ROOSTERFISH OF 45 AND 60 POUNDS LANDED
WITH CAPT. ARIGO OF THE EAST CAPE FISHING PANGA PATRICIA

July 8, 2004, Jerry Moore, East Cape, Mexico Fishing out of Hotel Punta Colorada:

I just came back from a 6 day trip to Punta Colorada. For 2 days of fishing- Boated and Released 2 roosterfish (45 lb. and 60 lb. respectively) and lost 4 others in the same range. Also caught 3 dorado, 4 tuna to 20 lbs (Lost one on a Trinidad 30 w/ 25 lbs. Ande. Estimated about 100 lbs.)

We also lost 4 tuna in the 40 lbs. range on the troll. One of our drags was a bit sticky. It just happened to be the one that kept getting hit on the troll. I will be better prepared next time. My girlfriend got her first ever Dorado (peanut, but she was happy) and a triggerfish.

We also boated and released 3 stripers to about 180#, and lost 3 as well. Raised 12 stripers total. Gosh, the Cortez was alive. Here's some pics of the roosters, plus my girlfriend's dorado and trigger.

We fished with Captain Arigo on his panga "Patricia". This guy flat out works very very very hard to please his clients. He kept us informed of changes in water color, temperature, and made frequent lure changes until we got bit on a consistent basis. Very hard working Captain. Guys, don't forget to tip your Pangueros. Don't base it on the amount of fish you catch. Base it on how hard the captain works to please you.

Our first day we were in a bit of green water at Cabo Pulmo, so we decided to trek a bit further south off of Los Frailes. The Captain showed me his handheld GPS. We were about 22 miles south of Punta Colorada and about 1-3 miles offshore. The dorado were WFO! We could have landed literally hundreds of them, but there were too many small ones, so we opted to troll around and look for some bigger ones. No luck that day on the bigger models. The conditions were a bit choppy so we decided to get some triggers and pargo (Charli's first trip, so I wanted her to catch something, anything!) The trigger was about 300 yds north of the hotel about 100 feet off of the beach. The Roosters that I caught were between the Lighthouse and Las Barracas. We went maybe 5 minutes between roosters crashing the large mullet we slow trolled. From 7:30 am to 9:30 am it was nuts!\

Water temps on the two days we fished were in the low 80's. The first day (June 29) it was choppy with winds out of the south at about 15 mph. It created a bit of havoc.

The second day of fishing (July 1) it was glass, and the fish were out in full force! Purple water offshore. The tuna schools were about 30 miles straight out of punta colorada for most of the week, but on July 1 the porpoise were only 16 miles out. I must have seen hundreds of tuna from 10 lbs to some bigger girls in the 100+ lbs. range just free jumping with the porpoise.