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By James Hall
ESPNOutdoors.com
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James Hall

As the gaff sank into the side of the 120-pound striped marlin, I was a bit conflicted. This isn't the sort of fish we put in the icebox in Florida, my home state. A tag and a kiss goodbye is generally the most damage done to just about every brand of billfish hooked in the United States. However, I wasn't in the U.S., and this fish represented a hell of a lot more than an "atta-boy" from a holier-than-thou American sportfisherman. This fish represented seven days of breakfast, lunch and dinner for Victor's family, Jose's family and Marta's family, all working laborers in Mazatlan, Mexico, at the docks of Nautica Costa Bonita marina.

"Wasn't that cool seeing that marlin almost jump in the boat?" asked Chappy Chapman of Inside Outside Charters (www.insideoutsidecharters.com), my host for the trip, as his first mate laid a wet towel atop the billed beast at my feet.

Understatement of the decade.

We had already been bit twice, saw four other marlin tailing or free-jumping in the distance, and one fish was accounted for. It was only a little after 9 a.m.

"Cool indeed!" I returned.

The first wave of marlin had arrived off the coast of Mazatlan just three days prior to my mid-May charter.

"They are a little late," explained Chapman. "But it's just going to get better as the water warms up. If you want to catch a marlin, there's no better place to be right now than Mazatlan," he continued.

And it seemed he was right. By the end of the day, we saw no fewer than 23 marlin. We had nine bites, hooked six and landed three & an exceptional day of billfishing by anyone's standards.

Chapman found the fish holding in 240 feet of water (16 miles offshore). His trolling spread consisted of a giant jet teaser in Mahi color, naked skip jacks that we had caught earlier (one weighted, one not), and one skirted mullet. Chapman trolled until an enormous blue sickle tail was spotted jutting from the very calm Pacific Ocean. Once a fish was sighted, Chapman would kick the boat into high gear to get the spread in front of the fish.

Once the marlin committed, chaos would ensue. And it seemed most of the day was chaotic.

Well before we started trolling, Chapman had asked if I minded harvesting a marlin.

"The only reason I ask is because each angler is allowed to keep one per day, and these guys out here depend on fish to survive. The meat they take home is a huge part of their annual salary," he explained.

I certainly wasn't in any position to question the harvest limits or motives of Mexican anglers. So, I left it in Chapman's hands.

"Plus, as you will notice, there are thousands of marlin out here right now. Mexican sport fishermen have been harvesting these fish forever. They only keep enough to eat, so you shouldn't feel guilty. We release a heck of a lot more than we keep."

So, harvest a striped marlin we did. And, in turn, Chapman left the fish in the hands of four families that sometimes wonder where their next meal will come from. Justifiable homicide? I think so.

follow the original article at http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/columns/story?id=5223546

Updated: April 30, 2010, 1:59 PM ET

Early start to Mexican dorado season

El Nino currents have already kick-started some oddly out-of-season action

By Joel Shangle
ESPNOutdoors.com

Saltwater dorado mahi-mahi dolphin fish shangle

Joel ShangleWarming Pacific waters and El Nino currents will kick-start the dorado fishery out of Baja Sur and mainland Mexico ports.

MAZATLAN, Mexico — The dorado is a freaky-looking creature, with its flat, anvil-shaped head and iridescent yellow/green skin color. It's also one of the West Coast's coolest gamefish because it's as aggressive as a badger with a toothache, and is one of the best-eating fish in the Pacific Ocean.

As the waters of the eastern Pacific warm and winter's El Norte winds die down in the Sea or Cortez this month, the colder-water species (yellowtail, pargo, snapper, amberjack, etc.) begin to transition out of the inshore fishery, and warmer-water species like dorado and billfish will arrive in the offshore fisheries out of Baja Sur locations like East Cape, La Paz, Loreto and Cabo, and out of mainland Mexico ports like Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

El Nino currents have already kick-started some oddly out-of-season action out of many Mexican ports — black and blue marlin out of Cabo, for example — so an early beginning to the normal June/July dorado bite should be right around the corner.

