BAJA FISHING FOR YELLOWTAIL AT SAN FRANCISQUITO

June 9, 2006, Stan Woodward, San Francisquito, Baja California, Mexico:

We spent three days of Baja yellowtail fishing at San Francisquito last weekend, flying in on Thursday, June 1, 2006. I saw Beto Lucero a lot and he is well. Shoshanna is just finishing 11th grade in Ensenada, and Zimron is still in the Navy for a couple more years I think.

The San Francisquito resort was crowded. Genaro ran out of cots and some of my group had to sleep up at his house on the hill. Ice is still the biggest issue.

Genaro and Juan drove to El Arco on Thursday night to meet someone with ice but the person showed and the ice didn't.

On Friday night Juan drove to El Barril for ice. The food was so-so. Genaro was cocinero for the weekend and it was a long day for him and one helper.

I rented a panga from Genaro for fishing on Friday morning and 15 minutes out of the caleta it broke down. Thank God I had a hand held VHF and soon was rescued and towed in. We were headed for Isla San Lorenzo and had we made it there before breaking down we might still be there.

Fishing at San Francisquito was pretty tough for us. We fished dawn to dusk for two days and got 5 nice yellowtail on day 2, one off the beach Saturday that went 18-20 pounds. The rest were here and there, all on jigs, mainly throwing into bird pile ups, which were everywhere all day long.

We fished El Barril on Friday, both the outside and inside spot for nada, with no current and no sea life.

The other four yellowtail we got on Saturday were large, all 30 pounders and we broke off about that many.

The bait hatch in Bahia Santa Teresa was gigantic and sea birds pounded it all day long.

We also looked for white seabass along the north point outside the caleta but again nada. Divers speared two big white seabass on Friday going 50 to 60 pounds and said they saw only a few.

There was lots of giant squid around to take up the slack time. You didn't have to look, they find you.

The water was a bit chilly to swim but weather was beautiful all weekend.

Got ice?

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