I had already caught my first skipjack tuna from a kayak and was hoping for a yellowfin tuna or dorado. Alonzo was throwing a lot of live chum behind the panga and getting the skippies worked up hoping that the action would attract some other gamefish. Terry was casting his fly rod into the melee. I was right behind the boat and saw a large fish, which I thought was a big bull dorado. As I yelled, telling the others, my drag went off.
So I pushed the lever forward to set the hook on what I assumed to be another skip jack. I heard a splash behind me as the rod bent and everyone yelled marlin. I thought that they had spotted a marlin in the area and still hadn't realized that the fish they were yelling about was on the end of my line! As the kayak was now facing the fish it made its second jump. It was a spectacular spectacle about 100' away except it was a marlin. It was a large sailfish. This was pretty cool. We had been fishing about 2 hours and here I was hooked into a billfish. 40 minutes later, as Jim and I went to land the fish for a picture the hook pulled out. The fish was 5 feet away. So I didn't get a great picture but the memory I'll have forever of my first billfish from a kayak.
We had planned the trip because we were getting tired of seeing pictures of big Roosterfish, caught from kayaks, so we scheduled a trip to Baja's East Cape in early October. The KFSers attending were Terry, Bill, Adrian and I with Adrian joining us on day 3. After a long flight we met Jim Sammons, our guide, at the airport where he had a transfer for us. It was about an hour to the resort - Punta Colorado Hotel and we arrived mid-afternoon and settled in. We unpacked and rigged up our gear. We decided to give it a shot from shore. We caught a few needlefish and Terry got a small jack.
The next morning before first light we got down to the beach where the kayaks were stored. The fleet consisted of 3 Ocean Kayak Drifters, 4 Scupper Pro TWs, and a few other kayaks. We decided to take the more stable Drifters as we'd be hopping into them from a boat and it was new to us. Normally the kayaks are towed in 2 daisy chains behind the panga but since there were only 4 of us we put them in the boat. This allowed us to travel faster and increased our range. When we got to the area we were going to fish we'd off load the kayaks and hop in. While one can use lures and flies it can be tuff fishing with artificials. The water is incredibly clear and bait is the ticket. We were using 3 baits. Live baits that consisted of sardines and mackerel, and dead bait that were belly strips of skipjack tuna. So we'd hop off the kayak, grab our gear, some sardines and troll. Our gear varied but most common was a conventional outfit with 20-30# braid and a 30# fluorocarbon leader. I was using the smallest Avet reel, filled with 30# tuff line, with a 30# fluorocarbon leader tied directly to my braid and a 2/0 circle hook. Jim had recommended a size 1 for the small sardina however I felt that I could get away with a 2/0 and for larger fish it would be more beneficial. I have little doubt that I wouldn't have gotten the sailfish with a #1.
The fishing was very different then we're use to. We caught 2 sails (Adrian got one too), dorado to 25#s, yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, a wahoo, and assorted inshore species. If you want to catch something different then consider a trip to the East Cape.