Cabo Striped Marlin

I recently had the opportunity to fish with friends Capt Herk & Sue Marsella aboard their 52 custom FRANTIC PACE out of Cabo San Lucas. It's rare that I have the free time away from running charters and private trips to do a little fishing on my own, so I jumped at the chance to work the cockpit and do some angling. Herk was giving me daily updates and by the sounds of things the striped marlin were on the chew so I hopped on a charter flight from Puerto Vallarta to Cabo for three days of light tackle bait and switch teaser fishing. Captain Josh Temple hooked up to the first striped marlin of the morning.

Running three teasers and a dredge we managed to raise our first striper only seconds after deploying the spread. With Herk at the helm and his wife Sue and I in the cockpit, Herk ran the teasers from the bridge while Sue and I handled the ballyhoo drop back baits. We prepped our baits on 80# Yo-zuri fluorocarbon leader and 7/0 Eagle Claw 2004EL circle hooks, and ran them on 20# test on Shimano outfits. Super light tackle compared to what I'm used to fishing for giant tuna and black and blue marlin.

With just two people in the cockpit, and double headers of striped marlin, Capt Josh hooks, fights, wires, and releases a nice Cabo striped marlin solo.

Nothing makes Capt Herk happier than going backwards in a hurry.

We're still trying to figure out how Capt Josh manages to run a cockpit shorthanded, fight marlin, and take pictures like this at the same time.

Sue Marsella cranking like a she-devil as her husband Capt Herk gets after another marlin.

The vibrant blue stripes along this Cabo Striper leave little doubt as to how they earned their name.

Up close and personal, a beautiful striped marlin piles on the bait after being teased up to within arms length of the boat.

A lit-up Cabo striper takes to the air. In the first day of fishing we managed to raise over two dozen fish and scored releases on thirteen of them. As fish would pile on the teasers or dredge Sue and I would pitch our naked ballyhoo back on single or multiple fish in the spread and Herk would promptly clear the teasers from the bridge. More than a few times we wished we had more anglers on board as a half dozen fish or more would attack everything we had in the water, but with just Sue and I in the cockpit we were limited to only two baits in the water at a time. More than enough action for me anyway. Our total for three days of fishing was 27 releases for 45 shots, not a bad average for a rusty ol' captain who rarely gets to handle a rod for himself!