www.NOTORIOUSFISHING.com

Monday, Febuary 26, 2007

August 16 - September 16, 2006

August 6- 16, 2006

July 4 - July 20, 2006

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Monday, Febuary 26, 2007 - Finally an Update!

Lot of fish here out of Los Suenos Costa Rica... 25 to 50 shots a day at Blues, Blacks, Sails and Dorado... A few Wahoo bites as well but only a few.

Friday was epic with 25 sails and a 45 lb dorado... Less bites on Saturday with 12 sails and two dorado... And once again a steady land bite as well!

Captain, Jeff notoriousfishing.com

Monday, Febuary 26, 2007 - Finally an Update!

Pictures!

Here is how its gone so far.

Left PV Dec.10 at 3:00 AM... Triple hook up on tuna at the sand bank... The water was a little snotty so we headed down swell toward Ixtapa... Just before sunset another small tuna flurry and 1 nice dorado off Barra.
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Not much action the next day until we were boarded by the navy... After that we headed straight for Ixtapa... Spent the next week fishing for sails and checking things out... Had a great Christmas with the boss and planned to leave the next evening... Had to dump the original crew and picked up a couple new guys fron the Marina... So far so good!

Headed out Dec. 26 12:OO AM for Huatulco... Woke up to flat blue water about 30 mile off Acupulco... Set the lures out around 9:00 am... Turned around to head up to the bridge when WHAM! Nice blue marlin around 225 lbe... Tried hard to revive the fish but no luck... Oh well these guys had no complaints and are both awesome cooks... Had a couple more shots at marlin that hour, released a sail and boated a small Mahi... Picked up the lures and ran a couple hrs to Marina Chaue Huatulco... Had to spend a couple weeks waiting for the guys to get papers as well as some bad weather in the Tuantapec... Anyway the fishng was slow but the night fishing was wide open.

After spending a year in Huatulco those two week we were off to Guatamala... The Tuantapec had 30+ knots of wind but running in 40 feet of water we had almost no sea... No fishing this leg of the trip... The next morning was dead flat off Champerico Guatamala... Put some line out for a couple hrs but the long liners were so thick for a solid 100 miles we could never make a straight line... We decided to pull the lures and run for Puerto Quetzal... This place is dirty! On land as well as sea... Sugar cane ash coating the boat and a rolling sea in the marina... We spent a few days their and headed off to Nicaragua... After making 35 miles the wind was a solid 40+ and a steep 6 foot sea so we headed back to wait it out a few more days... After it settled down some we were out of there.

Headed out early afternoon for Marina Puesta Del Sol Nicaragua... Trolled out of Guatamala getting some good sailfish action for a couple hours... The wind was still up so we headed in to run the shoreline for the night... Next morning was a big rolling sea but only 15 knots of wind... We headed out to about 30 mile where the water was blue... No sooner the lures went out a nice marlin was all over the short rigger... Missed that one then got nailed by a fat wahoo about 30 lbs... Sorry but I forgot to charge the camera... Anyway we ended up releasing a blue around 200 and boated two Wahoo... We headed in for the small SHALLOW estuary where the Marina is... This is a beautiful place!... Well worth the stop...They are geting started here so their is not much but a small hotel and retaraunt... Oh yes and a fuel dock... This place makes you feel like your in a remote area... Actually it is! The plan was to leave the next morning... The wind was coming back up but we had to get going.

After some boat nausea the next morning we finally headed out around noon... The wind was again 30 knots+ and gusty... No fishing! After sunset the radar was nothing but spots from pangas (if you could see them) and shrimpers... These guys were out in some SHITTY water making their living... It was a bob and weave fest all night... My crew was new at the radar so I was forced to do the marathon watch... By 2:00 AM I was tired of taking gas so we pulled into this small anchorage up against a cliff and dropped the hook... Kinda scarey pulling into a place for the first time but had to sleep for a few... Turns out this place had a better anchorage inside the bay... Oh well! The name of the bay is San Juan Del Sur... The last stop before crossing Bahia Santa Elena and Golfo Papagayo..

Headed out for Los Suenos Costa Rica around 6:30 AM... The wind was just howling... Ran the coast of Santa Elena... Beautiful coastline with rolling hills and small coves... Anyway finally got the sea and wind off the stern and rode it to Bat Island at the start of the Golfo Papagayo... It was an amazing site! I could see what looked like flat glassy water about 5 miles ahead and sure as shit it was... After hitting the calm water it was full speed accross the gulf... Amazingly that was the last wind or whitecap I have seen since... The water off Costa Rica is BLUE BLUE and flat... We put a few lines out the last 50 miles scoring a blue,a nice bull and 3 sails..

Needless to say it's been a fine balancing act between fun and well, more fun I guess! Heading back down at the end of the week for more whatever.

Adios, Jeff notoriousfishing.com

Tuesday June 20, 2006: Fish are rockin in PV!!!

Team NOTORIOUS is gearin up for the World Cup Blue Marlin Championship. We've been pregaming, and the Tuna are practically jumping in the boat!! Click on the pic for a bigger version

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Tuesday June 13, 2006: Pelagic Sponsors Team NOTORIOUS!!!

Team NOTORIOUS is poud to be associated with one of the top names in Deep Sea recreational fishing. They make top quality gear manufactured right here in the USA. Check them out at www.pelagicgear.com.

 

 

 

T-Shirts are now avaiable!!!! Limited Quantities so get yours today!

 

 

Friday May 12, 2006 : 2 Sails and 8 Dorado

Team Notorious scores once again in PV. Unfortunately we didn't get a written story, but the pictures should suffice:

Monday: April 3, 2006: Equipo Notorious Scores Again

Okay arm chair fishermen, here is a report from paradise.

