The bait of choice at the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club was Bonito, Mackerel, and Squid.
There’s a tantalizingly tasty new book trailing through the oceans of big game fishing stories.
It is When No One Else Would Fly, the aviation pioneering biography of Colonel C. J. Tippett, who did amazing things not only in aviation, but also with black marlin fishing at the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club in the 1950s.
The details, both researched and in his own words, are a must-read for anyone interested in the history of big game sport fishing.
Cabo Blanco, Peru was a small fishing village named for the white cliffs above blonde beaches. It was a long car ride from Lima, the capital of Peru, and an even longer flight from the USA.
But that didn’t deter the richest and most famous big game fisherman of the time from coming to Cabo Blanco to fish for black marlin and bluefin tuna.
The way these men fished was strictly regulated, because they were fishing for more than just the catch; they were fishing for world records, overseen and awarded by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).
Lines, hooks, rods, and reels were all critically important to hooking the fish and setting the record.
And the bait… the bait was the thing.
Well, actually, it wasn’t always that important. There are some accounts that I found in my research on the fishing details of Marlin Boulevard that describe how marlin, warming at the surface after hunting in the deeps, would strike at the bait thrown in front of them with no hesitation. Other stories describe hours of trolling with a live fish threaded on the lure with no results at all.
Bonito was a favorite bait, as was Mackerel.
Squid were very effective, and the Humboldt Squid hunts at The Club filled were widely enjoyed and anticipated.
Tip didn’t always fish for his own bait as he prepared to fish for black marlin, but others at the Club often did. Tip’s daughter, Sue, remembers fishing for bait that, to her, were as big as the granders her father was hooking.
The book is available on Amazon.com. It’s as close as you can get to being there nowdays.. plus, it’s really good.
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