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Tuna Melts
Quick surrender by 300-pounder ends fisherman's run of ill luck
By Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 25, 2003
As anglers around him caught tuna after tuna, Hector Lopez became more and more depressed at his plight.
"I was doing lousy," Lopez said. "My bad luck, that's all. The fish didn't want to bite my hook."
This from a man whose family earned a living fishing abalone at Cedros Island, 340 miles south of San Diego, and then fished for lobsters off Northern Baja and at the Coronado Islands near San Diego.
But now Hector Lopez had the black cloud, the fishing curse. And it's not as though he could go anywhere, either. He was on what was a wonderful 15-day fishing trip on the Red Rooster III out of Lee Palm Sportfishers in San Diego. By the last day, the anglers had nearly plugged the boat's fish hold with yellowfin tuna up to 180 pounds.
Capt. Jeff DeBuys ordered the anglers to start releasing fish, first all 100 pounders or less were let go, followed by 150 pounders, then 180 pounders, all released to fight another day. And finally, DeBuys told the anglers the boat was nearly full as they prepared to fish the last day.
"We can make room for a big cow, but that's about it," DeBuys told the anglers.
A "cow" in long-range parlance is a huge tuna over 300 pounds. Up to this point, no one had ever caught a 300-pounder at the Cleofas Bank, located about 50 miles off Puerta Vallarta.
Lopez continued fishing, knowing he'd missed some of the better action, but believing enough in himself to try for a big tuna. All he had to show for the trip thus far was a half dozen tunas. Some guys had caught nearly that many in a day.
"I had a lot of choices when I went to the rod rack to get my gear for that last day, but for some reason I grabbed the right setup," he said. "All my gear is hand-me-down. My entire arsenal is hand-me-down. And a lot of my gear was beat up on this trip, but I grabbed the reel with fresh line."
And so Lopez went to the rail with his heavy rod and International 80W reel, loaded with 150-pound Spectra and a topshot of 200 yards of 130-pound Izorline, topped with five feet of 300-pound mono leader. He took one of the 3-pound skipjacks they'd caught earlier in the day and baited it to a 12/0 hook.
He was loaded for cow. And good thing because he needed every bit of it.
A nanosecond after the skipjack hit the water, the line on Lopez's reel went taut.
"That big tuna was right there under the boat," Lopez said. "Talk about luck."
Suddenly the black cloud was gone. The curse lifted. A half hour into the fight, Lopez began getting line back on the reel.
But suddenly the line stopped jerking from the tuna's pulls, and the crew realized the fish was tail-wrapped. That, and the fish had died and was sounding.
"The big concern was that the fish might get tangled on the bottom, and the line would break," Lopez said. Was the cloud coming back, the curse re-emerging?
But 55 minutes into the battle, an incredibly short time to fight a fish so big, Lopez raised the fish to the surface. It took five gaffs to boat it. The fish was estimated to be 308 pounds on the boat. On land, at H&M Landing's scales, it weighed 310.8 pounds, the first 300-pounder of the season for the long-range fleet and believed to be the first 300-pounder ever caught by a sport boat at the Cleofas Bank.
"I think the crew was more excited than I was," Lopez said.
For Lopez, 57, this was an achievement of a lifetime of angling, a tribute to his family's fishing tradition, started long ago in a small fishing village on Cedros Island and then Campo Lopez, the spot known to surfers and fishermen as K 55, half way between Tijuana and Ensenada.
An American family brought Lopez to the United States when he was a youngster, allowing him to get an education and make a better life.
"Two American families, Pat and Burt Easton and Bonnie and Richard Walker, turned my life around," Lopez said. "Our family lost everything in the middle of the night, lost it all to a corrupt government that claimed our land and our homes."
He earned a master's degree at San Diego State and now is assistant principal at Mendoza Elementary School. His two sons and daughter all are college graduates.
"This is a great country, and there's success for anyone who wants to achieve it," Lopez said. "This is the only country in the world where if you set a goal, you can achieve it through hard work. I've been a success at everything I've done in life. And this is the top for me as far as fishing."
It also helps to marry well, and Hector Lopez did that, too. His wife, Patricia, an attorney, is of Polish descent. They like to joke that their kids, half Mexican and half Polish, are "Policans."
Patricia Lopez actually gave Hector the trip as a gift, a very expensive one valued at $3,100 for the 15-day adventure.
"It was her Christmas gift, the trip and even the rod and reel setup I used for the big tuna," Lopez said. "I'm very blessed."