3/31 – Flew down to PV on the night flight. Went down to the boat to meet up with Jeff and my Dad John, then we went to dinner at Fajita Bananas for their delicious Mochohete. After dinner it was time to light the fires as we were off to Mita for some sleep.

4/1 – Excited to get an early start we left the anchorage at 5:30. We proceeded to our numbers about 2.5 hours away. We managed 5 striped marlin and one nice bull Mahi. The highlight was the double hook up.

4/2 – The conditions changed as the water got greener from the previous days wind. The fishing was still great with lots of shots on striped marlin. We also managed a female Mahi which promptly received a gaff shot. Lines up by 2pm and it was back to the dock and airport for me.

Tuesday: March 14, 2006

Our friend Gene does some awesome Tuna and Marlin custom paint jobs. You've got to see this...

 

Monday: February 20, 2006

We left the point at 05:00 enroute to the rock. We arrived at the rock in pitch darkness to have a whale breach 25 ft behind to boat and scare the crap out of us. After getting out bearings we got the balloon rigged and had a few drifts north of the rock. After seeing some suspicious activity on the other side of the rock (the south side), we changed our plan to drift past the SE side of the rock in a SW fashion. We began seeing small tuna errupt. Sure enough, the balloon got hit.....but it was a Bonita. A couple ouf drifts later we scored on a +/- 50 lb Yellowfin. Around 11:00 we decided to check out el banco. El bonce had nothing for us except another Bonita on the troll. We left the rock and ran West for 10 miles. At this point we trolled SSW along the 100 fathom curve. Around 13:30 we got a hit on the long corner and released a small Striped Marlin. Then it was off the the airport.

Sunday: February 19, 2006

We headed out for Sayulita the morning after having a great dinner at Santos. After trolling around for only a few hours it was time to return to the dock inorder for Dave and Allen to catch their flight back to Los Estados Unidos. Needless to say, no luck. After a wuick stop in the marina for the drop off and some fuel Jeff and I left for the point.

 

Sunday: February 12, 2006

After wrestling with the windlass for 45 min to get the anchor up we headed out for the rock. The rock looked somewhat fishy so we set up a couple of drifts. We got two balloons going, one with a cabbie and another with squid. With no action we headed NW and pulled some lures. We trolled over the banco and then ran to Salulita for some sail fish action. Threw baits at the fads with no results. We trolled inside and got one hit on the purple EAL, however, the fish didn't stick. -H

Saturday: February 11, 2006

The fishing was slow last weekend. Sat: Hit the rock at daybreak loaded with Ham Slices and Cabbies. The water was cold and green with a good white cap chop on top. We found evidence of some tuna so we set up a drift and put out the Balloon. Within 5 minutes the balloon gets hit, fish on. I started with the day belt but after getting pinned to the rail I harnessed up. 30 minutes later my Dad sticks the fish will the gaff, game over, +/- 100lb Yellow Fin. The rest of the day was spent around the rock on countless drifts, scored a couple of 10-15lb jacks. Also managed to get a bird on the balloon.

January 16, 2006 MORE POHOTOS COMING SOON!!!!

Sunday January 15, 2006

5:50am wake up call couldn't have come sooner. Once again we would be the first boat out of the protected bay and off to our banks. Despite the itch for some big Tuna, radio reports of such species had been scarce and we decided that pulling on some Marlin and Mahi wasn't all that bad ;). Once again lines went out, but today it only took 3 minutes for the Stripers to wish us a good day. Seriously, three minutes from the time the first feather went out. Hunter had just finished setting the drag on the starboard rigger when the port side short corner got nervous as a small striped billfish approached and proceeded to whack the innocent plastic feather back and forth. Unfortunately for the fish it whacked it a bit to hard and the purple/black ELS sunk it's 12/o J hooks deep in the marlin's bill. A short fight later and Hunter successfully released the Marlin and the feathers were back in the water.

By 11:15am Team NOTORIOUS had racked up a striped marlin record of 4 for 10, and we were itching for some new species. As we began to grumble about the low Marlin strike number compared to yesterday a nice size bull mahi put on a Barnum & Bailey circus act. The dorado came from the starboard side straight up through the feather and across to the starboard side providing us with an awesome side profile. The greens, yellows and blues were absolutely amazing!!! As Mike reeled the dorado in, Jeff and Hunter prepared live baits to throw at trailing mahi. The fact that mahi follow hooked mahi is one of the strangest things to witness. You can literally reel a dorado in within 15 feet of the boat and any accompanying mahi will follow and swim up right behind the hooked one. The inevitable occurred and Jeff soon found his thumb ablaze as the bull Mahi realized the metal contents of the ham slice it had just swallowed. A few minutes later we had provided for our families and a 35lbs bull Mahi and his 20lb companion were being iced down. Before heading in we would catch one more mahi (~20 lbs) and miss the two trailing dorado, but we had plenty of food to bring back.

Mike had a plane to catch at 5pm so we called it a day around 12:45pm and headed in. On our way in we saw a few humpback whales and a few whales of another species (perhaps grey whales?).

Porpoise, sea lions, striped marlin, manta rays, mahi, flying fish, and lots of birds made for an epic weekend trip to Puerto Vallarta . The 30+ boat crowd of September-November were gone and the fishing was truly world class PV. 11 striped marlin & 4 mahi landed with countless window shopping Stripers resulted in a classic January trip. Thanks a ton to Jeff for doing such an awesome job running NOTORIOUS and a big thanks to Dave for making Team NOTORIOUS happen. Until next time.......

Saturday January 14, 2006

5:50am, anchor up, and out we go. With reports claiming little action at Corbitinia and El Banco we decided we'd split the difference and head out to the banks. The banks lie 15 or so miles outside of both El Banco and Corbitinia so that the three points form an equilateral triangle. At this spot the water depth drops from around 2,000 feet to ~10,000 feet+. The natural upwelling caused by the geography creates a sport fishing paradise.

