#34 Cabo San Diego

Saturday 9/26/26

If you know us, you know we have been trolling hard for our “El Niño” moment. With our current schedule we have been limited to mostly fishing on weekends, which is tough for many reasons. Weather windows and boat pressure are less than ideal, but that is what we are working with. We launched the boat in the dark, and watched as many boats pointed north out of the jetty. We had been tracking a warm water pocket south, and with a moment of doubting our plan as we watched every boat go north/northwest, we decided to stick to our plan and fish away from the boat pressure. We are sure glad we did!

We found a zone of jumping dorado and flying fish, and kicked the trollers out. After about an hour, we found a kelp. We started to circle it, and zing! Hook up! Our marauder was lit up. We knew we had something good. One of us grabbed the rod while the other cleared the lines. We got the fish to the boat and it was exactly what we thought it was. WAHOO! After a scary moment where it tried to wrap the prop, we gaffed it and got it in the boat. It had been 11 years since we caught our last local wahoo together, so this time the stoke was high with our kids on the boat. It was 8:30 am, with no boats in sight and a wahoo in the bag. We trolled a bit more around this patty, but perhaps this was a lone wahoo. We drifted on it and picked off a dorado on live bait. Then we got back on the troll. We saw another jumping dorado and shortly after we got a dorado on the troll. Fun fishing in a zone full of life. By this time we were ready to head in and call it a short day. It was around noon, and out of nowhere we hooked a Striped Marlin on the troll! We had a fun quick fight with the Marlin, snapped a picture by the boat and then released it. What a beautiful fish and what a day!