We caught three marlin on the fly and had a few more bites. Captain and deckhand are good guys and we had a lot of fun.

Capitán Raul knows what he’s doing! Bad weather made it a bit harder to fish, but such is the time of year. End of April isn’t prime fishing time in this area, but we were still put on good numbers of cabrilla and pargo! The Capitán is excited about his trade and knows where to go! We will be back…

This is a review for four days of fishing with Captain Raul and Gaspar, three offshore, and one day inshore. I want to be very careful about this review, because this was a very strange experience that I have mixed feelings about. For perspective, I have had about 75 guided trips in my life.

First the good news: The boat is big, sturdy, and stable. The captain and mate know how to put fish on the deck. In 3 days offshore and one inshore, I caught five 200 lb Striped Marlin, a 40 lb Wahoo, and a Triggerfish. He ran me out to sight fish at the bait balls, and put me on the fish every time. Casting at Marlin you can see under water, how great is that? They have some nice extras, like they bought fresh live prawns from a boat netting them, and made them into Ceviche on the boat. I thought that was cool.

I consider both Captain Raul and deckhand Gaspar friends.

The other side of the story: This is a multipurpose working boat, used for diving, whale watching, and fishing. It is not configured like a classic fishing boat, and it is a little rough from usage. His truck is also very rough. If you are used to a new bay boat, or super panga, this ain’t it. There is no fighting chair. You fight the fish sitting on a bench with line straight to the side of the boat, not behind it. This is different, but it works very well, because the driver doesn’t have to look over his shoulder to see what you and the fish are doing and adjust the boat position properly. The boat used 3 plastic gas cans, and so there is some switching during a trip that might bother those not familiar with boating.

As much as I like Captain Raul, he is quite overbearing. He is THE CAPTAIN of the boat. He uses the command voice almost all the time. He treated me and Gaspar like children. Understand this, captains fear tourists who try to help and cause lost fish and then whine. They want to do everything except reel in the fish; they want to set-up the tackle, pick the bait, bait the hook, pick the place cast, and set the hook, and the client then reels in the well hooked fish. Most captains are wary of customer’s input, fearing they will cause lost fish, but there’s a way, a tone of voice, appropriate to directing the client the right direction. I’m only slightly offended when I make a suggestion and the Cap rolls his eyes, but this guy…

In terms of techniques, he’s very good, but lacks some skills. However his skills are well tuned to put fish on the deck in his home ballpark.

This ain’t a pristine 28 Robalo, but if you want to have a great shot at putting fish on the deck for a great price, and can tolerate a blue collar experience, and you can be thick skinned, pick Melyvan. Come in November when the Striped Marlin are in, and fish the weekdays offshore when the tourist boats aren’t hogging the bait balls with divers down.

And let me be absolutely clear, I am telling you these things to help you make a choice. Bottom line is I caught everything I hoped for, plus a big Wahoo.

This trip will be a disappointment to experienced anglers. The boat is a whale watching boat and not at all comfortable to fish in. We were pounded by the waves and didn’t catch anything worthwhile. Equipment was mostly low quality and in need of maintenance. My experience with the guide was not great but I’m not going there in this review.