FISHING CRUISE DOWN BAJA'S PACIFIC COAST ON THE BOAT CORSARIO

Nov. 9, 2006, Tim McNulty, boat Corsario, Baja Pacific coast fishing cruise:

We successfully completed our 10-day Magdalena Bay trip on Steve Campbell's boat "Corsario." We had good Baja coastal weather, very good fishing and no major boat problems.

We left San Diego on the evening of October 26th. We caught yellowtail and dorado on paddies from Ensenada toward Cedros Island. On Oct. 29th we topped off fuel at Turtle Bay and traded old tackle and t-shirts for lobsters.

Thanks to a fish report from John Garner, we loaded up on Wahoo near the Uncle Sam Bank on October 30th and pretty much filled the boat freezer.

From Oct. 31th through Nov. 4th we fished outside of Magdalena Bay. The Dorado fishing was insane. To keep the dorado off the jigs and catch marlin, we had to remove all hooks from the jigs and use the bait and switch method on marlin. The stripers were bigger this year 150 to 180 pounds on average and tougher with many fights lasting near one hour. I think we caught about 17 marlin outside of Magdalena Bay and lost about 8.

Steve Campbell had fun catching dorado on the fly rod.

Yellowfin tuna fishing was much better this year. No big boys were caught, but most tuna were 20 to 40 pounds, with multiple hookups near porpoise. On the last day of fishing we had six yellowfin hooked up at once, 5 on the jigs and one on bait that someone dropped back.

At San Carlos, Baja California Sur, we refueled and got a hunk fresh swordfish from a sword boat.

We ended up in Cabo San Lucas on Nov. 6th and slipped next to the two "Bad Company" boats that won the Bisbee marlin tournament for around $4 million.

We ended the trip recovering at the Esperanza resort. Thanks again to Steve Campbell, Capt. Bill Merrell, Bob and Adam for a great trip.

(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.