Ten-Hour Battle With Black Marlin Ends in a Fiesta

When Daniel Fisher, Rego Perez and Marcello Gonzalez went on a recent fishing trip in the southern Sea of Cortez, they had no idea they would return to such fanfare.

But then they didn’t know they would be involved in a marathon struggle with one of the biggest marlin ever caught in the Cabo San Lucas area.

Word spread of their battle when the rest of the Playita fleet in the San Jose area returned from the Gordo Banks at about 2 p.m. The three fishermen, all locals, had hooked up at 1:30.

Fisher, 32, an accountant, and Perez, 28, a mechanic, had been spending a very ordinary day with skipper Gonzalez, catching small tuna under the relentless Baja sun. They were about to call it quits when an angler on a nearby panga hooked a small blue marlin.

Thinking there might be another nearby, they began to troll two tuna. Up from the depths came a large black silhouette, swallowing one tuna, then immediately attacking the other. Fisher and Perez reared back on their rods and Gonzalez hit the throttle to set the hooks--both of them. The marlin took off on a series of leaps before submerging for the rest of the fight

“We both pulled it very close to the boat the first time after only 21 minutes,” Fisher said through an interpreter. “Then it started running farther from the boat.”

Gonzalez gave chase as Fisher and Perez pumped and reeled. Four hours into the battle, though, Fisher’s rod snapped under the pressure. It was a break for the marlin, which continued out to sea. Night fell and the small outboard was alone on the water.

Realizing that the chase was proving fruitless, the fishermen turned off the motor, hoping the weight of the boat would slow it down. The marlin continued, towing the panga slowly across the moonlit sea.

“Then it changed direction and came close to the boat again,” Fisher said. “Then it went down and just stayed there. We were really tired and the rod was getting so heavy that we had to take turns, about 20 minutes each.”

Hours passed and by now the fishermen were very weary. But the fish had grown wearier. Midnight approached and the marlin was no longer towing the boat, but circling slowly beneath it. Slowly, the fishermen gained on the fish and, under the light of the moon, could see a long streak of silver about 30 yards down. The marlin, not ready to give up, was rolling over in its final attempts at freedom. It kept rolling for another hour before dying slightly beneath the surface.

Fisher used a gaff to bring it alongside the boat and the three fishermen smiled and breathed sighs of relief after their 10-hour struggle. But they found it hard to be jubilant.

“We couldn’t even lift our arms, let alone the fish,” Fisher said. “We tied it to the side of panga and towed it all the way back.”

It was 1:30 a.m. when they reached the beach with the 15-foot, 993-pound black marlin. The dozens of townsfolk there to greet them cheered.

“When something like this happens, everybody gets excited,” said Tomas Cantor, a spokesman for the fleet. “People from San Jose, Daniel’s friends and relatives, and Marcello’s relatives and people from the village . . . we make a fiesta.”

*

The Fisher group wasn’t the only one with a tale to tell in this black and blue marlin season.

Late last week, skipper Pochi and another employee of Victor’s Fleet in San Jose del Cabo fought a blue marlin for 16 hours. But this fish was more fortunate than the aforementioned black: It got away.

“They saw this big marlin and cast a small yellowfin tuna at 8 a.m.,” said Victor Gutierrez, owner of the fleet. “They lost fish at 10 at night. They had it next to the boat several times and said it was over 1,000 pounds. The fish was way bigger than the (22-foot) boat. They said the marlin was 26-27 feet.”

Briefly

SALTWATER--Tuna fishing has slowed south of the border and they are still trying to get an albacore season started off Morro Bay, but the fish aren’t cooperating. A rare catch of a 217-pound yellowfin tuna was reported off the Central Coast last week.

Cabo San Lucas: Marlin season is in full swing, with blues and an occasional black--several topping 500 pounds--showing at the scales. Tuna and dorado remain abundant from Cabo to Gordo Banks. East Cape: Sizable marlin and dorado throughout region, with much of the effort taking place offshore from Hotel Punta Colorada. Large roosterfish are cruising the shoreline, taking live mullet. La Paz: Dorado and tuna biting in morning.

HUNTING--Deer season in Zone D15, which includes Orange and Riverside counties, will begin Sept. 4. Winter rain has helped deer rebound from the drought years but the new growth will make it easier for them to hide from hunters. Best results are expected in the San Mateo Wilderness Area of the Cleveland National Forest and in the forest canyons near the Santiago, Sierra and Modjeska peaks. Several tags remain available. . . .The Eastern Sierra sage grouse season has been scheduled for Oct. 2-3. Only 425 permits will be selected in a drawing from applications received by the Department of Fish and Game’s license office in Sacramento no later than 5 p.m. Sept. 20.