The operation of the Maximus in PV is pretty new. This is my first trip on the Maximus and I try to give info about the boat and its operation objectively to help other fishermen who have interest in fishing on the boat.
The boat is located at the backyard of a luxurious 5 bed room house inside Paradise Village resort. Paradise Village resort is my favorite place and I stayed there 4-5 times already.
The boatThe 65' Maximus ia like a miniature long range boat. Though the boat is small, our 7 fishermen could fish pretty comfortably for the whole trip.
FishingWe left dock around 7:00 pm on Nov 18.
Orientation by Capt Keith.
We had 7 fishermen, two Capt (Keith and Forest) and two mates (Carlos and Mike.
Capt Keith found birds and tuna by 9:30 am on Nov 19. Fishing was hot all morning.
I was the only guy who brought popping rods and I fished alone on the bow.
I used 8' Black Hole Nano carbon Cape Cod Special/new Daiwa Saltiga6500. My first choice of lure was Heru Skipjack 120, but I used only the lure for the whole trip as it worked great.
I landed 12 yft by lunch with the Skipjack lure.
my first yft of the trip.
I let Alex from Colorado use my extra 8' Black Hole Nano Cape Cod Special popping rod/Stella 20000SW filled with 80 lb JB hollow. He got a yft on Heru Tuna80 on his first cast. He said it was his first ever yft on a popping rod.
After lunch we left the school of tuna to find bigger size tuna and finally Mathias from California landed a 140 lb tuna after searching several hours.
It is always nice to have a good dinner, take showes and go to bed.
Chef Armondo is a super nice guy and made great Mexican foods.
Sun's up. Popping time again.
I met another Korean fisherman Young Park from Los Angeles. He has lots of long range trip experience out of San Diego.
Alex who is a professional fly fisherman was so happy to land tuna on popping rods. He told of great trout fishing on fly rods in Colorado. It is mind boggling and he promised me to guide to catch big trout on fly rod in ginger clear water in Colorado.
Whenever I hooked up a tuna, Alex hooked up too.
Those Heru Skipjack and Tuna worked great.
Young casted Yozuri Sashimi Bull with a conventional rod and had one. Sashimi Bull is another great lure for yellowfin.
ex-Navy Wayne from California.
Alex did it again. He finally hooked up a nice 140 - 150 lb on Heru Tuna 80 lure.
I watched closely how 8' Black Hole Nano Cape Cod Special popping rod performed to fight a decent tuna. We landed 250 - 280 lbs bluefin with the rod in Cape Cod, but yellowfin off Mexico fight much harder and they normally fight up and down in deep water.
When it got dark, I started jigging. As dinner time came, I let mate Carlos use my jigging setup (450g Black Hole Cape Cod Special and JM PE10) and Carlos landed 2 yft on 200g Super Sardine jig in 10 minutes.
You got to see his smiling face.
There were lots of squid around the boat at night while drifting.
Mate Mike stayed all night to catch squid for bait.
I netted two inches long marlin. Blue marlin or black marlin ?
Fishing condition was deteriorated on the third day. We didn't see much bird activities. Whenever we approached to birds, action died down and moved too fast.
It happens for bluefin popping in Cape Cod too. Tuna are there, but it is dead quiet some day.
This was my final tuna of the trip on the third day.
We headed for Roca Corbantana. We made skippies for bait, but we decided to head early because not much going on. while trolling we had a black marlin and marlin gave us a spectacular show.
Finally the trip was over. It was a great popping trip for me. fishermen on the boat were great. Capt/Crew were great. Weather was great for the whole trip.
When Keith mentioned about 8 days trip to San Benedicto/Socorro Islands trip in mid January, I didn't hesitate to join the trip as Socorro Island trip is one of my top destinations I should go and I am pretty pleased with the boat and the operation.
Wayne had a great idea with a beer after the trip.
I shall be back.