The two hour run out there seemed like forever with everyone on board jonzin for a rod to pull on and some aerial action. Little did we know we would not be disappointed......

Despite having a bait tank stocked with Caballitos and a helium tank ready to pop out a whopping 30 36" balloons, we decided that we'd troll some plastics. Casador had just obtained a new ELD (Electronic L(something) Device). It runs on a funky 3V battery and emits a clicking sound which is supposed to attract pelagic species. We threw that out on the port rigger, and hooked up a green and black eel feather with a bird teaser on the port corner. On the starboard side we were running a red and white jetHead on the rigger and a purple/orange feather with a bird teaser on the long corner. Not 15 minutes into the troll we heard the gates of St. Peter welcoming us into heaven.......ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

The boys went to work under the experienced supervision of Capeeeetan Jeff. As Jeff scanned the ocean for the striped Marlin's cousins, Mike went to work clearing rods, and Hunter started putting some bend in the rod. With all three feathers cleared and no following stripees, Jeff threw the engines in neutral and we all held on for the show.

As the Striped Marlin proceeded to show off all of its 120lbs in full aerial style and grace, Hunter buttoned down the TLD 30 and put some hurt into the Zebra. "Leader" was called and Mike dawned the gloves to initiate the catch and release portion of the show. Bill grabbed, hook released, high fives all around. By 8:30 Saturday morning, not 18 hours from the US , Team NOTORIOUS was on the board. Check the leaders for chafe, and throw em back out again. 15-20 minutes later. WHHAMMM!!! A pair of stripers appear out of nowhere and hammer the two Birds/inside corners. After whacking our plastics from Mexico back to Taiwan the bills decided they would be windows shoppers and took off for some fresh food. Little did they know they would soon fall under Team NOTORIOUS' spell and become numbers on the board in the next 24 hours.

Feathers went back out and the troll resumed. Marlin could be spotted all up and down the bank, and window shoppers far outnumbered hungry customers by a final ratio of 4:1. At one point we had 4+ striped Marlin hitting every feather in the spread knocking it into the air, while simultaneously ignoring the live baits on the drop back. At first this scene was followed by complete silence and utter frustration, but after 7 landed Striped Marlin and 1 huge 40lb+ Bull Mahi, all we could do was look back on it and laugh.

When the Marlin bite started fizzling around 4pm NOTORIOUS started the trip back and would eventually stumble across two sithering Sailfish. Casador shimmyed to the front of the boat with a live bait ready to serve it's purpose as Capt'n Jeff skillfully maneuvered the 50 Bertram across their path. Despite perfect presentation of a fresh Cabby, the sailfish cruised on by. Only the Ginormous Manta Rey swimming below the two Sails would show some interest.

Reaching Punta Mita around 7pm (a 13+ hour day) Team NOTORIOUS was both exhausted and content. A few boats spotted but a relatively isolated day, 7 released Marlin, a Mahi grilling on the ???Stove after being soaked in Chef Jeffiradi's special Mahi Sauce, and a few drinks capped off a great day of angling in Puerto Vallarta , Mex.

Sunday would be our second and final day of fishing and we were intent on duplicating our efforts.

 

Friday January 13, 2006 (Friday the 13th)

Itchin' to escape the smog filled Southern California Coast, Casador and Miguel embarked to the shores of Puerto Vallarta . Once again Team NOTORIOUS was back in action. With reports of up to 50 marlin a boat....(yes 50 for those "Super" heroes down south), it was an opportunity that could not be passed up.

Miguel arrived around 2pm to a pristine ship which had just undergone a complete manicure and pedicure by captain Jeff. He has done such an awesome job maintaining her and boy was she a sight for sore eyes.

Casador arrived around 4pm and after a quick chat with Dick on the Cajun we set motor for Punta Mita. Ms. NOTORIOUS had also been agonizing in the polluted harbor of Marina Vallarta and was eager to rev up her ponies. When those engines fired up to 2000 RMP's it became quite apparent that she was happy to be back in blue water. We all settled in for the quick one hour ride out to the point and shot the shit about the agonizing morning commutes back in the States.

We pulled up to Punta Mita to find the Chiron moored just outside the harbor. A quick chat with them, some fajitas, and it was off to an early nights sleep. With so much mojo in the air it was hard to hit the hay and as soon as the eyes shut the alarms started going off.

 

Saturday December 3, 2005

WOOO HOOO!!!! Way to go Dave! Here's a nice shot of Dave with his Sailfish:

Ordalay muchachos, Lots of action through the day.Missed a nice black marlin in the AM trolling dead bait(mullet)NOT THE HAIR CUT!,HA,HA,...Although that may work for the tuna these days.The water has dropped in temp some and is now around 76 to 78+.The water color has not made much of an improvement either with dirty green along the beach.Even still the bite remains fair for those looking for sails and some marlin as well as mahi around the buoys.Corbetania is still holding some tuna up to 200# but still looking at very small baits.I have a feeling that this is going to change soon.It has been far to long that they have held on to this pattern.Not sure what's up with El Banco.Anyway we spent the later morning fighting mahi mahi including our mascota that fell in love with our giant mahi looking teaser and followed it for a full half hour,until we fed him a hooked cabbie.Le Vaya Bien al pescado.Sorry pez lovers but Cristinas 1st B-DAY is coming up and Marlin are good food.Had a good dozen shots at sails this afternoon.Picket fences everywhere!!Boated a couple for the party and kindly sent the others on their way.Hard to remember when I last saw this much tail.Aside from Candies!Beautiful weather today with streaming high clouds and 8 to 10 knots of west wind.Another great day on the water for the Notorious.Congrats to Dave (El Jefe) on catching them all.BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR!!

