REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Pangas, Fads and Presidentes

Blue Heaven sitting and waiting as I went out on the Impulse. I think I heard her cry as she saw me going to fish on a different boat.

Blue on the wire

They are small here but feisty

Trying to release but a panga is moving in

The guy driving the Panga recklessly lets go of his motor to try and free gaff our fish

The dumb ass Crashed into the Impulse trying to gaff a blue marlin. All the while we were all telling him to stay away.

He stuck the marlin in the tail but the mate pulled the fish off and the fish got away

If they spent as much time fishing for themselves as they do harassing us, they might catch fish on their own.

Ahhhhhhh Morning time in the DR..... The sun is cresting the eastern horizon somewhere behind the pineapple showers to the east. Its warm and tropical feeling this morning. The humid layer of air has trapped the smoky air down low and the smell of cane fires is thick in the air.
For the past two days it has finally been summer like here. The winds of last week have slacked off and the more tropical south easternly breezes have returned.

The past week has been spent waxing a detailing different parts of the boat. But all work and no play makes this crew grumpy.... so I took a day and fished with the Impulse, a 90 foot Merrit. We had a great day. We caught 4 of the 5 blue marlin we hooked and saw one more. It was nice to get out on the water. Tyler also got out fishing. One day on the Ambush and another day on the Shoe. The boats he fished on also caught a few Blues each day. One of the things a boat coming to the DR has to deal with is the local commercial fishermen. Not all of them are bad but some of them have become down right aggressive. Let me explain. The areas where we fish are dotted with FADS ( Fish attracting devices placed out in deep water by the commercial fishermen. They go through a lot of effort to anchor these fads out in as much as 4000-5000 feet of water. The Fads, with their floats and palm fronds attached become floating reefs which attract smaller fish and in turn attract marlin. They actually harvest marlin here. The commercial boats are out there everyday in all kinds of weather in boats called Pangas. The problems we end up having is that our industry has taken an all release stance on Marlin. The local panga boats can not grasp that in their minds. They feel that we should give them our fish. Some of them have even gone as far as taking the fish as we are releasing them. This happened the other day when I fished aboard the Impulse. The Panga came in hot and swinging a gaff as we tried to release the fish. His motor stalled and the panga slapped sideways into the impulses cockpit. I included the pics) Now I understand the commercial guys in these boats thinking we owe them something... but events like that are down right dangerous. The captain of the Impulse contacted the Navy and showed them video and pics of the event when we arrive back at the dock. The Navy made a call to the town where the Pangas are fishing from and the crew was arrested upon reaching the beach. We have tried to strike deals with the commercial guys but then do not want to make deals. They just want to kill the fish. Dont get me wrong, its not like this everyday but if you fish for a week here it will happen.

As of 10 days ago, it seemed like an eternity before the boss would arrive. But now its just a couple days before the Blue Heaven gets to begin plying the waters here in CDC. The full moon is a couple of days after the boss gets here and the weather is forecast to be pretty nice for the next week.

Two days ago, while Tyler fished for the day aboard the Shoe, I drove into Boca Chica with a crew member from another boat. We made a day of it. We picked up some parts in Boca Chica , ate some awesome food on the beach and then on the way back we drove through San Pedro where many of the commercial boats are based. We opted not to talk to them after one of their amigos had been arrested three days before. But we did get to see their operation and how they build FADs from the slightly opened windows of our rental car. Im a big boy and not afraid of much but that was not a part of town I felt safe in. As the day wore on, we road tripped to Dominicus near Beyhibe. The beach there was awesome and the Presidente beers were cold. I look forward to going to that beach again.