We have not seen one of these strange fish in twenty two years and back in those days we were baffled having no idea what it was, but described it as "having a dorado shape head, tuna type body, wahoo tail and snapper color". Now we know that this fish is a louvar or Luvaras Imperialis. Not much is known about this elusive fish and it is rarely seen by humans and it is extremely rare to see a live specimen, as this one was. Captain Josue Moreno, a twenty year old native of Cabo San Lucas and captain of the 28 ft cruiser Marina, left the dock this morning with some tourists he had signed up for a half day of fishing. They headed out to the Pacific in hopes of catching some dorado and were six miles off of the Old Lighthouse, when they spotted something big on the surface of the water "I thought it was a red snapper or a tuna" he told us, "so we went over to investigate and saw this really weird fish, like something we had never seen before. It was still alive, but almost dead, struggling to breathe. So we gaffed it and had a really hard time getting it on to the swimstep. The tourists on board were amazed and kept asking us what it was, but we had no idea". Once secured on the back of the boat, they carried on fishing and picked up a few doardo before heading back to the marina at 11.30. The fillet guys knew what it was; they remembered the one from years ago and wrote up the photo board with the correct name for the captain to get his picture. After doing a bit of reseach we see that his 300 lb specimen is about as big as they get and learned that the flesh is delicious being compared to halibut and even swordfish. This species spends its entire life in the open ocean with jellyfish being its main diet.
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Only that's not exactly what happened.
As Pisces Sportfishing Fleet found out on Tuesday, the tale Moreno told was a lie.
The real story surfaced when Pisces spoke with angler Joe Estrada of San Antonio, Texas. He and some friends had chartered the boat Dr. Pescado II. Less than four miles from the Lighthouse off Cabo, they spotted the mystery fish circling on top of the water, they gaffed it and they tied it onto the swimstep.
"We wanted to head back with the fish," Estrada told Pisces. "We knew it was an unusual catch." But the captain said, "the dorado bite is good, let's stay and fish and I will find somebody to take it back."
So, not wanting the fish to sit out in the sun while they were fishing, the captain radioed the Marina II, and its captain agreed to take the fish in.
"Our skipper, Oscar, told the other skipper to take it back for us and put it on ice. You can hear him saying that on our video," Estrada told Doug Olander of Sport Fishing.
The video below shows how the fish was transferred from one boat to the other. The fish was hooked to a buoy. The Dr. Pescado II left it floating for the Marina II, which scooped up the fish and headed in to port.
It was the last Estrada and his fishing group saw of the fish. As you can see in the photo above, Capt. Moreno had a photo taken with the fish before immediately filleting and distributing it to people around the marina. When the Dr. Pescado II returned to port to check on the fish, it was long gone.
"I like the fact that everybody was fed," Estrada told Pisces. "I hate to see fish go to waste and I am glad that so many families got fed."
But he sure wishes he had been able to take a few fillets home with him.
"I found out that they are really good eating," Estrada told Sport Fishing. "And I love to cook fish. That was heartbreaking."
Estrada told Pisces that his skipper Oscar "felt betrayed," though we can't help but wonder if Oscar might have gotten any of those fillets. Hmmm.
See Estrada's entire YouTube video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQ6ADl2SRc&feature=relmfu
We start the video below at 1:25, right when they describe how they're going to hand the fish off. "Let it be known we found the fish...We caught this fish, the rarest fish in the world," you can hear someone say. And, appropriately, you also hear, "Adios."
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