SEA-YA,JEFF

913lb Marlin !!!!
Click here to read the story, see pictures, and WATCH THE VIDEO!!!

 

Thursday November 25, 2005

Happy Turkey Day!!! Gobble Gobble. Hope all of you have stuffed your selves with turkey and all the trimmings. There is now a RSS feed for NOTORIOUS Fishing which will be updated as updates to the site are made. You can access the link at the following address http://www.notoriousfishing.com/notoriousRSS.xml

I've also added a Fishing Links section and a Sponsors section. If you are interested in sponsoring NOTORIOUS Fishing we'd love to hear from you. Contact us by filling out the form on our Contact Us page.

I've been spending the last week putting together an online store where you can shop for the exact same items we've designed and used to pull in our HUGE Tuna and Marlin. The store should be up in a few days and will be the one stop shop for all you fishing enthusiasts. Adios for now and buenos suerte out in the ocean!

 

Tuesday November 15, 2005

Hey NOTORIOUS Fishing fans. Sorry about the lack of updates to the site, but it's been kind of hectic lately. I know some of the previous story's are half finished (if even there at all), but I did post the Marlin video. You absolutely have to watch it. The high bandwidth large video is definately the way to go if you have a fast connection. Anyways, I promise to put up more videos and pictures.

Oh yeah, I posted a new photo gallery also call PV Round 2. Check it out. Adios.
-Miguel

 

Sunday November 6, 2005

We caught a HUGE!!!! Black Marlin. Read the story here

Wednesday November 2, 2005

5:45am wake up call to Call on Me resulted in a few bumped and bruised heads, but nothing a little bit of tuna fishing couldn't take care of!!! Threw the lines on the boat and headed out to Corbitainia. The sun was a shinin, water calm as glass, and the air was smellin fishy. As we motored out of the bay taking in the fresh salty air, we spotted some larger schools of skippy's and proceeded to drop the irons. Once again Don Juan came through with his skippy skills quickly going 2 for 2 on some 4-5lb lively skipjacks. Hunter meticulously removed the hook and placed the fish in the tuna tubes without drawing a drop of blood. Unfortunately we must have caught the fish at the end of their breakfast because it took us close to an hour before we were able to load all 6 tubes with strong healthy skipjack. Motored out to Corbitainia and started the skippy drag. Not one hour into the troll .....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ the line goes exploding off the real and team NOTORIOUS jumps into action. Rods are cleared as the line is fed to the hungry beast anxious to devour the 9/o stainless circle at the end of the 120lb flourocarbon leader. Engine is reved and the line accelerates to an incomprehensible speed. Then it happened. With the annoying grace only the pesky sailfish posseses, the fish jumped a few times and swam off leaving us with slack line and some pissed off fishermen.

See, we've been having this problem the entire trip and it's really become an irritating nuisance. Sailfish seem to get a kick out of stricking our bait, killing it, and then jumping off hookless as if giving us a large middle finger. The Fishin Mortician Juan came up with a solution that we all decided would be implemented during our next drift. More on that later.

Tuesday November 1, 2005

Everyone arrived back on the boat today ready to fire up the engines. Jeff, John, Miguel, Hunter, and his cousin Cale got to work rigging up so we would be prepared for the early morning wake up call. WE'RE BACK!!!!!

 

Sunday October 23, 2005 (7:30pm)

I know. I know. The Tuna Strike link has been inactive for the past couple of days. I just put it up tonight so it should be working. If you have any problems let me know. The file is a .wmv file so if you can't view that file type let me know and I might be able to re-encode it. You can click on either link in the top right corner to view the video

Monday October 17, 2005

Woke up and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some coolers to bring all of our Tuna back to the States. Made it back with a few hours to spare before the Agnew boys took off so we launched the dinghy, did a little wakeboarding, and toured the coast. Pretty relaxing day with great weather. The boys took off in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day cleaning up the boat.

Sunday October 16, 2005

Hung around the Marina and checked out town. Jason, John, and Tim were visiting here for the first time so they got the tour of downtown before heading back to the Marina for some delicious Mahi Fajitas.

Saturday October 15, 2005

Ran out to El Banco again for another great day of fishing. Once again all the boat were out at Corbitania and El Banco was left to team NOTORIOUS (and a 30ft cabin cruiser). 10 minutes out of the Marina the skip jacks were jumping all over so we broke out the bait rods and filled all 6 tuna tubes in less than 20 minutes. Don Juan and Jeff were en fuego with the skippies and could not be stopped. Finished loading up and headed out. Hit a fairly large palm frond patty half way out and decided to stop and take a look. What we saw was the most beautiful sight in the world...... a school of about 20 mahi's going ape shit beneath the palms. Dropped some lures and hooked up on 3 below average size Mahi's before a charter boat ran over the patty. I can't tell you how frusterating it is in PV being a gringo and having the charter captains think they own the ocean. Anyways... .we had bigger fish to catch. Moved on the el Banco and pulled up to perfect fishing weather.

Jeff and Jesse have been fishing for well over 20 years and have a set style of fishing. It has worked for them in the past and continues to produce big and powerful fish day in and day out. Jeff fishes with a brideling technique in which a line of dacron is passed through the skip jacks eye's and then attached to a hook. This helps keep the fish alive for a long time while simultaneously positioning the 12/0 hook in the optimal position for a Tuna to strike.

Hunter has fished PV before and has learned techniques from Canadian charter boat capitains Josh and Trevor that seem to work well for them in PV. Their techniques involve tying a small hook to the 12/0 hook. The smaller hook is then placed into the upper jaw of the skip jack with the idea that when the Tuna hits the skip jack it will also grab the 12/0 hook attached.

