BIG SCHOOLS OF MACKEREL FEEDING ON HALFBEAKS AT LA RIBERA

Dec. 4, 2005, Russ Fritz, La Ribera, East Cape fishing, Mexico:

The fishing water is cooling off near shore on the East Cape, but remains at 80 degrees about 3 miles out. An absolutely massive school of mackerel is feeding on tiny halfbeaks just 4 miles off La Ribera. The red hot marlin bite continues until about midday, all around the boiling mackerel. Lots of sailfish and dorado are being caught by East Cape fishing boats, and I counted 8 boats hooked up at the same time yesterday morning.

Fishing yesterday, Gene Fritz, from Clovis, Calif., released a nice sailfish after a 20 minute fight on 30 pound line, and Kim McChristian boated a marlin in 40 minutes, that outweighed her by 40 pounds. Kim weighs in at less then 105 pounds, so it was a true battle of the wills.

Fishing today, we trolled with the mosquito fleet, just north of La Ribera, and picked up 3 nice sierras, then ran out to the schooling mackerel, where we boated 2 out of 3 dorado we hooked. The "Soplado" was the lucky boat today, as the marlin went off the bite with the weather change, and most boats gave up the hunt as the wind started.