That's My Story

TO SWIM ANOTHER DAY – published March 2006 – Western Outdoor News

Well, finished another madcapped Fred Hall Fishing and Boating Show in Long Beach. It was about a week ago and most of my compadres who did the show are still recovering. For days after the show you feel like a truck hit you.

Believe me, it’s a lot of fun behind the booth talking to everyone, but still a lot of work. I’m finding out a lot of you couldn’t find me and I apologize. My booth was buried in folks and was next to Izorline and Whopper Stopper Rods in it’s usual location but many thanks to those of you who braved through the masses to introduce yourselves. Many of my friends head to the Fred Hall Show in Del Mar near San Diego this week. I’m doing a few presentations this week (Turner’s Fishing Club Pasadena and the Santa Barbara Yacht Club Fishing Fleet…thanks guys!) then headed to the ISE Show in Salt Lake City then back to Baja for the season.

During these shows you get approached by a lot of guys pimping one product or another. Some are better than others. They leave a flier or a card and you shake their hands and smile. We get pretty busy in the shows so we politely take the materials and it gets tossed onto the file with all the other materials with a genuine promise to myself that “I”ll get to it after the show.”

But one group approached me and actually took the time to follow-up with an e-mail after the show. They told me they had a “Catch and Release Marlin Tournament” that had a website and everything. Ho-hum…yea…great. OK. Another one of those. But they were courteous enough to write so I checked out the site: http://cabosbest.com/wcbrt-site/

Yeow! I gotta say, I was impressed and all I could think was,” It’s about time.” Expecting just another hair-brained attempt at a tournament (like my own pity-poor efforts) , the guys at Cabo Best have their ducks in a row and the guns to carry it out. Slated for May 14-18th in Cabo San Lucas, the World Championship Release Tournament is being backed by the Billfish Foundation, Okuma, Budweiser, Eagle Claw, Williamson Lures, Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, G. Loomis,, Braid, Berkley and Ford Motors, among others. They have big money on the line; a helluva party agenda; and expect more than 100 international teams.

But, here’s the tweak…this is a circle hook tournament! In order to promote the safer catch and release of all fish and insuring their survival, all live and dead bait can only be rigged with a circle hook. No “J” style hooks are permitted. With lures, no double hook rigs are allowed or must utilize a circle hook. If you know anything about circles, the rub is that almost all the time, the hook slides right into the corner of the mouth instead of down the gullet making for less injury to the fish and a quick release.

I gotta applaud these guys for pushing the envelope and deciding to connect the dots differently and color outside the lines. Frankly, it’s been a long time coming. I’m pretty elated to back anything that increases awareness about preserving the fishing resources in Mexico and the Sea of Cortez.

I’m not saying that because it would be good for business either. In fact, in the fishing business, success is traditionally marked by how many you kill, not how many you let go. I don’t plan to do this fishing thing forever, but it would be great if this place that Jacques Cousteau called the “aquarium of the world” were around long after you and I are gone. That being said, I’m happy to say that an increasing number of anglers ask about releasing fish or are voluntarily releasing smaller or female fish that has nothing to do with limits or other imposed restrictions. With increasing regularity, I see smaller ice chests coming off the plane or guys simply catching enough, “to cook up at the restaurant tonite.” As one guy said, “I don’t need to have 100 pounds of fillets in my freezer!”

Even more significantly, I see more captains aware of the diminishing resource and how what happens on a daily basis in their backyards affects the big picture. This is especially true of the younger skippers and is incredibly momentous in a country where food is not taken for granted (no matter how bad we think that mackerel tastes!) and where culturally and economically, their livelihoods often depended on the amount of blood on the deck and carcasses in the fish box.

As one of my own captains told me as we watched his young sons play on the beach, “Like any father, I have to feed my family, but I hope my sons can always play in these waters and their sons as well. They do not have to be fishermen like me. But, I worry like any father that maybe we will lose this someday.”

We may not always understand each other in daily conversation, but it seems this is one issue that anglers and skippers can embrace with the realization that it’s no longer our Father’s Sea of Cortez. I admit I’m as guilty as the next person for all the times in the past when I simply lost count of my own fish in the melee and frenzy of a WFO bite. I try to be more conscious of that these days. But frankly, I know I’ll never see the days I’ve read about in John Steinbecks’, Ray Cannon’s or even Gene Kira’s books…when the totuava filled acres of water. . .when the yellowtail broke and birds dove as far as the eye could see or when yellowfin tuna and roosterfish could be caught in front of the La Paz hotels. What happened to the days when marlin were thick right off land’s end in Cabo? I can only stare at old sepia-colored photos and wonder what happened. Sadly, you and I both know what happened.

There has to be a way to save our sport without ruining our sport. I think these guys have the right idea with their Catch and Release Billfish Tournament. It’s a step in the right direction.

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

Jonathan