Fishing with Renegado Mike / Cabo
Posted: Aug 15th, '09, 07:00
Linda & I spent last week in Cabo and La Paz enjoying life and fishing. We planed to fish 2 days in Cabo with a local panga captain, DR Pescado. We fished with him before and always had a great time and caught more fish with him than the high priced Pices Fleet 31's. We checked in our room at the Fiesta Marina Resort and were sitting on the deck watching the fleet return when I spoted Mikes 31 pulling into A dock. Later on I went for a walk and found his boat, gave him a shout and he came up and opened the gate. We had a few beers and he showed me his boat from top to bottom. Mike is the nicest guy, an amazing fisherman and a wealth of information as Linda & I are planning to move to Baja. He invited us to join him on a personal trip on Monday with his nephew, he wanted to stock up his freezer with Tuna while they were running. I felt bad but canceled one day with Dr Pescado and joined Mike on a tuna hunt.
Mike is one of the few charter operations that uses electronics to help find fish, most captains use landmarks, as most of the fishing is just a few miles from shore. We pulled out around 0630 and headed to the golden gate on the Pacific side with around 5 or 6 other boats hugging the shore line to stay out of the wind. As usual the 260 Cummins pushed his 31 to the head of the fleet and we were one of the first to arrive and start looking. Having a good bottom machine made finding the schools easy and kept us on them as they chased the baitfish. Linda hand painted 2 cedar plugs one Dorado and one red & white and the mate Christian put them right out in the spread. After about 15 minutes of trolling Mike said everybody put a belt on were ready to fish. He counted down 3 2 1 now and the first rods to go down were the ones with the hand painted plugs with the other 3 rods right behind.
The action continued for around 5 hours I can't remember how many we caught ranging from 10 to 35 lbs released the small ones and kept the limit of 20 for the boat. Mike goes the extra mile and had 3 coolers with brined ice water to keep the fish fresh after bleeding. I know I don't have to tell you guys how good sashimi is when it's a few hours old.
If anyone is planning a trip to Cabo hooking up with Renegade Mike is a must and well worth the price of admission. He'll help you with making room arrangements, rental cars, and local info.
Still got Baja on my mind,
RussP
Mike is one of the few charter operations that uses electronics to help find fish, most captains use landmarks, as most of the fishing is just a few miles from shore. We pulled out around 0630 and headed to the golden gate on the Pacific side with around 5 or 6 other boats hugging the shore line to stay out of the wind. As usual the 260 Cummins pushed his 31 to the head of the fleet and we were one of the first to arrive and start looking. Having a good bottom machine made finding the schools easy and kept us on them as they chased the baitfish. Linda hand painted 2 cedar plugs one Dorado and one red & white and the mate Christian put them right out in the spread. After about 15 minutes of trolling Mike said everybody put a belt on were ready to fish. He counted down 3 2 1 now and the first rods to go down were the ones with the hand painted plugs with the other 3 rods right behind.
The action continued for around 5 hours I can't remember how many we caught ranging from 10 to 35 lbs released the small ones and kept the limit of 20 for the boat. Mike goes the extra mile and had 3 coolers with brined ice water to keep the fish fresh after bleeding. I know I don't have to tell you guys how good sashimi is when it's a few hours old.
If anyone is planning a trip to Cabo hooking up with Renegade Mike is a must and well worth the price of admission. He'll help you with making room arrangements, rental cars, and local info.
Still got Baja on my mind,
RussP
