DORADO SHOWING IN BIG NUMBERS FOR EAST CAPE FISHERMEN

Dec. 18, 2005, Bill Burkett, Los Barriles, East Cape, Baja Sur, Mexico Sportfishing:

Although this time of year at East Cape is generally reserved for the wind surfers, the fishing has been excellent for those willing to endure the choppy seas.

Dorado have shown in large numbers, which is great news after a spring and summer where there were virtually none around East Cape.

Striped marlin are surfing the swells in packs and sailfish and even blue marlin are occasionally caught or seen.

I was lucky enough to make two East Cape sport fishing trips last week and had great results both times.

My first trip was on FRESH CATCH on Dec. 4th, by invitation from my friend Captain Mario Cota. Also along was my buddy Dick "Fierro" Villinger and Pedro Duran, who was once the deckhand on FRESH CATCH, but now does those duties on MISS CARONA. Both myself and Dick had chartered FRESH CATCH for years while vacationing, prior to our moving down here when we retired and had become and remain good friends with Mario and Pedro.

We purchased 20 mackerel as we headed north towards Muertos Bay to fish the shark buoys there. We turned our macs into 19 dorado, most released, averaging 15 to 25 pounds, one striped marlin and one sailfish and were back in Los Barriles by 12:30 p.m.

We only fished at one buoy and there were about six other East Cape boats fishing it with us. There were hundreds, if not thousands of dorado at and around the buoy and everyone was hooked-up constantly. Seas were 3 to 4 feet and the water temperature was mid-seventies.

When word of our success spread around town, some of my other gringo friends suggested we charter Congo's boat, TOO AWESOME, on Sat. Dec. 17th. So, myself, Dan Steimle, Dave Stephens and Steve Fowler went and had a fishing day that totally lived up to the name on the boat. It was indeed "too awesome!"

We fished the same buoy as I'd fished earlier in the week, but found fewer fish there and they were averaging a little smaller as well. We caught 5 dorado around the buoy before deciding to troll the area with lures.

We suspected that the dorado were still in the area, but that they'd spread out and were probably on the move. Our suspicions proved to be right as we had constant action with dorado on the lures. We could see frigate birds circling and diving all around the bay and they seemed to always produce a strike when we'd troll near them.

But, dorado weren't the only fish in the area. We started seeing numerous marlin tailing in the two foot chop. They were often in pairs or small groups of three or four. We love to find them in groups, as it almost guarantees a hookup when you toss a bait among them. That was the case this day as well. We released 4 stripers for the day and saw at least a couple dozen tailers.

We all agreed that we'd given ourselves the best of Christmas presents this year.