Anyways..... Jeff and Hunter decided to have a contest to see whose method would prevail on this particular day. With Hunter throwing a skippy out off the starboard side and Jeff throwing a skippy off the port side we began our troll of El Banco.

We trolled.....and we trolled...... and we trollled.......

The frusterating thing about trolling the skippies at 1-2 mph is that when you see HUGE GARGANTUAN ENORMOUS TUNA and MARLIN exploding 300 yards off the starboard side you can't quickly run to them. That was the case this day. We saw more life out at the bank than we have seen in a long time. Tuna were crashing everywhere with the occasional Marlin and dorado joining the circus. For some reason they refused to smack the Tuna.....and then.........

EXXXXPLLLOOOOSSSIIOOONNNNNNNN............ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz line goes peeling off the starboard 30W.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz line goes peeling off the port Penn 50. PV is definately on fire. Both rods are screaming like it's the autobahn and Jeff and Hunter are doing their best to keep up. The count begins but before either fisherman can lock up the fish are gone. DAMN!!! Baits get pulled in and both fish are absolutely destroyed. One is clearly a Marlin strike while the other has Tuna written all over it; but for some reason they weren't interested in eating...only teasing.

New skippies went out and we were back at it. I can't even describe the amount of life we were seeing. If I put my camcorder video up on this website you would be watching a solid 6 hours of jumping tuna, marlin, dorado, bait, birds crashing the surface....it was truely unbelievable. Unfortunately none of the fish would swallow the bait. We got the same story with the next 2 skippies and finally decided to throw out the bodacious balloon. Set it out there about 50 yards from the boat off the starboard side while fly lining a caballito off the port side. Tuna were fully breaching the ocean as we trolled past the pinnacle...... WHHHHHAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the ballooned 30W caballito gets absolutely demolished as line starts peeling off the reel. Count to ten, and then lock up.... John straps in to the stand up rig and we're on a Tuna. About 45 minutes later John brings his 150lb Tuna to surface. We snag a few underwater shots before Jeff reaches down and produces a successful release. Then Tuna swims away shaking it's head....."don't worry buddy, it's not that you're ugly...we just want to wait till you're over 300lbs before we stick a gaff in you!" The whole strike is on vide which you can see by clicking here. (Or by clicking on the link on the headlines section).

We threw out the lines one more time but for some reason the fish had ceased their activity and had gone into hiding. I don't blame them with the 100+ degree heat, no clouds, and no wind!!!! So we decided to go check out Barnum & Baily's Circus out at Roca Corbitania. When we pulled up we counted 12-15 boats all trolling skippies in a tiny little circle around the already small island. Over the radio we heard that the fishing had been slow today but the day before someone had pulled a Grander Blue Marlin out of here. That new had sparked a lot of people's interests resulting in the parking lot we now found ourselves in. We threw out the skippies and trolled for a while getting a few strikes, but all the Tuna refused to engulf our beautiful bait.

We were over the heat and decided to call it a day. Headed back to the Marina and called it a night.

Friday October 14, 2005

Everyone got into town last night and woke up in the morning ready to fish. We left the dock around 7am and headed out to El Banco. PV IS ON FIRE!!!!! Read the full story here.

Thursday October 13, 2005

Woke up in the morning and started running back to PV to await the arrival of our friends Jason, John, and Tim. Super glassy day with flat seas. Everyone got into town, we cleaned up the boat and went to have a few drinks. While we were sitting at the bar, a big crowd started gathering around a large Tuna that was being hung to be weighed. This fish was enormous, but despite their best efforts and two hours of effort, they were unable to come to a consensus on the official weight. Weights ranged from 320 to 485. Our best guess was it was around 350 or so. Decent size fish no doubt. Went to dinner at Mapaches and fed the racoons once again. Went back to the boat and got ready for a day of fishing ahead.

 

Wednesday October 12, 2005

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!!! Left Bara Navidad and headed north to Tenekatita (I think that's how you spell it), about 30 miles north of Bara Navidad. Pulled into the bay and launched the dinghy. In the back corner of the bay there's a tiny little entrance to a river that leads inland. The entrance is protected by huge volcanic rocks and shallow water. We ran the dinghy in as close as possible before getting out and walking it through the shallows. Once through the entrance the river opens up to a deep portion on one side and shallow sand bar on the other. The whole thing is lined with deeply inter-twined mangroves that are impossible to see through. As we meandered down the river we saw a few birds within the mangroves and some butterflies flying around. However, the most life was seen on the lower mangrove roots. Right where the mangroves entered the water were hundreds, if not thousands, of three inch wide redish-orangish crabs. They were everywhere!!! A few miles upriver the river started narrowing until it was just wide enough for the tender to make it through (~4 feet). Then the mangroves started growing over us and we realized we had entered a mangrove tunnel!!!! It went for about 2 miles before finally emerging in a giant inland lagoon. On the left hand side we spotted a landing area with five or six pongas and decided to land and go check out the town. Not thirty feet up a short dirt path we found the town of Tenekatita and a sweeping view of a gorgeous 5 mile wide bay. Restaurants lined the beach which featured a small barreling beach break. Had a lobster, fish, and shrimp lunch; napped in the hammocks and did some bodysurfing. After a few hours we jumped in the dinghy and returned to the boat via the Mangrove Highway . After a short rest at the boat we jumped back in the dinghy and headed south to explore Manzanilla Bay , the next bay south. We had heard from the locals that there were crocodiles up to 14 feet long all over the bay, but it was getting dark and we didn't have any luck spotting them. Returned to the boat, watched a movie, had a great dinner and hit the bed.

