BAJA FISHING TRIP INCLUDES AN 11-INCH ROOSTERFISH FROM THE BEACH

June 30, 2005, Larry Wayne, East Cape, Baja fishing, Mexico:

My son, Paul, and I just got back from 3 days of fishing out of Punta Colorada, East Cape.

We fished the first 2 days, Sunday and Monday, June 26 and 27, on cruisers, and Tuesday on a panga.

The water was reported to be unseasonably cold, and the wind got pretty unpleasant around noon on all 3 days, progressively worse, each day, I'd say, and on Wednesday, when we left, it was pretty unmanageable.

Fishing was very spotty, with some East Cape fishing boats that went out the farthest, getting marlin and some decent tuna, although not many of them.

Dorado were just not to be found. We were able to buy some mullet for bait, but there were no sardinas.

On Sunday we went out 30 or so miles southeast, and had no bites at all. As we returned to the hotel, we stopped around Punta Arena and drifted live mullet for a half hour or so, and I caught and released a 30 pound roosterfish, which made up for the earlier frustration, for me, but not for Paul!

On Monday we headed out fishing in the same direction, perhaps even farther south, and did pick up on a porpoise school, from which we extracted 4 football sized yellowfin, and a couple of what Alberto referred to as "white bonito". He talked us into keeping the latter also, saying they are different from "ordinary" bonito. The flesh was a very dark red, but I don't know how it will cook up. I let Paul take it back with him to San Francisco, to try out on his family. We also worked a small school of wahoo, but only one boat near us actually hooked one.

On Tuesday we told our panguero that we wanted to stay close to shore, preferably seeking roosterfish. He suggested we start off by running to Cabo Pulmo to see if any dorado or ?? could be found fairly close in, 1 to 2 miles offshore), so we did that. Paul got two yellowfin there, about 15 and 25 pounds, on hoochies, which made the trip for him, but we had no luck later looking for roosters.

The only other thing that was of special interest to me, but would not seem so to your readers, was the fact that I tried casting a little Kastmaster from shore on Wednesday morning, while waiting to check out, and landed an 11 inch, inch that is, not pound, roosterfish which was released to grow up. I mention that only because it has been my wish for some time to get a rooster in the surf, and now I've done it! Next time more and bigger. But not bad for this trip, with the 30 pounder on Sunday, and the 11 incher on Wednesday, to bracket the trip.