Father and son land memorable souvenir sportfishing off Cabo San Lucas

Outposts will try to post the Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, saltwater sportfishing report, courtesy of Team Picante from Picante Sportfishing, each week. There were some technical difficulties in sending the report this week, but Picante did manage to share the following tale of a father and son who ended up with an awesome Cabo souvenir:

Cabo fishing has been good again this week, and the marlin bite has been on. 

The big story for the week is Jerry Smith of Caldwell, N.J., and his son Jerry, who on July 17 went out for an impromptu day of sportfishing aboard Picante’s 24-foot Shamrock, Picantito III.

The Smiths had planned on spending only three or four hours out fishing, and while out trolling for marlin caught two dorado, a 25-pounder and a 15-pounder. They mentioned to the crew that just before catching the first fish they had seen a white butterfly or moth flying over the water.

On the way back to the harbor, the Smiths happened to spot another white moth -- and then they hooked the fish of a lifetime, a 500-plus-pound marlin.

It turned into an epic battle, with the elder Smith giving all he could to finally get the fish close to the boat, enlisting the help of crew and other anglers on board to help with the fight (at one point even the vessel's captain, Francisco Acevedo, lent a hand). Finally, after 3 1/2 hours, the marlin was landed.

It was a long battle, but both father and son were, to say the least, ecstatic.

-- Kelly Burgess
twitter.com/latimesoutposts

Photo: Jerry Smith and his son Jerry of Caldwell, N.J., landed this 500-plus-pound marlin. Credit: Team Picante

Comments

[Skippy]

Um... sorry folks but the "sport" in sport fishing means if the angler gives up, the fish gets to live. With the exception of a fish that dies during the fight, a sportsman never, ever, boats a fish when the rod has been passed around, peiod.

[Jerry Smith]

Its been five days after the catch and we still cannot believe it. I have all the measurements to produce a relplica mount of our Marlin.
What is more surprising than catching a 500 pound Marlin is that my wife is allowing me to hang it in our family room. YES!!!

Thanks for all the well wishes. The largest fish prior to this one was a 42 pound striped bass off Sandy Hook, NJ.