LA BOCANA FISHING TOURNAMENT WON BY
YELLOWTAIL AND GROUPER OF ABOUT 20 POUNDS

Nov. 2, 2006, Les Heil, La Bocana, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

I'm certainly glad I have picked La Bocana as my retirement home base. Last Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006, they had their first fishing tournament, $1000 for the biggest Yellowtail, Grouper or Black Sea Bass.

Last year my friends caught an 80 pound, 60 pound and a 40 pound Grouper right here and you can see Juanchi Aguilar's 70 pound plus Yellowtail in last week's report.

I had seen some Gringos going out from La Bocana to fish at the Hutchins Bank about 37 miles south for some quality fish, so I decided to try there for the tournament. It was nice and flat going there so we made it in 2 hours but caught no big fish, only about dozen Yellowfin Tuna, so they didn't count.

The winning fish was just over 20 pounds for the yellowtail and the Grouper and there were no Black Sea Bass at all.

There were 35 boats fishing in the La Bocana tournament, 3 to a boat. The tournament was put up by the co-op and it was free. The first prizes were 15,000 pesos for the biggest fish of each category, yellowtail, grouper and black sea bass.

You sometimes hear of people catching a quality fish off the beach but not yellowtail. I heard reports of some Gringos catching Yellowtail right off the beach that I live on. Fifteen was the count, I heard, so on Tuesday I decided to try myself. The water temperature was just over 72 degrees all around the area, even down south at the Hutchins Bank, fluctuating by only about 2 degrees.

I fished with a Krocodile with my Daiwa Sealine and 40 pound line which is about the lightest gear I have, so not perfect for casting on a 6 foot pole but in about 20 minutes I landed 3 nice Yellowtail not huge, about 8 pound each, but I made a excellent Ceviche from one and I gave away the other 2 to neighbors. It was still wriggling when I filleted it.

One night, which had brightly lit moon, Punta Abreojos pangeros caught 2 boats poaching their lobster traps. I hear that the boats were from San Carlos which is in Baja Magdalena Bay, quite a distance. I have also heard that they launched their boats from San Ignacio Lagoon. Well the Cooperativas from the surrounding area had a meeting and decided to torch the two boats, since in the past the boats that were confiscated were stolen back by the banditos. I hear that 3 of the banditos are in Punta Abreojos jail and they are still looking for the 4th one. The coop executives from the area met and decided to burn the boats including the engines. I think it was a symbolic gesture to show others what will happen.

On another funny note: my friends noticed a pelican close to the beach with his head submerged and flapping his wings, the same beach by my house where I got the 3 yellowtail a while ago. Thinking that the bird broke his neck as he dove or hit a submerged rock and after a request from our female friend to save the bird, Joel took his clothes off and jumped in to save the pelican only to find that a Yellowtail was attached to the pelicans head. After removing the Yellowtail the pelican still had a mackerel in its beak, so it looked like they both went for the mackerel at the same time. It looked like the pelican was dead. It remained motionless except for an eye moving, but after resting the bird on the beach for 20 minutes or so it got up and flew off.

(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.