Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3707 March 16-30, 2018 | Page 32

32 “ T March 16 - 30, 2018 BAJA ROUNDUP VOL.37 • ISS. 07 Cabo Anglers Mix It Up With Marlin his week the marlin numbers jumped back up again, with 70% of boats catching striped marlin,” reported Capt. Tracy Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfish- ing. “Dorado numbers remained strong, but the tuna bite was nonexistent.” “Overall fishing was a little tougher this week, not as consistent, but those that did find fish, found many, with top boats catching up to 6 striped marlin each. Our The Riddle of Fluorocarbon A few years back, the hush hush wink wink top secret really-gets-the-fish-trick was ... “use fluorocarbon”! And in the years hence, the use of this futuristic material has skyrocketed as more and more fisher- men are jumping on the fluoro bandwag- on. Whether or not fluorocarbon lines and/or leaders make a difference really is still up for discussion. What really makes the water muddy in the discussion is that there are as many types of fluoro as there are nylon mono- filaments, that is to say, fluoro from one company can be vast- ly different than fluoro from another company. We are almost dealing with apples and oranges in many cases. Originally, the fluorocarbon material was made to be used in gill nets. Its characteristics seemed to make it as the ideal material for these types of nets. It was the most invisible material under water, it was stiff enough to minimize tangling, it tended to sink rather than float like nylon monofilaments, and it was mostly UV resistant which gave it a half life of like a thousand years. Then some smart guy decided that it would make a good fishing line, and I suppose that is how it came about. The big flaw in the plan was that fluoro- carbon is much stiffer than most nylon monofilament lines so it handled poorly on most reels, although it made for a great leader material. Of course, line manufacturers had to get on the ball and figure out how to make the line softer and more reel friendly, and so fluoros have become more user friendly than before. Being so much more expensive than nylon monos, I suppose it would make line makers happier if you filled your reels with this line instead of tying only five or six feet of it as a leader. As fluoro lines are constantly evolving, it is hard for me to pin- point exactly how to take care of your fluoro lines in the off season. If you are using fluoro strictly as a topshot or long lead- er, it is nothing to simply cut off that part of your line and splice in another fresh section of line. That is the easy part. The hard part is when you have fluoro as your main line. I have two reels rigged thusly; a Daiwa Legalis 2500 filled with 8 lb. test Seaguar Red Label and a Daiwa Lexa 100 filled with 12 lb. Seaguar Abraz-X. Fluoros are pretty strong and can take some abuse, but one of their problems is memory. Memory has two phases, the common one is where the line gets coilly and stays coilly, and the other is where when the line is stretched it comes back to the origi- nal length. (Think of how when you stretch a rubber band and then you let it go and it comes back to original size and shape.) When a line has memory such that it does not come back to the original length, that is when you have the situation where I was just casting and it broke in the middle!” or “I just set the hook and POP! the line broke just like that!” If that is the case, there is nothing you can do but cut back to where it was heavily stretched and splice in some fresh line, or replace the entire line altogether. SALTY TIPS by Steve “Hippo”Lau A beautiful Beach Resort located half way between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas, right on the Sea of Cortez Fish Baja’s East Cape at Martin verdugo’s Beach resort Cruiser Packages Include: Room for 4 nights, 5 days, 2 days of fishing, tackle, breakfast & lunch, 28 ft. supercruiser w/captain & mate Call Now For Information! 3203 Martin verdugo’s Beach resort Call Toll Free: [phone] www.verdugosbeachresort.com [phone] Or 01152 624 141 0054 E mail: [email protected] On February 18th, anglers from Louisiana, top boat this week was Pisces 28’ Adriana, Gary Bonner, George Ackal and Nick and who showed the most consistent fishing Tyler Girolamo caught and released their this week, landing fish every day. They also marlin out at Golden Gate on mackerel bait. caught a vast array of different species. For example, anglers from Georgia, the Wright’s With the largest weighing about 150 lbs. and Raymer’s, caught and released 1 striped They also landed a nice dorado of about 20 lbs on mackerel. The Pisces 42’ Yahoo has marlin of about 150 lbs and 1 dorado of been very consistent this month, with top about 10 lbs, both out at Golden Gate on mackerel. They also caught 3 grouper, 4 red catches every week. The Saville and Martin snapper and 4 triggerfish of about 4 lbs each families had a great day, catching and re- leasing 4 striped marlin out at Golden Gate by chumming closer to shore at Golden on mackerel. The marlin weighed between Gate area. Pisces Adriana caught marlin 120 and 160 lbs each. Later in the week, all days, except for one. Totaling 7 stripers anglers from Texas caught 5 striped marlin caught in the week.,” said Ehrenberg. and 2 dorado. The stripers were caught out “As for our marlin catches this week, at Golden Gate on mackerel and weighed the Pisces 31’ Rebecca, caught the most striped out of any other boat on Wednesday, between 130 and 140 lbs each. The dorado were also landed on mackerel and weighed with the Hayes family, Chris, Kelly, and their young daughter Elizabeth catching and about 18 lbs,” reported Ehrenberg. releasing 6 strip- ers total. They caught all marlin on mackerel bait out at Golden Gate, which averaged about 130 lbs each. The family fished previously in the week aboard 31’ Pisces Ruthless, catching and releasing 3 striped marlin of about 120 and 140 lbs each, again out at Golden Gate on mackerel. They also caught 2 red snapper and about 15 triggerfish by chumming closer to Migriño. A total of 9 striped m