PUNTA EUGENIA YELLOWTAIL FISHING TOURNAMENT RESULTS

June 24, 2006, Juanchys Aguilar, Punta Eugenia and La Bocana, Baja California, Mexico:

On Saturday, June 17, 2006, was held the 11th annual Yellowtail Tournament of Punta Eugenia, a town 30 kilometers north of Bahia Tortuga on the Baja Pacific coast.

Punta Eugenia is a fishing town, and here the most important business is the harvest of red lobster by the Cooperativa Purisima. This is a very attractive location for beautiful sunsets and yellowtail fishing for the friendly people here. Although we didn't win a prize, we had a great time at the tournament with lots of good food and live music. The Punta Eugenia fishing tournament is sponsored by Modelo Beer, Grupo Modelo S.A de C.V.

First place in the tournament was won by Johny Camacho, of Bahia Tortugas, with a 39.9-pound yellowtail; Second place, Arturo Lopez Jr., Guerrero Negro, 38.8 pounds; Third place, Frank Olachea, Isla Natividad, 38.5 pounds; Most total weight, Jose Lopez, Chula Vista, Calif., 246.3 pounds.

Baja coastal water temperature was 62 degrees, with some clouds, and very calm, clear water. The fishing was with Rapala Magnums and line of 60 and 80 pounds.

We were also visited by the mayor of Mulege, Prof. Pedro Osuna, and his son, who were fishing with the chief of security of the cooperativa.

In other Baja fishing, here at La Bocana, we still have bad weather with the seas very high. We also have red tide plankton in the fishing area. We are not catching large fish here on the open sea, but we are catching calico bass, whitefish, and cabrilla. Fishing inside Laguna la Bocana with week was very good for large halibut in 6 to 7 feet of water. The largest halibut weighed this week was 39.3 pounds. We also caught some of 15, 20, and 25 pounds, fishing with Scampis and live bait, in very nice weather, a little hot.

In the Punta Eugenia tournament, we had 84 anglers fishing on 25 boats, going about 3 miles to fish around Chester Rock. We fished 1 day and caught 76 yellowtail and 45 calico bass.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Baja and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Baja California may be found at Mexfish.com's main Baja page.