CABO "THE PERFECT DAY"

David Brackmann

Charter Member

1117 posts, 14 feedbacks, 24 points Nov-05-07, 12:47 PM (PST)

9. "RE: 179 Marlin and 1 sailfish released in one day"

In response to message #1

It was wild watching fish that we released swim immediately back to the meatballs of mackerel and see them start feeding again with a circle hook still in their jaw and a foot of leader attached to the hook. There is no doubt in our minds that circle hooks are the ONLY way to go to insure healthy and fast billfish releases.

We could not of done this without circle hooks PERIOD!

The Eagle Claw L2004EL 8/0 hooked the marlin in the corner of the jaw, the fish would stay on the surface after the bite and not dive out or if they did would come up and jump again, allowing us to back down and cut the fish off with a release knife on a tag pole close to the hook or break leader there. Hook up rates were 95% or better. I went 24 for 24 before I wore through a leader on one fish..lol. Twice I was underwater while laying out over the transom to grab leader was Badsey backed down at 7 knots in a wall of water..lol. Another thing that sped things up was to cast out no more than 4 baits at a time and throw them all in one spot so that we would hook the fish in the same spot so we could back down and pick off one or two right close to where we hooked them. We wouldn't cast of hook another batch until we got two released first. We casted and fought all fish from the stern (no bow bait tank), never went to the bow, this helped keep the fish off the stern most of the time. That Rampage spins on the dime and is a rocket ship! Maximum bait capacity in the tank I found when loading it was 65 baits max. Any excess we would drop in the 4 tuna tubes to use as dead baits. We had 4 dozen ballyhoo in the freezer for when we ran low on live baits. Bait was easy to make in the morning at 5 a drop per sabiki rig with 8 oz. of weight (we had to re-rig with our casters for three bait rigs on the bait grounds - Chris found them on the 500' flats 1/4 mile below the shark buoy with the meat balls hanging at 120' - 140' deep. After 12 PM (when we had 100 releases) we found the bait was getting tougher and tougher to catch as Chris said the bait was getting pushed around by marlin. He could see multiple marlin on the bait balls while we tried to stay on the bait to make it. We ran out of sinkers and ended up using Diamond Jigs with the hooks cut off as weights. Alex was very good at catching red snapper and not mackerel..lol.

The tackle was -

7' Melton casters, Trinidads and Stellas (Trinidads were the reel of choice with the high gear ratio and better casting freespool..me and Steve still like the Avet 6/3 better myself..lol) spooled with 65 lb. hi-vis braid worm knotted to 100 yards of 30 lb. line to 30' of 100 lb. regular clear Berkley Hi Test (we had a 1,000 yard spool sitting behind the chair) then snelled on through the bend side of the eye (what I always preach here)an Eagle Claw L2004EL 8/0 circle hook with the bait either just pinned through the mackerels nose or using Quick Rig bait clips. When we got down to 6 top 10 live baits we would have Alex Rogers and Jose use the live bait and my brother Steve and I would use the Quick Rig clips to horse ballyhoo. We would just cast the ballyhoo to the bait ball, let it sink for 3 seconds and then wind and then stall the bait when a marlin was trailing the casted ballyhoo for the bite.

QuickRig 2 Second Bait Bridling Kit

Hi Howard,

I just thought I'd give you a quick update. I just got back from 7 days of fishing in Cabo San Lucas. I caught 37 Stripped Marlin in 7 days, 5 on lures and 32 with live Mackerel. We used the QuicRig exclusively and I had a 100% hook-up rate with the bait bridling. It worked perfectly and I know the hook-up percentage was so high because of the perfect placement of the hook on the bait every time. My Captain and Mate were a little skeptical but they aren't anymore, they love it.

I need some more clips, who has them in stock now?

Thanks

Tom Lansing

QuickRig Hooks

Hi Howard,

I just want to thank you for the hooks, and to let you know we just won a daily prize of $82,300 in the Bacardi Billfish Tournament using two stealth coated 9/0 southern tuna hooks. Hopefully you will make some needle eye hooks soon.

Thanks again for a great product.

Capt. Jason "tiny" Walcott. S/F "Juel Marie"