Tuesday; October 11, 2005

Got into Bara Navidad yesterday and have been checking out the town. The place is located about 130 miles south of Puerto Vallarta and about 30 miles north of Manzanillo. We spent most of today checking out the lagoons and the small town. Pictures and more info to come. We had a pretty fun weekend with Hunter's brother and friends Jay and Griffin visiting for a surf weekend. Swell was a bit up, but the wind blew everything out. Overall a classic weekend. More friends are heading down this coming Thursday and we can't wait to score some big Tuna. That's it for now. Adios and buenos suerte.

Tuesday: October 4, 2005

Stocked up the boat for the next fishing trip. Updated the site with a new Crew list and new photos!!! Okay don't get too excited, but seriosly you have to check them out. We've got professional skimboarders, 200+lb tuna (yes they are fish.... I promise), fish with canine teeth, friends from the states, and our lovely girlfriends.

Monday: October 3, 2005

Had a great weekend with the girlfriends and Hunter's family. Went to dinner at some great restaurants and enjoyed the town. Everyone left today and we got back to work cleaning and organizing the boat.

Friday: September 30, 2005

We got one OVER 200!!!! More updates to come. Girls are coming into town. YEAH!!!!

Monday: September 26, 2005

Woke up and started provisioning the boat for the next fishing excursion. Went to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, watched a movie, and took it easy. Headed out to Punta de Mita, cooked some dinner, caught some bait, and called it a night. FISH ON TOMORROW!

Sunday: September 25, 2005

Woke up and launched the dinghy for some exploration adventures. We first headed North past the airport to a river inlet. We proceeded to navigate the gnarly sand bars and murky water on our way up the river. The river was pretty wide and had a lot of birds chilling in the trees and fish jumping in the water. We ventured up the river about 2 miles before turning around and hauling out of there. We had hoped to see a few crocodiles but were not that lucky.

Coming out of the river, we turned the dinghy south and headed for downtown PV. We cruised the shoreline in search of more rivers but to no avail. As we headed south the water switched from a murky brown to a deep blue. Just south of town we found some gorgeous beach-front homes built into the surrounding rain forest. Way cool. Farther south we found a series of five islands with large caves running through them. The water was crystal clear and brightly colored reef fish populated the waters. We took the dinghy through one of the caves and successfully came out on the other side. After a short swim, Michael grabbed the skim board and proceeded to wake board for awhile. We thought about towing him through the cave but decided against it. We headed back to the boat and fiddled around with stuff.

A few people on the boat had come down with food poisoning so everyone was taking it pretty mellow. Later that evening we took the snapper up to Fajita Bananas to watch Monday Night Football and witness the Chargers demolish the Giants. Had a great dinner, headed over to the lighthouse for drinks and ended back at the boat watching Super Troopers before crashing.

Saturday: September 24, 2005

Ran out to El Banco at 5am and got there just at day break. Once again the weekend circus was out camping on the ridge. Making bait was a bit more difficult, but once again team NOTORIOUS rose to the challenge and filled the Tuna Tubes. Unfortunately despite jumping skippies everywhere, a jumping mahi, and fishy looking water, no one was getting hooked up on tuna. All of a sudden, EXPLOSION! The starboard Skippy rig snapped out of the outrigger and line went whizzing off the reel. Sawyer was first up and locked in to the stand up rig. The fish made a few good runs but lacked the tell tale tuna tail beat. Sawyer really pulled on this fish and 20 minutes later color appeared behind the boat....Red color. Sawyer had pulled in a 60+lb Cabrera Snapper. Michael and Jeff gaffed the fish and brought it on board. This thing had the gnarliest teeth I've ever seen on a fish. They resembled canine teeth and looked like they could do some real damage. Threw the fish in the hold and iced it down. An hour or so more of trolling around and the port Skippy gets DEMOLISHED. Line goes peeling and once again we're hooked up. Dennis grabs the rod and locks up. 22 minutes later he too pulls in a 60+lb Cabrera snapper. We exhausted our bait supply and with no tuna biting decided to start heading back in. WAAABAMMM! The starboard Skippy gets destroyed. Line goes zipping off the reel as the fish tried his best to spool us. As Dave jumped in the standup rig, Hunter and Michael cleared rods and got ready to make the transfer to Dave's harness. SNAP! Line went slack and the fish was gone. When the line was finally reeled in, it was revealed that the 50lb mono had cut just below the modified Albright connection to the spectra. We guessed that the mono had gotten entangled in spectra around the knot and the spectra cut the mono. It was a bit frustrating after a slow day of fishing to miss a fish that was no doubt of real size. Headed back in to the Marina and filleted the snapper.

Friday: September 23, 2005

Spent the day hanging out in the marina and eating food. Did oil changes on both generators and both engines and fixed a few pumps. El Jefe Dave arrived in the afternoon and we made a reservation for de Santos. Had a great dinner and made plans to leave for El Banco around 5am. Can't wait to go fishing!

Thursday: September 22, 2005

Woke up to bad weather once again. Decided to head back to the Marina and clean up the fish. Farted around the Marina all day waiting for our buddies Sawyer and Dennis to arrive. They arrived in the afternoon and we cooked up some sashimi and seared ahi.

Wednesday: September 21, 2005

Left Punta de Mita in hopes of better seas. There was still a bit of a swell but it was much more organized than yesterday. Headed out to El Banco, metered some skippies and loaded up the Tuna tubes. Started trolling skippies to no avail and decided to switch tactics.

