At the start, we learned that our original boat and crew would not be taking us out. After a very short time we recognized that Alex and Jorge were excellent replacements. They were friendly, professional and knowledgeable. We got to our spot and were on the fish in minutes. We hooked a sailfish and the crew talked us through landing it and we were successful. The crew was patient, found another spot and we eventually caught a bigger sailfish. On the way back we saw a pod of Humpback whales and Alex took the time to let us watch them for a few minutes. Alex and Jorge clearly love what they do, they were both excited with fish on and the experience was better for it.

In the 1st 1 1/2 hours we caught 6 bottom fish, half of which were grouper so I was satisfied with some fresh fish for dinner.  I suggested we start trolling for the duration of the 5 hours trip. Unfortunately it was a long boat ride with no other fish on the troll. I went with him 3-4 days earlier and we landed a big sail, a big Jack Crevelle and 2 small bonitas. So that was this year’s 2 trips; everyone tried by changing bait, speed and direction.  I chose 2 -1/2 day trips this year, my choice might be 1 full day instead so we could have the time to go out further into deep water to improve my odds. I still had two nice days on the pacific.

When we met Chino on the beach, he told us the electronics on his boat had broken the day before and instead had us go with his “cousins”. Not sure why we didn’t get notification of the change earlier. The boat we ended up on was nice—plenty of seating for the 5 of us. We tried at a couple of spots for bottom fish with no luck and then went to a commercial fishing buoy where we hooked into about a dozen dorado and 5 blackfin tuna, nothing huge, but really fun! We took home 8 dorado and they cleaned them up nicely for us (made great sushi and ceviche!). The only negative was when we paid the balance at the end of the trip and also gave the guys what we thought was a generous tip. They got very aggressive about what was expected for tip, demanding more, leaving a very sour taste in our mouths. If Chino is going to put his clients on other boats, he should make sure they treat his customers well.

Chino and Jorge were just incredible. Started off slow with 1 sailfish then Chino told Jorge to pick up and we moved. We arrived to a frenzy. Tuna and dolphin crashing bait everywhere. Believe it or not this went on for the rest of the day and we returned exhausted.  Chinos wife made us an incredible tuna and pasta salad and baked Marlin. It was delicious. We highly recomend these guys.