"Some of the warmer-water species (have) stuck around to some degree and, incredibly, we're already getting species and conditions we normally wouldn't experience until June or July," said Johnathon Roldan at Tailhunter International (www.tailhunter-international.com) in La Paz. "For example, we were already seeing significant numbers of dorado, albeit on the smaller side, with some larger bulls mixed in (in late April). (Last week) if you looked anywhere in La Paz Bay and north towards Espiritu Santo Island, you'd see low flying and dipping birds ... a sure indication that there were dorado working the spots."

Similar story over on the mainland, where surface-water temperatures rising from the low 70s to the high 70s and low 80s will bring dorado into the offshore fishery by the thousand in early May.

"This is the best time for the offshore species, when the water is starting to get the warmest, and the next three to four weeks, the dorado fishing is going to be phenomenal," said Chappy Chapman of Inside Outside Charters in Mazatlan. "Just run out to the trash line and you'll find them. That location changes every day, but if you run up to a buoy or something else floating, you can tell right away if dorado are under it. And if they're there, they'll bite."

Dorado are notoriously drawn to surface structure (or, rather, the baitfish that collect underneath it), so anything floating offshore is an automatic mahi-magnet.

Chapman's Mazatlan routine includes running between several dozen palm-covered buoys placed a mile apart, between 6 to 18 miles offshore. This buoy line serves as a bait collector for shade-seeking dorado and triple tail, and the best approach is to quietly motor up onto a buoy and cast Rapala X-Raps, Sub-Walkers and Skitter Walks, 5-inch Zara Spooks or Pencil Poppers.

"If they're under that buoy, they'll come out and hammer it," Chapman says.

Trolled dead ballyhoo, skipjack strips and live mullet or mackerel is also effective, and can also bring in sailfish and marlin. When he's trolling, Chapman will run bait on the outside lines and Williamson 13-inch Diamond Coyotes on the inside lines for both dorado and billfish.

To view this story in it's original place, please visit the ESPN.com Link above

Editor's note: Based in North Puget Sound and operating from Alaska to Baja, Joel Shangle has been a news junkie on the West Coast saltwater scene since the 1990s, first as editor of California Fishing & Hunting News' and now as editor of California Sportsman, which hits newsstands in October. He's the host of Northwest Wild Country, a popular fishing and hunting radio show airing throughout western Washington, and has the deepest source list this side of the Library of Congress. In other words: if you're catching fish on the West Coast, just try to get away from him.

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Home PackagesSpecial Promotions

Special Promotions

Chappy Chapman of Inside Outside Charters is donating a 2 for 1 trip towards a very important cause for our future fishermen. That’s right, a 2 for 1 trip for 5 nights and 3 days of fishing on a Super Panga center console with Chappy Chapman as your guide/captain. The original price per person for this package is $945 per angler (based on 2 anglers). This package of two has a retail value of $1,890. I will donate ½ of the this package towards the Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) to help out potential young anglers get a chance to get exposed to this great sport of fishing. So here’s your chance to get a great fishing trip that will help out an excellent cause. Have a big heart my friends and let’s give an opportunity to the youngsters to be exposed to fishing in the classrooms!

I received the following email below from my good friend, Keith Sutton, who is the executive director of this great foundation.

Thank you,

Chappy Chapman

**Please note that is for one 2 for 1 package only and on a first come first serve basis**

Dear Fishing Friends,

I know you’re probably as busy as me, but I’d be grateful for a few moments of your time to tell you about something very important to those of us who understand the values of taking kids fishing. I’d consider it a personal favor if you’d take time to read this email through to the end.

As you’re probably aware, I became executive director of the Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) just last year. F3 is nationally recognized as the leader in sportfishing and aquatic-resource education. Our mission is to promote fishing as an important part of a healthy, happy lifestyle and to increase the number of children who receive quality fishing-education programs and experiences that lead them to become lifelong, conservation-minded anglers. Since 1986, F3 programs such as Hooked On Fishing Not On Drugs and Physh Ed have reached more than 1 million school-aged children, an achievement unequalled by any other fishing-education organization.