Filled up the 36" helium balloon floated it off the boat and attached a small little jack to flap along the surface. As Michael was letting the balloon out, Hunter controlled the bait to make sure nothing got tangled. Not 20 feet from the boat..... BOOOOOMM! The balloon slams to the surface, bait line released and we were hooked up. Hunter clicked in to the stand-up rig and started cranking on the 30W. The tell tale Tuna beat bounced the tip of the rod as the Tuna made a few large runs peeling line of the reel. 40 minutes later Hunter pulled in a 150 pound Yellow Fin Tuna which we promptly gaffed, bled, and put on ice. Next we threw out a caballito on the balloon and set-up for another drift. Meanwhile Michael grabbed Hunter's Accurate reel and fly lined a small "ham-slice" jack off the other side. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. The fly line explodes and Michael's locked up on a decent sized Tuna. Although the Accurate reel was rigged with 80lb spectra and a top shot of 50lb mono, it lacked the holes necessary to clip in to the stand-up harness! Using brute strength and strong will, Michael pumped the 120lb Tuna to the boat and Jeff made a successful release.

Next up, John hooked up on another 150lb Tuna off the helium balloon. Michael finished off the day with 4th and final tuna around 100lbs. No more bait = no more fishing so we headed in, cleaned the fish, met with Josh and Trevor for dinner once more for some freshly cooked Tuna. Retired to the boat and got ready for another day of fishing.

Long story short.... 4 Tuna. Max 150lbs. +Bueno comida con los personas de Canada : Josh y Shrek. And una chilanga Senor Braid.

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Tuesday: September 20, 2005

Woke up early and headed out to El Banco hoping to score some Tuna. Unfortunately the weather was uncooperative and produced a soup of south swell, gusting crosswinds, and slight north swell. After taking a 45 minute whooping, we decided to head back to Punta de Mita.

Chilled in Punta de Mita all day. Launched the dinghy, grabbed the surfboards, and headed down the coast in search of surf. We found a nice little break that peeled off a reef into a sand bottom. While one person manned the dinghy the other two had a blast paddling into surf that was waist to shoulder high with some bigger sets. Water temp was 93 degrees which provided little relief from the 100+ degree heat. Nonetheless, we had our own surf break to ourselves and headed back to the boat with big grins on our faces. Went to dinner in Punta de Mita and had a great time with fellow fishermen Trevor (Shrek) and Josh. www.primetimeadv.com. Caught some Z's and got ready for a solid day of fishing ahead.

Monday: September 19, 2005

Nuevo Vallarta was too far from town and nothing much was going on the area so we decided to switch to the Old Marina near downtown Puerto Vallarta . Spent the whole day checking in and prepping for another trip out to Punta de Mita, El Banco, and Roca Corbitinia. We got everything together loaded up the boat with gas and headed out to Punta de Mita, a point located about 40 miles north of PV at the top of Banderas Bay .

Setup anchor, did some wakeboarding, and called it a night.

Sunday: September 18, 2005

Woke up after a good night's sleep in the harbor. Walked around the timeshare hotel, did some laundry, pretty much hung out all day

Saturday: September 17, 2005

We pulled into Roca Corbitania at daybreak and found ourselves alone in brown water... not a good forecast for fishing. We trolled around some skipjack lures with no avail and proceeded to head for El Banco, a ridge 40 miles off of Puerto Vallarta that rises from more than three thousand feet of water to a pinnacle of sixty feet. All of the nutrients sucked up the ridge by the surrounding currents make El Banco come to life. It's not uncommon to spot boiling pots of 200lb jumping tuna on the right while black marlin leap to your left. Dorado (dolphin / mahi-mahi) frequently put on a show as well. But back to our story.....

We pulled up to the ridge, which apparantly has lost its secrecy, and began yo-yo'ing for bait. While the other 14 boats in the area seemed to have difficulty making bait, Team Notorious went to work showing their professionalism and grace. One by one, skippies were brought to the surface on crimped barbed criplled herrings and quickly un-hooked and placed in the Tuna Tubes. Within the first hour, NOTORIOUS had loaded up all six tuna tubes and had placed 2 skippies of larger than average size on the the outriggers. Leadered with 80lb mono topshot and a base of 120lb spectra, we were ready for Tuna......

The swell and wind conditions combined to form a force to be reckoned with. High beam seas on a very confused sea made everything more difficult. The salon quickly became a cluttered mine field of tequilla bottles, 12/o hooks, and marlin lures. To top it off, the combination of a slow bite and large crowd at El Banco made every charter captain a bit on edge. Common courtosy went to the wind and boats crossed each other on a regular basis. A few of our skippies passed on and a few became tangled in lines after sharp turns. All of a sudden a huge explosion occured off the starboard stern. A LARGE, HUGE, ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC Blue Marlin came leaping six feet out of the water until it's entire TEN FOOT LONG body was exposed. As it came down onto the Ocean it made an incredible sound that sent the radio screaming. Unfortunately the Marlin had hit our Port skippy so hard that it missed the hook and instead sent the skippy flying 50 yards across the boat entangling it with the starboard line. We didn't realize this until 30 minutes later and when we checked our bait, we found one skippy dead, and the other with a huge Marlin bill gash through it.

Six hours after arriving at El Banco later we were left trolling with one live skippy and 1 dead skippy with no fish on board. We all got together and decided on one more pass before calling it a day and heading in to grab a slip. On the last pass...... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz. THe reel absolutely EXPLODES. As Hunter runs to drop the reel into free-spool in order to feed the fish the tasty 9/o circle hook it has just consumed, Michael grabbed the standup belt and strapped in. 10 seconds later, Hunter locked down the dragg, gave it a few cranks and the fish was on. Michael quickly strapped in and went to work pumping and cranking, but for every inch of line gained, the fish would run sending 50 yards of spectra into the ocean within seconds.

Twenty minutes into the fight Michael was still going strong..... and so was the fish. The pulsating tailbeats off the tip of the rod meant only one thing.... BIG Yellowfin TUNA. As Michael buckled down increasing the drag to the point of pinging Spectra; John and Hunter cleared the deck and Jesse carefully maneuvered the boat to maintain position on the Tuna while avoiding the circus of boats at El Banco. Unfortunately, even the best captain cannot control the moronic captains on the other boats. A charter boat, captained by a person familiar with the bank, drugg their down riggers right across Michael's line. Long story short, the Tuna was broke off, the other boat lost their down-rigger (because the spectra cut through their line before breaking), and we went home fishless.

