January 22nd by Greg Cory

Review of Mikes Marina and Deep Sea Fishing Charter

In The Beginning:

I have been deep sea fishing before this trip although never in the Dominican, same goes for several of my guests, so we pretty much knew what we were getting into. And although the trips were never that fruitful in the past, it was always a good time out in the sea with friends, so I knew I wanted to do it again this time. We contacted Mikes Marina several times via email leading up to our trip and they always responded very quickly and were very accommodating to our requests. We scheduled a half day charter for 12 guests on January 22nd 2007.

The Morning:

A nice shuttle bus picks you up outside your hotel – very prompt…but early in the morning. And although we scheduled it for 12 people, 2 of those 12 could not awake from the previous nights partying so off we went with 10 of us. Although the boat would have accommodated 12, a few less people was not the worst thing in the world. We arrived at the Ocean, where Mike’s headquarters is, and paid our half day charter fee. We also had Mike add a few little “grocery” items, so we paid for these here as well. Once we were all paid up, we boarded the taxi boat and headed out to our charter.

Fishing:

We had a gorgeous day, so much open water, and a lot of nice views of the Island. It was not long until the first mate, aka deckhand, was hard at work. Watching him prepare the baits was one of my favourite things on the trip, you could tell even from this that he was the right man for the job. The engines stopped and the baits went out. I think it was just less than an hour into the trip the deckhand sprung into action, he saw what he thought was a White Marlin miss one of our baits (Let me tell you, you have to be incredibly good at this to notice that, because looking out the back of the boat, you see the baits, you see the waves and the lines, but there is no way in hell you’re seeing a fish)…anyway, he removed the rod from the holster, let out some line, and turns out found what he was looking for. The Marlin enticed a second time, took the bait. I give full credit to his knowledge of fishing for this catch, otherwise it would have been the fish that got away…that nobody noticed. Anyway, I found myself in the captains’ chair for 20 minutes, before I was exhausted, the White Marlin, roughly 45lbs was the fight of my life. It jumped so many times it looked like a fake promotional video – I finally tired it out, got it to the boat, then it turned and ran into the sunset like flipper, jumping the entire way as my reel just spun out hundreds of yards of slack – so I passed the rod off to my father and went to rest. After another 15-20 minutes the fish was in the boat – what a monster, and already well worth the trip.

For the rest of the trip we found various schools of Mahi-Mahi (Dorado’s in Spanish), everyone who wanted a chance, got to reel one in. They ranged from 7-12lbs, and although a far cry from the fight the Marlin gave us, an excellent afternoon of fish. We even had a double header of monster 25+lbs Mahi Mahi’s on, not to brag, but I got mine in by myself and another friend had his line snap. I don’t think he took the best approach to reeling it in – to correct this: listen to the instructions from the deckhand very carefully – and don’t panic – the fish is on, it’s not going anywhere, error on the side of caution rather than forcing it. All told my dad and I assisted each other on a 45lb Marlin, I reeled in a 25lb Dorado, and 6 others reeled in a fish, 8 fish in total. What a trip!

Tips:

Of all of our previous deep sea adventures, this was the roughest water. And although the boat handles it great, people’s stomachs don’t. 5 of the 10 of us “chummed” the water, including 2 seasoned veterans who have never been sick before. The best cure we found, were those behind your ear stickers. I didn’t need them, but the two people who used them were fine. I think they are $15 for 2 of them, wear both if you’re afraid, you should be fine.

If you want a nice picture of your Dorado’s, see if you can snap your pictures right away. These fish are gorgeous colours, bright yellows/blue/green, but the colour fades away quite quickly, so see about snapping a picture right away. The other fish look the same once you get back to shore, so you can wait for those.

Keep your electrical equipment dry! I recommend bringing a leather case, or even a plastic bag covering your camera (other than the lens), you never know when some mist, or some water, or if you drop it etc. Just be extra careful, cameras do not do well with water, especially sea water.

When you’re traveling out to sea, keep your eye out for flying fish – no seriously. Fish, about 8” long will just from the sea, travel 50-80 yards then return from where they came. They’re like nautical hummingbirds, and well worth seeing – and you better see one too, or else you won’t believe me – very cool.

Bring a backpack of stuff. Chips, snacks, sandwiches if you want them. Extra sunscreen, and wear a hat!

Tip your crew. Your driver finds the fish, don’t underestimate that aspect, and your deckhand is just awesome. If you have a GREAT day, what’s another $10 per guy? We caught so many fish I thought that that would help go towards the tip, but the success was too much, so we tipped anyway. And bring extra hats – hats in the DR are like currency, and a great sign of respect and a nice gesture. We gave our driver and deckhand fishing hats from our local derby – they loved them! And you better have a hat to give Mike if you catch a fish!

By Greg Cory

greg@corvisionmarketing.com