HUMBOLDT SQUID BAITS CAUGHT JUST OFF SHORE THIS WEEK

Oct. 14, 2005, Gary Furness, East Cape fishing, Baja Sur, Mexico:

I fished Oct. 9-10-11, 2005, at East Cape's Rancho Buena Vista.

Humboldt squid were halfway between RBV and Palmas de Cortez, only 1/2 mile offshore. It was easy to catch 2 or 3 each morning. They were 20-30 pounds, but I did get one about 40 pounds. Very fun way to start the morning. Hard to believe, but apparently they had been there about 4 weeks. The carnage beneath and around that school must be something.

Fishing on Oct. 9 on boat 13 was good for some small tuna close in to Pulmo, and after some pleading, we went offshore to troll. I went one-for-one on sailfish up in the lures.

Fishing on Oct. 10 on the Jalapeno with Captain Jose and deckhand Paul Walters, the owner's son, the tuna inside were gone. I got one football in 1 1/2 hours of intense squid chumming. We went offshore and got a bait-and-switched a striper of 125 pounds, and a blue marlin of 225 on a lure. I didn't see any other fish caught.

Fishing on Oct. 11, we went for glory, offshore porpoise for large tuna, waaaayyyy out and north. There were no tuna, but we bait-and-switched a striper, and on same yellow-orange lure, caught and released a tiny, 100 pound and 325 pound blue. In addition, we got two knockdowns from billfish, baited two sleepers with no results, and had a very nice bull dorado jump off a lure. It was nice action, and very nice to have no other boats around.

It is a rare place where 3 billfish species and 6 billfish in 3 days could be somewhat "slow." However, dorado and decent sized tuna were almost completely absent.

Shore fishing was nada, and I tried a Stinger.

The water temperature at East Cape was 82-85 degrees. Afternoon winds occurred all days.