat!  That fish managed to come loose before he could give me the rod.  Dan landed his white and we were back at it.   We trolled for another hour picking a couple of bonitos and decided to head in about 2pm.
   
We had a great two days of fishing going 4 for 6 on billfish and catching several other tropical species.   Capt Carlos and Oscar are great fishermen who worked their butts off giving us plenty of action all day.  If you are in Cancun you should try to get out with him.

[fluke - u]

 ....Great vacation.....

[Hunter 2]

Wow, Awesome

[Pfishingruven]

Awesome vacation...and that was just the fishing !

[Mbailey33]

Man what a great read!! Glad the fishing was red hot

[Hotrod]

Look at all those shirts    Great trip..

Post up his link

[Still Running]

Sounds like a great vacation Dan 

[Pops Soul]

Very nice Dan 

[Fishin Dude]

Very cool trip Dan.

[BigAl13]

 

[paul-e]

Nice trip, pics and report Dan.
Awesome time

[Kenny]

Great trip...great write-up and pics...

WTG Dan 

We should do a NJSWF trip to Cancun....set it up Dan..   

[Bucktail]

We should do a NJSWF trip to Cancun....set it up Dan..   

Just awesome Dan!  Congratulations on a terrific trip!

[Ms Fish]

I loved reading every word of this report!!  WOW what a trip! You guys must have had a BLAST!!! Photos are beautiful!!!  Definitely a vacation to remember!!! The kids especially!!!   

[wb]

wow that's some fishin' 

sounds like we need a plan, Cancun Pete is a great guy