BAJA FISHING AND RESORTS SPORTFISHING REPORT

May 16, 2005, Baja Fishing And Resorts, East Cape, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The fishing--especially for striped marlin--is nothing short of spectacular here on the East Cape. Boats are finding schools of marlin feeding on mackerel bait balls, and pitching live bait into the frenzy to hook up. Although the intensity of the bite varies from day to day, most days anglers are enjoying multiple hookups for the stripeys. In the past few days, boats that find the bait schools and the nearby marlin are catching and releasing 4-8 fish per boat.

Multiple areas are producing fish. Just a mile offshore to the north, near Punta Perico, a huge school of striped marlin was feeding for several days nonstop. Similar success was encountered out from Punta Pescadero, just 8 miles from Playa del Sol and Palmas de Cortez. Similarly to the south, where giant bait balls of mackerel are attracting feeding marlin north of the Gordo Banks. About 40 boats were working the schools, with half the boats hooked up simultaneously--some with 2 and 3 marlin per boat at the same time!

Dorado are spotty. When boats are trolling, a few dorado are showing up in catches, and the fish are of excellent size--usually 35 pounds plus. Several dorado over 50 pounds have been caught in the last week. The reduced dorado catch is due in part to the fact that most boats are pitching baits to marlin schools instead of trolling.

With so much action elsewhere, tuna have not been located in numbers. One boat found a school 50+ miles out a few days ago, but the fish were small.

A 594-pound blue marlin was caught last week, the first of the spring season to show up on the East Cape.

A few roosterfish and sierra mackerel are near Punta Colorado and Punta Arena.

Wahoo have been biting aggressively near shore to the south. Some Baja fishing boats are catching 6-8 fish a day, some up to 40 pounds, but most boats targeting wahoo are catching only a couple of fish. Some big roosterfish are showing up near Punta Colorada, but are super-spooky. Big schools of roosters are not around.