Quick surrender by 300-pounder ends fisherman's run of ill luck
By Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 25, 2003
As anglers around him caught tuna after tuna, Hector Lopez became more and more depressed at his plight.
"I was doing lousy," Lopez said. "My bad luck, that's all. The fish didn't want to bite my hook."
This from a man whose family earned a living fishing abalone at Cedros Island, 340 miles south of San Diego, and then fished for lobsters off Northern Baja and at the Coronado Islands near San Diego.
But now Hector Lopez had the black cloud, the fishing curse. And it's not as though he could go anywhere, either. He was on what was a wonderful 15-day fishing trip on the Red Rooster III out of Lee Palm Sportfishers in San Diego. By the last day, the anglers had nearly plugged the boat's fish hold with yellowfin tuna up to 180 pounds.
Capt. Jeff DeBuys ordered the anglers to start releasing fish, first all 100 pounders or less were let go, followed by 150 pounders, then 180 pounders, all released to fight another day. And finally, DeBuys told the anglers the boat was nearly full as they prepared to fish the last day.
"We can make room for a big cow, but that's about it," DeBuys told the anglers.
A "cow" in long-range parlance is a huge tuna over 300 pounds. Up to this point, no one had ever caught a 300-pounder at the Cleofas Bank, located about 50 miles off Puerta Vallarta.
Lopez continued fishing, knowing he'd missed some of the better action, but believing enough in himself to try for a big tuna. All he had to show for the trip thus far was a half dozen tunas. Some guys had caught nearly that many in a day.
"I had a lot of choices when I went to the rod rack to get my gear for that last day, but for some reason I grabbed the right setup," he said. "All my gear is hand-me-down. My entire arsenal is hand-me-down. And a lot of my gear was beat up on this trip, but I grabbed the reel with fresh line."
And so Lopez went to the rail with his heavy rod and International 80W reel, loaded with 150-pound Spectra and a topshot of 200 yards of 130-pound Izorline, topped with five feet of 300-pound mono leader. He took one of the 3-pound skipjacks they'd caught earlier in the day and baited it to a 12/0 hook.
He was loaded for cow. And good thing because he needed every bit of it.
A nanosecond after the skipjack hit the water, the line on Lopez's reel went taut.
"That big tuna was right there under the boat," Lopez said. "Talk about luck."
Suddenly the black cloud was gone. The curse lifted. A half hour into the fight, Lopez began getting line back on the reel.
But suddenly the line stopped jerking from the tuna's pulls, and the crew realized the fish was tail-wrapped. That, and the fish had died and was sounding.
"The big concern was that the fish might get tangled on the bottom, and the line would break," Lopez said. Was the cloud coming back, the curse re-emerging?
But 55 minutes into the battle, an incredibly short time to fight a fish so big, Lopez raised the fish to the surface. It took five gaffs to boat it. The fish was estimated to be 308 pounds on the boat. On land, at H&M Landing's scales, it weighed 310.8 pounds, the first 300-pounder of the season for the long-range fleet and believed to be the first 300-pounder ever caught by a sport boat at the Cleofas Bank.
"I think the crew was more excited than I was," Lopez said.
For Lopez, 57, this was an achievement of a lifetime of angling, a tribute to his family's fishing tradition, started long ago in a small fishing village on Cedros Island and then Campo Lopez, the spot known to surfers and fishermen as K 55, half way between Tijuana and Ensenada.
An American family brought Lopez to the United States when he was a youngster, allowing him to get an education and make a better life.
"Two American families, Pat and Burt Easton and Bonnie and Richard Walker, turned my life around," Lopez said. "Our family lost everything in the middle of the night, lost it all to a corrupt government that claimed our land and our homes."
He earned a master's degree at San Diego State and now is assistant principal at Mendoza Elementary School. His two sons and daughter all are college graduates.
"This is a great country, and there's success for anyone who wants to achieve it," Lopez said. "This is the only country in the world where if you set a goal, you can achieve it through hard work. I've been a success at everything I've done in life. And this is the top for me as far as fishing."
It also helps to marry well, and Hector Lopez did that, too. His wife, Patricia, an attorney, is of Polish descent. They like to joke that their kids, half Mexican and half Polish, are "Policans."
Patricia Lopez actually gave Hector the trip as a gift, a very expensive one valued at $3,100 for the 15-day adventure.
"It was her Christmas gift, the trip and even the rod and reel setup I used for the big tuna," Lopez said. "I'm very blessed."
