How many fish is enough.

[Thums Up]

We have had some incredible fishing in southern Costa Rica and northern Panama in the last month with sails landed anywhere from 20-50 and up to 5 shots at marlin a day.
But, an aquantance on a private boat just had an insane day. They landed 72 sails. I give him credit for doing it but I have to be honest. While a great feat I would have been bored after the 12th one. Hell my arms would be sore after the 2nd. I would have thrown the marlin lures over and ran from the sails. I am in no means knocking him. He is a great fisherman. But, It just hurts my head thinking about it! Not to mention I can't remember the last time I have ever brought out a hundred baits!

[JP Dalik]

Some people love fishing and some people like fishing. Sounds like the guy with 72 loves fishing.

[randall]

i think once you get past a certain point in any endeavor the number becomes the thing. its happened to me a few times catching bluefish from the kayak. its totally meaningless but now the fun is "how many" its happened a few times surfing small waves also. meaningless but its a game.


BTW....i give the crew credit just for stamina....thats A LOT of reelin. timmy and matt can attest to exactly how much it took to KO me. well maybe not.....after 16 beers their faculties were suspect.

[MarkS]

In this months issue of Sportfishing there are a couple of guys with a 2 man crew that C&R 91 stripes off Golden Gate Bank in Cabo! This day also included an hour break from fishing while they made more bait.

This also reminded me of the WCBRT in Cabo November 2007 where the top two teams had somewhere in the neighborhood of 188 billfish in a day! In the end a buddy of mine who was acting as a tournement rules observer had to DQ one of the fish because they were coming to the leader so fast he missed one release. This turned out to be what would have been the tieing fish. He felt somewhat uncomfortable at the banquet with some 10 guys shooting daggers his way from the 2nd place table.

Yes, me too on the arms thing! Like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddy Shack when he says to Judge Smayles, "My arm is broken!"

You know if you like the 80 weight gear and the drag locked down, sure big numbers if the fish are there for the taking but what fun would that really be? Rye smile!

Mark

[Carl]

While a great feat I would have been bored after the 12th one.

Thats when you change it up and make it interesting again. Lighten up the tackle, tease em in real close, what ever they say can't be done.

I have never been so lucky to get bored offshore... but inshore when the blues or weaks are the only game in town I have gone down to 2lb test on an 8lb blue just to keep it interesting. Lose way more then I catch but it's fun as hell stripping the reel a few times. Could never get a decent weak on 2lb though, even the smallest ones broke the line when they hit and the bail was open.


Sounds like you had a blast.

[Thums Up]

I can't speak for what tackle they were using but we have been getting most of our sails on 16 and 20 lbs and everything is already bait and switch. we are still posting 20-50 fish a day. Although the bite slowed a little. Trust me I would still like to post those numbers(70+)But, if it was my day and not a clients would have switched over to marlin fishing or tuna. I love sailfishing but at some point I would like to have something a little bigger pulling on the other end. We had a client last week who had the right idea after 20 some sails they asked to switch to tuna fishing and managed an 80lbs and 193lber. If they stayed on the sails we could have gotten another 15 to 20 easy!

[Matt Holcomb]

One day at the first UVI in Panama, Timmy and I decided to vote who would reel in each fish.....ended up voting like 15 times that day......Randall got elected each time!!!! He was a good sport and reeled em all in. We were assholes and drank all day. Oh well, some things never change.
A remarkable day that I will never forget.

Matt

[randall]

drank all day is right...they each had to down a beer for every fish i got to the boat. first fish...7 AM....10 sails before lunch then a bunch of tuna and the largest mahi i ever caught....these boys were seriously deranged by 1 PM when we quit. the capt and crew laughed their asses off....never saw this particular show before. classic day.