Fished with the fish-r-us guys out of Acapulco. We trolled five dead mullet and two huge artificials. Anyway the guy that drove us from the hotel to the marina said the used a catch and release method or whatever you want to call it. So we were trolling a whole 8-10 miles from shore in 300’-500’ when I was standing on the bow talking to my girlfriend and saw two sails free jumping about 300 yards to our south. I then yelled to the captain ‘Senor sailfish free jumping’ he then replied “no its just a porpoise” thinking I was an Ohio yahoo. So I hollered at him again and he finally saw them and turned that way. 5 minutes later we had two sails hooked up mine on a diawa 50-wide and another my Aunt was reeling in on a Penn International 30 wide. Obviously I got mine tot he boat quicker and he was hooked right through the top of the mouth right before the bill. I asked the captain if he was going to release it he said no because it was to dead as he brings it into the boat beating it on the head with a billy club as it was still flapping around lit up like a light bulb. He said he would release the second one that was still on the line. When we got the other to the boat it was almost black he grabbed the bill and let is shake its head like crazy beating it against the boat the when i walked over to the side of the boat he said "I will try to revive it but it looks really dead, so he dragged it through the water for about a minute saying the whole time “he’s dead” we can just take them to the orphanage. Buy this time I realized them didn’t practice catch and release they just said they did. Now I am not by any stretch of the imagination a PETA kind of guy but both of those fish could have been release to fight another day. To add insult to injury they didn’t ice them down at all they just tied them down to the swim platform off the transom so they could bake in the sun for the rest of the day. When we got back to the marina I was asked to fill out an evaluation sheet, and I gladly accepted the opportunity.
Congrats on the sail, sad they have no more respect for the resource than that
Big Ron
196 CC Sea Pro
150 Verado
congratz on the fish. Did yall take that jet ski fishing with yall?
Those are good looking fish. That is a shame! At least they went for a good cause, I guess…
KeyWest
Bluewater 2020CC
Yammy F-150
congrats on the catch but i wouldnt let it bring you down on your first sailfish catch, i’m sure you’ll catch many more and have a better experience
where was that captain from? the states?
might as well be dead up here if i cant find that live bottom
the jet ski was on the boat the whole time it actually got in the way when i was reeling in the fish. The captain was a local, though the company had a few american captains.
20’ Key West CC 140 Johnson
“Can you swim 5 miles, “No”, Than what is the difference in 5 miles and 50 miles”
I think the best solution to this problem is if they won’t release the fish demand to keep them then give them to some unfortunate bloke back at the dock.