SEASON'S FIRST DORADO ARE SHOWING UP IN
THE BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES FISHING AREA

Aug. 2, 2004, Abraham Vazquez, Camp Gecko, Bahia de los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico:

Fishing is slow for yellowtail at Bahia de los Angeles. There is medium to small size yellows on the deep reefs. Live bait is getting harder to make now as some of the boats are taking as much as an hour to make bait.

The catch is with live bait on the dropper loops and yo-yoing the iron on the reefs.

The first of the dorado have started showing up and in big numbers. They are hanging in big schools on the temperature break about 30 miles away from the Bahia de los Angeles, on the other side of Partida. Cooler water has kept them from coming in closer to Bahia de los Angeles this week as the currents have been very strong with strong upwelling of cold water in the canal de ballenas.

Thirty miles is a little bit more than the range of most of the local boats, because of fuel prices and the crossing of the canal, but the ones that have been going out there have reported big schools of dorado in the 12-25 lb range that are under anything that floats, and there is plenty of Sargasso paddy and scum lines to follow. It is basically all you can catch and release. It almost seems dumb that the limit is 2 per person per day to keep, but I think they decide the limits in Mexico city, far from the sea and they go by how pretty the fish are.

Anyway back to Bahia de los Angeles fishing and the dorado. They are in 82-84 F water. There is not much of the regular bait fish in the area (sardines , mackerel , etc) but there is lots of flying fish. I would suggest to bring some frozen squid just in case. They don’t want to take the tuna feathers or rapallas. They want food . I tried to get some pictures of them yesterday but they where already fillets so maybe pictures today .

On the local Bahia de los Angeles fishing, the barracuda are still a pest, there is lots of bonita around and no skip jack (weird), and no sierra yet.

Hopefully the Dorado will move in as soon as the moon goes into the quarter.

Bahia de los Angeles weather is nice and warm , the winds have not been blowing much the last few days , with the temperatures hitting the low 90’s F mark and dropping to the low 80’s at night , with humidity hi now 50-70% , humidity and temp going down at night making it great for sleeping.

Bahia de los Angeles water temperature is also warming up fast , it is 78-81 F all over the place , but the warmer water (82-85) that is holding the fish is 30 miles away on the other side of the midriff. There are no mosquitoes , there is lots of flies , lots of whales and dolphins in the area , lots of manta ray also , no whale sharks yet inside the bay.

Road into Bahia de los Angeles is good, except they have a 5 mile stretch of the road all taken off as they are repaving it. Fuel 150 pesos for 5 gallons, but soon to have a couple of gas stations in the area (yea!), my daughter Vanessa says I should put here that there are no sting rays on the shore also (can’t get her out of the water).