It’s so good to be back on the rock.  I made the short hop from MIA to CUN this afternoon, and made sure I was at the dock at sundown to greet the fleet. I managed to catch the Qualifier pulling in late after a day of decent fishing and 14 releases. Pretty good action the last few days by most of the fleet has me anxious to get out on the bank in the morning. I’ll try and keep the Isla Mujeres fishing reports fresh…

Day 1 – Maiden voyage for the newest Paul Mann boat “Alina” today. The wind was blowing and the sails were biting. Ran about 20 miles to the fleet and set out. Lots of birds in the area, but not the conditions to catch the fish on top. Ended up trolling around until 4:30 with 13 releases for the day. Plenty of other fish seen in the spread and biting. Great day for a shake down cruise.

Day 2 – Today I rode along with Capt. Fin aboard the Qualifier. Breezy conditions this morning. We start fishing about 20 miles out. Did I mention it was rough? Decent action in the morning, gradually slowing down all day. Ended up with 10 released sails.

Day 3 – Back on the Alina today.  Fishing was slow for us today…just one of those days when you wish you could take a mulligan.

Day 4 – Back on the Qualifier today. Still windy and complete cloud cover all day. We ran up to the North this morning to try and find some action. There was some birds and bait on top early, then it scattered and was hard to find. Most of our bites today were on the troll. Ended up catching 18. It wasn’t much better for the rest of the fleet.

It helps the numbers add up quickly when you can catch them four at a time.

Day 5 – Riding aboard the Billy Holten boat Haphazard for today’s action with Capt. Will.  Mate Joey’s dad and some friends are the anglers.  Still blowing and heavy clouds with rain.  Salt spray galore.  We did see some action on top and lots of birds.  Managed to tag most of the fish we released.

Day 6 – Aboard the Keen M with Capt. Arch.  One of the smaller boats in the fleet, but with a single angler it makes for the perfect platform for me to ride along and get some shots.  The winds seems to have let up some at dawn and it continues to drop off all day long.  Heavy sky early with our first hour of fishing spent in the rain.  Once that passed it still looked threatening but somehow cleared out and made for a pretty day.  Not many multiple hookups today, as expected with only one angler, but the action was steady all day.

Almost all our fish were caught under the birds and not trolling between bunches.  What a show.  I could spend hours watching these animals feeding on Sardines.  An amazing display of flight.  We ran well to the North and had plenty of room to work.  The bite today was pretty good for the whole fleet.  We ended up releasing in the low 20’s.

Today was one of those days when very few of the fish we hooked would jump for the camera.  Ended up shooting lots of birds today.  Captured some nice shots of these animals interacting.

 

 

 

Day 8 – One more trip aboard the Qualifier to wrap up this photoshoot.  It’s all coming together as the wind backs off and the sun comes out.  A perfect day to join Ellen Peel of The Billfish Foundation for her first time fishing the Isla Bank.  Fishing and shooting conditions were great, but the clear highlight of the day was seeing and hearing the emotion of Ellen as she reacted to the incredible sights that this fishery offers. We ran up North and found the birds and bait.  Solid non stop action all morning with Sailfish.

 

A surprising number of Wahoo bites today.  On several occasions a pack of them would clean out the spread.  Sadly, one did managed to get lip hooked.

Ellen even found time to do some work.  Here she presents a  vertical wall trophy to local mate Sinapo Sinay for TBF’s Sailfish Top Tagging Mate 2011.

And what could be cooler than having a dock party dinner with Sir Richard Branson. Here he took a moment to pose with Anthony’s daughters and friends.

I’m in Isla Mujeres this week and happen to be overlapping one of the annual fishing tournaments held here on the island. This event is the Gran Torneo de Pesca and is unlike any other tournament I have ever seen. For staters, the prizes for first thru tenth place are on display in a parking lot. And as far as tournament trophy’s go, they are very useful. First place is an SUV, second is a pickup truck, third is a compact car, fourth is Ponga skiff, and fifth thru tenth are various levels of mopeds and scooters. Lets just say that most of the participants aboard the 114 boats entered are a wee bit motivated to do well in this one. The target species (in order of highest points to lowest) are Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Wahoo, Dorado, Tuna, Kingfish, Barracuda, and other. One fish from each category can be weighed each day for each team. This other category lets you pick one more fish to bring in each day, such as a Bonita, AJ, snapper, grouper, etc. They have a minimum length for the billfish and a 10lb minimum for the meat fish. Note the missing Sailfish category. The Sailfish is obviously the most common and revered fish here and forces teams to use all their skills to place in this event.

Day 1 of 2 – It’s blowing today. They say it’s been blowing for the last two weeks now. This sure is unusual weather for late May. I catch a ride with Tammy and Dave aboard the 59′ Spencer boat Double Trouble. They decide to go long odds and run 30 miles South to the edge down below Punta Morales. A 33 knot cruise and a Carolina ride make this seem easy even with 20+ knots of wind. Little or no crowd down there but the fishing was slow. They did manage to catch a small undersized White, an undersized Wahoo, a keeper Dorado, and an undersized Kingfish. Then the current changed and the weed moved in and things shut down. The evening weigh in is a sight to see with a line for your moment at the scale snaking well down the dock. One Blue and many whites were brought in today along with plenty of grande meat fish.

Day 2 – The same or even more wind today. Again riding aboard the Double Trouble. Today Dave runs out front of Isla with the bulk of the fleet and we start in deep water. Out here the current runs strong and I mean to tell you it was rough on the deep side of the edge. Several keeper Dorado and a fat 18lb Bonita go in the box early. A White teases in half way then peels off without eating. Then a long lull before another White appears on the bridge teaser and eats a flat line. While pulling drag this keeper size White pops up behind a long rigger and goes ahead and eats that before pulling off both rods seconds later. Terrible luck.

Day 3 – Riding with Anthony aboard the Keen M today. Wind conditions have improved slightly from yesterday as it appears the weather is going to do what the forecasters say it will do – improve. Only a few boats out today. We pick away all day and end up with 20 billfish bites total (3 white Marlin and 17 sailfish) and a Blue Marlin sighting. Also plenty of Dorados, from peanut to 30lbs. Spent about 30 minutes live baiting a Bonita on some wire as it’s not too late to see a Mako up on the bank. We saw one Whale Shark on the ride in.

Day 4 – The weather is getting nicer everyday. We went deep early and had three white marlin bites along with some nice Dorados. Ended up running inshore for the late afternoon sail bite. Ended up with 21 billfish bites today. We saw several large turtles while trolling. Good solid fishing for late May.

Day 5 – Calm and sunny today with a nice gaffer Dorado right out of the gate. Then a deepwater Sailfish shows up and finds a hook. Not long after a welcomed White Marlin makes a showing. Lots of jumps and photos. A few more sails in the afternoon complete the day.

Day 6 – Flat calm today. Deep early with not much action. A few sail bites and a gaffer Dorado. No signs of the White Marlin. We spend about an hour bouncing a bait on the bottom in 1100 feet of water looking for a daytime Swordfish. No bites. Only a cookie cutter shark on the bait when we wound up (above). A move to the inshore zone in the afternoon was quiet also. A few sail bites to be had. Our final push was to try to catch dinner and the Mangrove Snapper and Gag Grouper were very excited to see our baits. The action was fast and furious for the short time we spent at it. Even caught two snapper on one live bait – a double hooked Cigar Minnow (below).