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Cabo San Lucas Sportsfishing: Part II of a Great Fishing Day in Los Cabos

Although my family and I started off our Cabo San Lucas sportfishing trip in search of marlin (hoping our teenage boys would get the chance to catch and release one of these incredibly strong and agile fish), we had no such luck that day. Although other charter fishing boats did bring in a small striped and blue marlin that day, we did not spot a single one, even though we went up the west cape as far as Todos Santos and back along the east cape along the Corridor as far as Zippers Beach.

Still our Cabo San Lucas sportfishing excursion was nothing less than spectacular. In fact, even though I wasn't fishing that day (because I wanted to document my husband and teenage boys' fishing experience with my DSLR and video camera), we caught our limit of fish, which is 2 fish per person.

The first fish was reeled in by my 13-year old: a 20 pound albacore tuna. It was a far cry from the 350 pound albacore we saw in the Cabo San Lucas fishing charters office, but it was a good first catch and was fairly easy for my son to reel in, let alone the fact that it is good eating. The captain and the first mate coached him on his technique: when to let the fish pull, when to wait and when to start reeling like crazy. (It's been over a year since we've gone deep sea fishing in Baja and my son was thankful for the tips.)

Next, my husband caught a dorado. Then my youngest son caught another dorado. Finally, my eldest son, Dakotah, who is sixteen years old, had a big dorado on the line. This was one of those huge, mythic fish and the reason we knew was that he kept jumping and was doing everything he could do to preserve his life. The struggle during this Los Cabos fishing experience was a long one and in the end, the fish won when it managed to bite through the line. Although my son let the big one get away, he did get to experience the struggle between man and fish, man's hunt for food pitted against the creature's struggle for survival.

Fortunately, this Cabo San Lucas sportfishing experience was just the precursor to my eldest son's next battle with a big dorado: a bull. He won this battle, reeling in the biggest dorado of the day.

All in all, my husband and sons caught our limit: 2 fish per person, a total of eight fish: two albacore and 6 big dorado. Around the time, my eldest son brought in his last dorado, he started feeling sick to his stomach. This was only about three hours into our fishing trip. I didn't know at the time that we had caught our quota (which is obviously a new rule) and wondered why the captain and first mate seemed to be just biding time, while I thought they were trolling for marlin. When we realized that we had caught our quota, even though it was a beautiful day out on the ocean, we asked the captain to take us back to the marina to end our Cabo San Lucas sportfishing day, so my son could get his land legs back and start feeling better.

It was then that we got our next surprise: according to the captain, it was no longer permissible to filet your catch on board the boat. We had always done this in the past, in fact, I had video footage of our last trip with my husband and the captain of the boat fileting the fish. Apparently, when we purchased our fishing license, we had unwittingly agreed to this new rule. We asked the captain if he knew the reason for this new rule, but he did not know why it had been instituted. He did tell us that we could have our fish fileted at the pier for the cost of $6 USD per fish. So this added yet another cost to our Cabo San Lucas sportfishing trip because there was no way that my husband (who is handicapped) and my two boys could lug a number of 4 foot long dorado back to our hotel.

Ultimately, my husband who knows how to filet fish properly was unhappy with the service provided at the pier. In fact, he considered it a hack job. (Every year, my husband brings two filet knives with us in our checked baggage on our trip to Los Cabos.) When we got home and he prepared the fish to be frozen for our trip back home, he said that all they did was cut off the skin and hack the meat into some poorly cut filets.) Before the fish were fileted, the boys could have posed for a photo standing next to their strung-up fish on the dock to forever record their Cabo San Lucas sportfishing experience, but of course, there was yet another cost for this and our cost-conscious teenage boys elected not to do so. At that point, all they wanted to do was go back to our hotel and take a shower.

All in all, our Cabo San Lucas sportfishing experience was a positive one that will make for many happy memories and big fish stories in the years to come. Stay tuned for my next article in which I will reveal my husband's secrets for packaging and freezing fish for your trip back home, so you can share your Cabo catch and big fish stories with the folks back home.

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Read the first part of our story about Cabo San Lucas Fishing Charters

Cabo San Lucas Sportfishing

Cabo San Lucas

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