Headed into Nuevo vallarta (Paradise Village Marina), got a slip, cleaned up the boat, and went for happy hour. Went to de Santos for dinner (a really nice restaurant in downtown PV that has great food and an awesome club upstairs) and called it a night.

Friday: September 16, 2005

Pulled up the anchor around 7:30am and dropped back a spread of Marlin and Ono lures. Not 15 minutes into the troll Hunter spotted a HUUUGGGE jumping marlin of the starboard bow. Capt. Jesse quickly swung the boat around bringing the tasty lures right in front of the Marlin's hungry eyes. Right on que the Marlin came exploding out of the water extremely pissed off that the tasty little breakfast he thought he was getting was in fact attached to a 10/o circle hook! What happened next was absolutely unbelieveable....

The Marlin fully breaked the water shaking it's head before bellyflopping and causing a spash imitating an exploding torpedo. The show went on for a good solid minute which might sound short, but belive me it felt like an eternity. When the show was over, Hunter and Mike got to work realing in the spread of lures while John got on his belt and locked up on the fish. Up until this point we had caught a dozen or so striped marlin, some ono, and mahi; but nothing big enough to warrant using the standup harness. Because of that, the belt that John grabbed to lock up on this Enormous Marlin was a bit light for the fight ahead of him. As the rest of the crew scrambled to pull in the lines, John struggled with the rod as he watched the fish tear line off the reel in a run that pulled over 100 yards of line and looked like it had a chance to spool the reel. But Don Juan would have none of that. He buttoned down the drag and went mono y mono with the devil of Marlin.

Meanwhile Jesse began the process of backing down the fish while Miguel and Hunter kept John hydrated. In heat this serious, it's extremely easy for an immobile person to become seriously ill; not to mention that John was fighting a fish sent from the depths of hell. Finally the fish appeared next to the boat and we found out that John had conquered a Blue Marlin of at least 350+ pounds!!! WOOOO HOOOOO!!!! Check out the Gallery "From Cabo to PV" for pictures.

We had a solid release and the fish swam away to fight another day. We continued to troll and 20 minutes later.... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... The starboard rigger pops and the Shimano 50W explodes as a Black Marlin comes leaping out of the Deep Blue Sea. This time Michael grabs the belt and locks up. A few minutes later the 250lb+ Black Marlin appears next to the boat and Hunter produces a successful leader and release. AWESOME!! Two marlin in about an hour not more than 10 miles from shore with seas as smooth as a swimming pool.. God I love Mexico. We continued trolling for another hour and spotted 4 or 5 jumping marlin with tons of bait balls metered on the sounder.

We continued the 270 mile run to PV the rest of the day and into the night. Red sky at night = our delight. Seas remained flat calm and the passing went smoothly. It was a bit gnarly being 100 miles from the closest piece of land, but when we woke up in the morning we were there.... .Roca Corbitania.

Thursday: September 15, 2005

Mexican Independence Day!! The town was pretty lively with people prepping up for a fun night of celebration, but Team NOTORIOUS had bigger things in mind. Apparently the East Capf of Cabo had been going off with big fish and that were calling out name. We packed up the boat and headed for Los Freiles near Cabo Pulmo about 40 miles east of Cabo san Lucas on the south east tip of Baja California. We had a super smooth run over and saw big swell breaking on the beach the whole way. We anchored in a little cove, launched the dinghy and went to check out some surf breaking on the shore. The water was crystal clear with a reef shelf that went from ~40feet deep to less than a foot, a little to small and shallow for surfing.

As soon as it got dark, the underwater lights got turned on and the pompano started showing up. It was WFO all night on Pompanos which I hear are pretty good to eat despite there extremely thin fillets. We released all of the fish with the exception of a single Jack and a single Snapper which Don Juan caught. . The origional plan was to use them as Tuna bait the next morning, but when we placed those guys in the bait tank and they started going crazy trying to eat our mackeral, so we eventually had to throw them back. We ended the night with some Hot Dogs, beans, and a movie and tried to get some sleep eventhough we were super pumped for the day of fishing ahead.

 

Wednesday: September 14, 2005

Woke up at 2pm after an enjoyable nights sleep in a safe harbor. Fiddled around the boat for a while and grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant. We decided it would be a good day for a wakeboard sesh and loaded up the dinghy. Before wakeboarding we decided to go check out a surf break at the east end of Cabo called Monuments. There were a few guys out and the wave was breaking 7-8 lefts. Pretty short ride but it looked like fun. We were talking to a few guys out there in dinghy's and they said the swell of the year was coming in in the next few days. We'll keep our eye's and ears open as that kind of weather may affect our future plans.

Got bored with the surfbreak and Hunter jumped in the water for a wakeboard sesh on his skimboard. He got a few nice carves in and pulled a 900. I was next and although it took me a few try's to get up I finally summoned up the inner strength and rose from the depths. We cruised right by the "Black Pearl" and got a standing ovation with lots of pictures. AWESOME!

Headed back to the boat and got ready for dinner. The underwater lights look super sweet behind the boat at night and are attracting Popano, Snook, and Mullet. Some are pretty decent size and I might have to jump in with my speargun to check it out. We ended up walking to the Whale Bar for dinner and had a great time. The restaurant is at the Hotel Finnistera which is one of the first hotels ever built in Cabo. It's carved right into the mountain and was a favorite hangout of the Rolling Stones. Finished the night off with some drinks at Squid Row and called it a night.