Second from the left, Jesus was awarded the High Skipper Award nineteen different years during his career!

Jesus Araiza began a half a century sport fishing career as a deckhand in 1953. He was 14 years old. He literally witnessed the birth of sport fishing at East Cape. Nearing 70 now, Jesus has spent the past 56 years of his life on the water.

Boats back then were primitive by today's standards. They were hand made with 23' plywood hulls powered by noisy twin 25hp outboard motors, with no electronics, compass and navigation was dead reckoning. Nothing like the high speed, well equipped sport fishers that make up the East Cape fleet today.

For his first 30+ years, Jesus worked for Rancho Buena Vista Hotel. He fished frequently with the late Ray Cannon who preferred to go after grouper, yellowtail, and cabrilla. Ray devoted hours to fishing the giant needlefish, often accompanied by his friend and photographer, Harry Merrick, who provided photographic evidence of Ray's exploits and the remarkable three hundred species that he caught there.

"Fishing in those days," Jesus commented, "was good. We had marlin all over; they were abundant. We seldom ventured more than two to five miles out from the beach to find good angling action."

"The bad thing though," he continued, "was that for many years we killed most of our catch. We didn't understand why we should return them to fight another day. There was no limit and it was nothing to catch five, six or seven marlin a day. The boats were not equipped with swim steps so we would pile the fish on the bow of the boat."

When California Department of Fish and Game and Mr. James Squire instituted a program to encourage tag and release and gather more data about billfish, Jesus was one of the first Captains in East Cape to participate and he became a strong supporter of the T&R concept. Annual awards were given to the skipper who tagged and released the most marlin, and Jesus was awarded the High Skipper Award nineteen different years during his career!

With his vast array of local knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, barefoot Jesus is always welcome at the afternoon cocktail hours.

My friends, Herb and Ruth Kameon, owned a home on the hotel property. Both were ultra light tackle anglers and it was on the Kameons' porch that I first met my friend, Jesus. The Kameons scheduled Jesus years in advance, and both were recipients of several IGFA world records with Jesus at the helm. One of their record fish was a 39 lb. 9 oz. roosterfish caught on 6lb. line in 1977.

Jesus was Captain for other clients who caught IGFA world record fish as well.

Some of the big fish that have been landed on his 29' Phoenix at Hotel Buenavista Beach Resort include a 67 pound dorado, a 92 pound roosterfish and a 325 pound swordfish (after a 5 hour battle).

His largest fish caught was only one and one half miles from the beach in front of the RBV hotel?Ķa blind strike that produced a blue marlin. When it was hung on the scale, a hole had to be dug in the sand to allow the 875 pounds fish to swing free.

Jesus also had plenty of ???fish that got away' stories; once an angler three miles off the lighthouse at Punta Arena hooked a huge blue marlin that was well over 1,000 pounds. The line parted an hour and a half later.

Earlier this year, Jesus decided to limit his fishing schedule. As he put it, "I am only fishing with friends when I feel like it."

Jesus proudly states that he has left the day to day fishing to his son, Jesus, Jr., and two of his grandsons, Tony, Captain, and Omar, the mate ,of the seventy foot Viking "Retriever" fishing out of Cabo San Lucas.

After 56 years on the water, these days Jesus spends most of his days tending to his 350 head of cattle on his 150 acre ranch which his family has owned for many years. But sport fishing is in his blood and once in awhile, the Captain with class can be spotted slouched in the helms chair of his cruiser?Ķscanning the horizon for one more big one!