Today, with fishing participation rates and angler retention at the lowest levels in decades, there’s never been a greater need for F3’s services. According to the latest survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the number of 6- to 15-year-olds who fished fell from 10.5 million in 1996 to 8.3 million in 2006, a decline of 2.2 million in just 10 years, and angler retention (the number of anglers who have ever fished who remain active) fell 8% between 1990 and 2005.

Like other non-profit organizations, however, we’ve found it increasingly difficult during these tough economic times to obtain grants and other funding that once supported our programs. That’s why I’m contacting you with this important message.

Unless we can find additional sources of funding before year’s end, we’ll be forced to cease our efforts on behalf of fishing educators nationwide.

Can you imagine what would happen if the hundreds of state fisheries agencies, schools, service clubs and youth organizations that use F3 programs no longer had a national coordinator to provide training, support and guidance for their programs? Without F3, hundreds of youth fishing education programs in states throughout the U.S. might cease to exist. That’s a situation none of us wants to ponder.

Without F3 programs, fewer children would experience fishing and become adult anglers. And fewer future anglers would mean:

Fewer fishing license sales that fund state fish-and-wildlife agency conservation/management programs

Decreased sales of boats and tackle that support fishing-industry manufacturers, distributors and retailers

Reduction in the amount of excise taxes collected on sales of fishing gear and boating fuel that fund aquatic-resources conservation and education

Fewer anglers spending money on food, lodging, transportation and other fishing-trip-related expenses that help support our nation’s $125 billion a year sportfishing industry.

F3’s board of directors has set a goal to raise $50,000 by the end of this year, and an additional $200,000 in 2011. When I visited with our friends at PRADCO Fishing/Lindy Fishing Tackle in Ft. Smith, Ark. last week and told them this, they really stepped up to the plate to help. PRADCO has pledged to donate $15,000 to F3 before year’s end if we can raise the other $35,000 of this year’s goal. They believe in our mission and want to encourage others to support these efforts.

“The Foundation is our ‘evangelism’ wing,” PRADCO Vice President and General Manager Bruce Stanton has been telling others in an effort to help F3’s fundraising efforts. “They educate trainers and provide literature, assistance and product to school groups so they can teach kids to fish. PRADCO/Lindy has pledged $15,000 if F3 can raise the other $35,000. If you can give any amount possible, it would be appreciated and will keep our lifestyle in front of kids who need to be exposed to it.”

No donation is too small. Every dollar donated helps the Future Fisherman Foundation match monies being donated by PRADCO so we can continue our valuable programs to help ensure the future of fishing.

Tax-deductible donations can be made online by visiting our website at www.futurefisherman.org or by mailing a check to:

Future Fisherman Foundation
PO Box 6049
McLean, VA 22106

Ray Scott, the founder of B.A.S.S. and the newest member of F3’s board, recently had this to say about the support so direly needed by the Future Fisherman Foundation:

“It is most unfortunate when a program of this magnitude runs into such ridiculous opposition or lack of support by our industry. The Future Fishing Foundation is about more than just fishing; it is about education, structure, discipline, productive and solid benefits to the youth of today – who will be the leaders of tomorrow. We can’t neglect that in a few years these are the individuals who will be buying rods, reels, lures and boats to sustain our industry. We just need to light a fire under the program and reach out to our industry leaders – ask them to rethink their involvement and climb on board.”

Please help if you can by donating today. And if you would, please forward this email to others and encourage them to do likewise. If you're a fishing guide, forward this email to your clients. If you're a writer, tell your readers about F3's programs and needs. If you're an angler, share this with your fishing friends.

Your generosity and support are greatly appreciated. If I can provide additional information or assistance, please let me know.

Cordially,

Keith "Catfish" Sutton

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Early start to Mexican dorado season

El Nino currents have already kick-started some oddly out-of-season action

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