Despite the solid marlin bite, both of today’s groups elected to target yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and also to spend some time jigging for pargo, African pompano, and some of the many other hard fighting species found on the hard bottom around the islands and out at the banks.
Paul Michele – Brian Stensland – Shaun Ruge
I had the privilege of spending the day with Paul Michele, Brain Stensland, and Shaun Ruge. We got off to as great start and scored a couple of big yellowfin tuna on poppers.
We tried to “run and gun” but it wasn’t working well enough. The fish were too scattered and they were not on top long enough to get a cast into them. Finally we stopped and just let the boat drift under a pile of high flying frigate birds and got our first two of them to the boat. Because the bite was inconsistent, we elected to jig. That was not productive and we switched over to trolling for Wahoo. The amazing thing about all of this is that it all happens in the same area. We had two Wahoo hits, but did not hook any. We switched back to yellowfin tuna and finally got into a nearly hour long blitz and everyone boated fish. The largest were in the 70lb class. On our way back we stopped for some additional jigging and added nice AJ, an African Pompano, and another yellowfin tuna to our tally. Click here for our recommended tuna tackle for tuna plugging.
The other group with Jon Ginsburg, Tom Palmisano, and Mike Pelligra were led by Pete Santini and they had the same early struggles we did. However, the scored a nice Wahoo on the troll that was estimated over 50lbs. Wahoo trolling is all about speed. The most effective presentations require speeds in excess of 8 knots. Deep diving Yo-Zuri bonitos are a great choice as well as any deep diving swimmer that still tracks well at high speeds. Eventually this group also got into the yellowfin tuna. At one point Jon Ginsburg had a big snapper stolen away by a sea lion (it happens).
We expect another big day tomorrow…
Learn more about travel and fishing in the Galapagos at Sportfish Galapagos
All three anglers are hooked up in the video below. All the splashes in the distance are busting fish. Paul is using my Penn Torque TRQs7 and throwing a Yo-Zuri popper. Brian and Sean caught their fish on Guides Choice M-80 poppers.