Living The Dream

 After a tough week at the office thing turn around for good….very good. All start on Nov  6 when Capt. Juan Torruella and I went deep sea fishing with Mr Lawrance Cook. Juan was all exited about fishing ballyhoo with circle hooks on a new rig and Omar love new stuff so here we go. It was mid quarter of the moon going up so I was not that confidence of a incredible action so we set light line like 20 pound test spin reels Thunnus and conventional TLD from Shimano. The action start with a quad or 4 mahi-mahi and 3 of them on circle hook one on j-hook. This was good stuff, I have heard that you can pull the hook easly on mahi-mahi when circle hooks are use. It was a ball all the mahi-mahi ware over 15 pounds and the bull was 34. After cleaning and some hi-5 we set the spread again. Some more trolling here we go again, a 225 pound blue marlin show on one of the teaser and Juan brought the ballyhoo next to it when I was pulling it out of the blue marlin, this technique is name switch and bait. Well you know you are not suppose to fight blue marlin on 20 pound test and even more crazy to use a spin rod with only 265 yards of line. I manage to spin the boat and chase the fish side way, stop the run and after one hour 15 minutes we land the blue marlin on a Thunnus spin rod from Shimano and after the fight the reel was ready for another one. On Sunday Juan and I jump again to guide Mr Scott Wilson for a birthday present for his dad. This time we were able to hook a 47 pound tuna but the detail is it was on 20 pound test and circle hook again…one hour and the tuna was on the boat. Very tough fish to work. We finish the day with a sail fish that were lost next to the boat on one of the jumps, but we were able to get the best out of it. This make the 44 billfish strike on First Lady and land 23.   

 In the lagoons fishing for tarpon we had a average of 4 to10 tarpon bites. On Sunday we were able to hook 4 tarpon and land all 4 tarpon on 8 pound test. Two of the fish were on the 40 pound range. The first 40 pounder took about 20 minutes to land and the second about 15 minutes. Yesterday in the afternoon I was guiding Mr. Venice and we were able to had 5 bites and land 3 tarpon, 2 were in the 25 pound range and the last tarpon was a whopping 60 inches short and 34 girth on a 20 minutes fight.

 Can some body explain how some people call them self names in order to attract customers and then not be able to support the names with acts. How some body call himself the number one billfish release when he only flag less that 5 billfish flags and has not land a sailfish all season long. Also people calling them self the biggest tarpon company and never guide a tarpon over 120 pound. This comments don’t give prestige to them self but to others when they can’t perform.

See You Next Tide

Capt. Omar Orraca

The good, the bad and the ugly.

  Well it has been one hell of the week. On the backcountry the big tarpon are all over and thick. It’s so beautiful when this fish start busting on sand perch at the surface of the water that is nothing but imprecive. All the tarpon are around 50 to 100 pounds….. At least the one we are targeting, there is no doubt that other charters like to stay closer to the mangrove looking for 5 to 10 pound tarpon just to stack some numbers and post reports of the “incredible task”.  We had land some tarpon from 60 to 90 pounds in the last two days. This is the good…the bad is that we have lost 50% of the bite with some kind of bad luck going on, no bowing, seting the hook with circle hooks, or all of the above, at the end we jump a bunch of tarpon and had a ball just jumping them.

  The ugly was off shore for sailfish… it was one of those tough days at the office. It all start whe the mate on the boat that day  ( I will not mention his name for his own benefit..jajajajaja!!!!) was tyng the line to the out rigger, here we go, the first bite, not ready for it and lost the first one. The morning keep going for about another 1/2 hour when the next bite happens and for what ever reason this sailfish eat all the bait and left. By this time I knew it will be one hell of the day…. and it was. Another 40 minutes whent and “bamba” another bite of a very small sailfish, eat 2 baits and lost the fish again. At the end of the day we end up with 6 bites of sailfish and lost all of them… I mean all of them, two of the sailfish were “perfectly hook” out of a triple header and few jumps in to the fight and we lost both of them. I didn’t know if at this point I wanna cray or laugh about the scenario. But you know is a painful reality that when is for you is for you and don’t matter how alert and ready you are when the shit hit the fan it’s all over. We didn’t lost the sailfish because I was with a rookie, this gentleman has been fishing for over 25 years, is a wonderful mate, very alert and has won from mahi-mahi tournaments severaltimes to the biggest blue marlin on some of the most important tournament in the Island. So that’s why is call this sport fishing and not catching…. I hate the fishing and I love the catching. Thank you for your support. Please I need all the people who read this page to bring a prayer for a grate fisherman and a friend, Capt. Nico who is fighting lung cancer. Please keep our friend on your prayers.

See You Next Tide

Capt. Omar Orraca

Up & Down

  This last weekend the fishing for tarpon slow down at 4 to 6 bites per 1/2 day on same range, 10 to 40 pounds. On Sat. I guide Mr. & Mrs. Matarazzo to the lagoons for their first tarpon and the fishing was slow but we were able to close the day with a 40 pounder on 8 pond test and it took about 20 to 30 minutes to land the beauty, it was a ball, both the fight and the company. I am looking forward to better tides in the morning and afternoon for the frenzies to get back on the surface.

  Off shore billfish action in my personal opinion is good.  We had some recreational boats off Cangrejos Yacht Club with shots at grand slam or 3 different species of billfish in one day of fishing. Here in Puerto Rico is not common to get all 3 species blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish on the same day on the same boat but last Saturday a friend name Gaby had the shot… they land a sailfish, white marlin and lost the blue marlin after some time into the fight, it really hurts, I am sorry but at the same time this is what keep us in the water and try again…. good job any way. Also many boats has report multiple shots at sailfish per day along with all size mahi-mahi, from 5 pounders to 50 pounders. Sunday First Lady (Bertram 35) land a small tuna and we lost a sailfish on 1 1/2 hours of fishing and that’s a good sing of full active season, almost every boat is having some kind of action with billfish, mahi-mahi, tuna, or wahoo or some time multiple species. Another detail is that from know on the biggest tackle on my boat is 30 pound test. We fish 16 & 20 TLD and Thunnus spin reels from Shimano and 30 pound test. We fish only fresh bait dress with skirts and or small lures for this light tackle mix bag. Also we love to work wahoo with down rigger. We have plenty of days open the next couple of weeks for deep sea fishing and light tackle for tarpon and snook. Next week we start to sell live bait, we have 600 gallons live well were we will feed the bait,keep fresh and cool to control the quality of sand perch and mullet.  

See You Next Tide

Capt. Omar Orraca