The Marlin of May

The Costa Grande is defined as the 150 mile stretch of coastline from Acapulco to the South, and on up to the Rio Balsas at Lazaro Cardenas to the North.

The fishing fleet of Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo is almost centered in the best section of this year round game fish producing water. In my opinion, the 40 days from after the 1st week of May, until the middle of June, the Costa Grande is the best fishery on the planet to have a chance at a marlin.

And, I am not talking about those dinky striped marlin you always read about up in the Baja region. The average striped marlin is only a few pounds larger than our 100 pound sailfish we get here with regularity. We are talking about top of the food chain game fish. We are talking about huge blue and black marlin; a world class fighting fish averaging 250 pounds, and very easily attaining weights of a ton or more. The size of these fish are so impressive, it is actually hard to believe they can be caught by using only a rod and reel.

But, caught they are. In fact, world wide, many a devout marlin angler spends thousands of dollars a year in pursuit of this elusive prize. Entire magazines are devoted to nothing but fishing for big marlin. The principle inventory of many a large supply house is centered on the tackle used to catch a marlin. And, in some locations in the world, the multi-million dollar yachts are there for months at a time for the specific purpose of targeting the royalty of the bill fish species.

Fortunately, here on the Costa Grande, you do not need to have a high 6 digit income to pursue this majestic quarry. The Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo fishing fleet is by far the best deal for the money than any other world class fishing destination. For about 40 days a year, the odds are very good you will catch marlin from a panga, which charters for about $200 a day. Or, move up to a large cruiser for less than $450 a day. In many parts of the world, a half day charter is $750. And, for the month of May, we have a better fishery than they have.

The fleet averaged over 5 blue or black marlin a day!

You may wonder how an angler can catch a huge marlin from a 25 foot panga. In an extensive survey I did in May of 2005, I came up with some startling results. For our mixed sport fishing fleet of pangas and cruisers, we were putting about 12 to 15 boats a day on the water. The fleet averaged over 5 blue or black marlin a day! The number comparisons were almost identical- one half of the marlin was taken by the cruisers, and one half was taken by pangas.

In these two photos above, Onno Van Veen of Holland caught the nice 100 pound blue marlin, and the very unusual, but very small, cross between a sailfish and a striped marlin while fly fishing with Santiago on the panga Gitana. Both fish were tagged and released. Photo by Santiago.

One of the reasons our daily count is not considerably higher, is because the principle bread and butter fish of the sport fishing fleet here is the sailfish. When the boats are fishing with 30 to 50 pound gear, and a huge blue marlin grabs the sailfish bait, the odds are definitely in the favor of the marlin. Every captain I interviewed for the survey told me his specific story of how many marlin he had shots at but couldn’t get a hook set. Or, how all the line was spooled off the reel. Or, how the fish was lost after a lengthy fight. Each “specific” story blended into being the same for all. They were just out gunned. However, with heavy gear, if you were to actually target the marlin, a caught marlin a day would not be unreasonable.

Captain Leo Navarette, skippering the See-Ya, fished for the big marlin for 9 days this last May. The See-Ya is a private yacht from Cabo San Lucas, which came down here for the specific purpose of targeting big marlin and tuna. If the fishing here in May was not considerably better than Los Cabos, they certainly would not have made the 1,000 nautical mile journey. For the 9 days of targeting marlin, they leadered thirteen blue marlin and one huge 600 pound black (see photo). Where else on this planet, during the month of May, can you do that?

Blue and Black Marlin / May 2005

Note: I have included the commercial pangeros as catching only 40 marlin this last month. Nothing could be more wrong than that statement! In reality, they averaged a minimum of 5 to 6 marlin a day, for a total of at least 160 blue or black marlin. Their total is the same as all the fleet and sport boats combined. It is sad, but true. The hotels and restaurants create the demand, and the commercial pangeros create the supply.

It is legal for them to catch 1 marlin a day, just as any sport caught bill fish, but to sell the marlin for gain is illegal. Lax controls and lack of enforcement people here also create the situation.By: Capt. Ed Kunze / Sportfishing-Ixtapa