A Mexico marlin adventure for couple - Cabo San Lucas

Mexican politics aside, Baja remains an incredible place to fish, a fact driven home recently by a couple of Chula Vistans who have a summer home on the beach in Cabo San Lucas.
Edward and Patricia Araujo can hear the ocean roar from their place on the Pacific side of the Cape, in front of the old lighthouse.

“The shore break was so loud the other night we couldn’t sleep,” Edward said. “It was like a jet plane rumbling out there. When the high tide is in you can feel the pressure of the shore break as it impacts the beach. It’s quite a sensation, the power of the ocean.”

Araujo said sea turtles are so abundant they “are like prairie dogs down here.” They are close enough to take a bus ride to La Paz to go out and Scuba dive with whale sharks, or they can go up the coast and see the grey whale migration.

“On one of our fishing trips we saw grey whales breeching,” said Edward, who has a web business in sandiegoonline.tv and sdointeractive.com.

He said fishing is improving off Cabo and he predicts it will get better and better now that the long-line fishing has stopped.

“That long-line fishing held back the sport fishing here, but Mexico’s conservation work has put an end to it. We’ve had a couple years of really good fishing here.”


His wife, Patricia, has caught blue marlin to 400 pounds. Most of the marlin they catch are released, but occasionally they’ll keep one, like the 400-pounder, and keep some for themselves to eat and share it with others.

On a recent outing, they chartered the boat, Bad Medicine, out of Cabo San Lucas. The Araujos have their own boat, but Edward said it’s nice to occasionally not have to run the boat.

With them on the boat was Jon Schwartz, an adventurer and accomplished photographer who, like Patricia, is a San Diego County school teacher. Schwartz was along for some promotional shots for the boat.
At one point, the captain of the Bad Medicine spotted some birds working a ball of bait.

“All the years I’ve been fishing off San Diego and down here, I’d never seen a bait ball like that one,” Araujo said. “And I’ve never seen big fish busting through it like this. We couldn’t believe it when these big marlin started going wild and crashing through the bait ball. What an amazing sight.”

The Bad Medicine captain, Bernabe “Bernie” Ruiz, then moved into the area and Edward and Patricia put out a couple of small mackerel, fly-lined.

“I hooked up first, and then a couple seconds later, Patricia hooked up on her fish,” Araujo said. “We were hooked up for 30 to 35 minutes. I got mine in first, and then Patricia landed her’s. We released both of them. Both were striped marlin, mine about 115 pounds, but Patricia’s was over 130 pounds. On the way back we landed a 20-pound dorado trolling, so it was a great day out there.”


Schwartz captured the entire fishing adventure with pictures, including the tagging operation by Bad Medicine deckhand Alberto “Beto” Cesena. He said it was the first time he ever shot photos of a husband and wife team fighting marlin simultaneously. Schwartz has a couple of terrific websites in www.bluewaterjon.com and www.kidslikeblogs.org, the latter he set up for kids to express their opinions, tell outdoor and fishing stories and the like.

“As a fishing photographer and travel writer, I have plenty of stock fishing pictures, but photos of married couples hooked up at the same time to huge fish are hard to come by,” Schwartz said.

Notes: Outdoor TV star and hunting and fishing icon Babe Winkelman, whose shows “Outdoor Secrets” and “Good Fishing” have aired for over 30 years, is the guest speaker Thursday when the San Diego Chapter of Safari Club International meets. The monthly meeting is at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse, 2150 Harbor Island Dr., on Harbor Island. There’s a no-host social hour at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 and the Winkelman presentation at 7:30. Cost is $30. For reservations, call Lyons & O’Haver Taxidermy at (619) 697-3217 or email to meetings@sandiegosci.org.

Trout Fishing Classes: Capt. Ron Baker offers his popular trout fishing classes for kids 5 to 15 years old at Lake Poway starting Tuesday at 3 p.m. The first set of classes run from Jan. 3-24, every Tuesday, and there also are classes set for Jan. 31-Feb. 21 and Feb. 28-Mar. 20. Cost is $40 for Poway residents, $50 for non-residents, and there’s a $40 charge for materials that include a new rod and reel, spooled with the proper line, hooks, bait and a fishing permit. The kids get to keep the rod and reel and all materials. Call Baker at (619) 977-2829 or the lake at (858) 668-4595 or register on-line at www.poway.org.

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