Day Three - A Rough Day at Sea.

Mathias chumming with fresh bait… Image by Chris Kemper

Well, another tough day out on the ocean. This morning we arrived at our boat, and it was a bit chilly with some wind in the marina. Signs that it was going to be rough out on the ocean. We decided to try a different spot to see if we would get better results. The site we visited was good a week ago but went cold for us the first two days.

So we tried a seamount that was a few miles closer to land. Unfortunately, the water here was green and not the blue we had had the previous two days. But perhaps the green water would help us find those elusive sharks. Green also means the water here was colder, which might help us with the blue sharks. They tend to like the cooler waters.

As we chummed for a few hours, the winds kept building, and with it came the white caps. The swells were building, and it was getting choppy. Finally, about four-plus hours into chumming, we saw our first shark. Well, Brad thought he saw a blue shark earlier, but no one else did, so we marked it off as a phantom shark.

The shark that arrived we all saw it. It cruised in on a wave as it headed towards our hang baits. It was not a mako or a blue. It was a smooth hammerhead! Excitedly we all started gearing up. I tried to rush everyone because the one thing I know about these oceanic hammerheads is that they do not stick around very long.

Sadly I was right. The shark left as fast as it arrived. A few of us got in the water, but the shark was gone. No one saw it in the water. Damn it.

The swells were building dangerously high, so we made a safety call. We pulled all our bait, dumped the chum, and called it a day. We slowly motored back to port in a very messy ocean.

The waves were high and made for an exciting ride back home.

As we motored back to port, we encountered another smooth hammerhead along the way. It was swimming on the surface; we watched it for a quick minute, called it a few dirty names for not showing up to our chum slick, then left it alone.

Sadly today was not our day, moral is low, but thankfully we still have two more days, and tomorrow looks fantastic.

In fact, I genuinely believe tomorrow will be an excellent wildlife day at sea.

I can feel it!

Day Two - A Total Bust!

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Bull sealion. We stopped by the sealion colony off Cabo San Lucas, MX. on the way out to snap a few images.

Well, we got skunked, damn it!

It happens.

This is why we run these trips over several days because with pelagic sharks, you just never know if and when they will show up. Today they were a no-show. AND the day was perfection. The weather was beautiful, and the water visibility was an incredible deep blue. The vis looked insane. Of course, I didn’t get in to confirm it, but from the surface, it was WOW.

 All we needed was some sharks… and NADA! Nothing, no sharks showed up. 

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Our group was disappointed with the makos no-show today, but that is part of the dance. You can not have good days without bad ones. It is all about time in the water and the magic is out there waiting for us.

But that is what nature sometimes does. She decides that you need a kick in the teeth, and to remind you that what we are doing is not easy. If we want to find makos to dive with, we are going to have to put in the time.

We still have three days left, thankfully, so there is time to get back out there and find some sharks to dive with. 

At the end of the day, on the way back into the marina, we stopped to watch some common dolphins jumping around and a couple of humpback whales in the middle of all that craziness. I snapped a fluke shot that looked like it might be worth sharing, and after that, we motored in and called it a day. 

We are just going to have to wait until tomorrow to find our magic… and I do not doubt that Day Three will be our day… I can feel it!

Until then my friends, thanks for reading.

Marlin Mayhem!

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November 11, 2021 - We finally got a break in the weather. Today we had flat calm seas with beautiful skies. Unfortunately, we got our asses kicked around by the angry seas for the first three days. This made the long days on the water even longer trying to find the hungry marlin hunting bait balls. The choppy seas and the cloudy skies made it difficult to pinpoint where the marlin were. Of course, the first few days were not an entire bust, we did find a blue whale while we were out there, along with humpback whales, so despite the bumpy rides, the days were still good for wildlife. Just not great.

Blue Whale

Today though, we found them. It was a really good day, and our guests all had a blast experiencing bait balls. We didn’t have long bait ball encounters, but we did get a good taste of some bait ball action. Overall it was a fantastic time, and our guests had fun. They even helped out a turtle in distress. It got trapped in some fishing line, and our friends, Brad and his girl Alyssa helped out the turtle and managed to untangle the poor baby. What was so great was the turtle allowed them to help - it did not struggle or move as they were removing the ropes—wicked cool. Tomorrow the weather will be even better than today, and I am excited about what the day has in store for us.

Humpback whales

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This was one of the reports I wrote from two weeks spent at sea on our marlin baitball expedition this past November. Thankfully, the weather was kind to us for the rest of the trip, but it was brutal on the body those first three days. But I always say, if you want epic moments out on the ocean, you have to put in the time, take the hits when the ocean is angry, and when she shines on you, she will really shine… and she did. We were patient, and it paid off. We had great moments on this trip, with many animals and some beautiful days at sea.

The marlin were running hard, and they were everywhere. This was also a good year for schooling mobula rays, sea turtles, and whales. This season, the whales were out in full force, humpbacks, blue whales, and hunting brides whales.

We had such a good time this year, there was just so much going on. When you visit places like this, you are always hoping for encounters that our guests will get excited about. I am happy to report that yes they were happy and more. I spent two weeks here, and it just did not feel like it was enough time. I really wanted more. Maybe next year I will stay longer?

Here are some images from the trip. I do hope you enjoy…

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Brydes Whale

Schooling Mobula Rays

On one weather day we swam with the sealions in the Kelp Beds.

Pacific Black Seaturtle

Coastal Coyote on the rocky shore line.

5am starts allowed us to visit Bird Island to get some images of the rising sun when the birds were starting their day.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Day Two Was a Bit of a Challenge.

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Well, damn, we finished up day two and no orcas. In fact, there were zero reports of orcas from any of our contacts today. We have a network of ocean people we chat with helping us with any news of orca sightings in the area, and today there was none. There has been solid orca activity in the area since Thursday of last week, I have been getting those orca reports.

Today… Nada!

Jay snapping the speed racers.

Maybe they needed a break from people, or they are just full and not in the mood to hunt today. I am not sure why the orcas were not in the area today; all I know is that it gets me excited for tomorrow because they will be hungry and out for Mobulas or even dolphins.

Which reminds me, we spent the morning with a super pod of common dolphins. They were hunting very close to shore, so the water they were in was very murky, so we did not try to get in with them; we just enjoyed watching the craziness from the boat. Richard, Al, and I grabbed our topside cameras and shot the spectacle.

It is not easy capturing stills of porpoising dolphins, especially since you have no idea where and when they will jump out of the water. I shot over 300 images in a short amount of time, and almost all of them are crap. I did manage to shoot a couple of keepers; but the rest are garbage. I set my camera up with a shutter speed of 2500 to compensate for the fast motion of the dolphins and the movement of the boat, and it worked for freezing the motion. But the 7D has a slow auto focus and it is difficult to capture tack sharp images because of it. However, every once in a while things come together and you can make magic happen.

After the dolphins, we continued our search for orcas; sadly, we did not find them today, and we searched all day. In fact, we left the marina at sunset. As we were leaving a grey fox trotted across the marina dirt road and into the thick bushes when it saw us. sadly no pictures. Foxes normally come out at night, so it was a nice treat as were leaving.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and I am looking forward to whatever the ocean may gift us with.

QUOTE OF THE DAY… Okay, I told the boys that I would throw in tonite's quote in the blog from our buddy Garin. It's officially the quote of the day; I know you guys will not understand what it means, but this has turned into a boys trip with all the nonsense that goes with it, and I said I would share;

"Just tell them you are the chief Barnacle on the Grey Whale, you f@#king Donut!"

As I said, it won't make sense to you all, but I had a good laugh when he said it.