BEACH AND NEAR SHORE FISHING OUT OF PUNTA COLORADA

Dec. 17, 2006, Peter Langstraat, Punta Arena, East Cape, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

My stay at East Cape was from Oct. 3, 2006 to Nov. 29, 2006.

The commercial gill net fishermen appeared on Oct. 28th at the Punta Arena beach near Punta Colorada, after which I immediately rang all the alarm bells I could ring. On Nov. 2nd an inspector appeared at the hotel and guess what? As of that moment there was not a single afternoon the nets were put in the water. In other words, the bandits are being informed by someone. On the bright side, they're out off business so far and they fear that they will be caught. Special note: the inspector I talked to was the same person who last year confiscated two of their 4 boats plus their 3 nets and fined them $5,000.

To any fishermen who see gill nets on the beach, see them being loaded into or out of boats, or see the buoys of gill nets in the water (usually very close to the beach), please call this number: 01-612-123-7806. This English speaking office will put enough pressure on the authorities to have them send an inspector.

Now about the fishing:

From Oct. 3rd to Nov. 13th I fished 39 times catching 190 fish. I consider that result as mediocre at best, also because there was a considerable amount of "secondary" fish, Croakers, Grunts, Cornetfish, among the total catch.

From Nov. 14th to Nov. 19th, I experienced incredible fishing on the first point left of the hotel where probably a few 100,000 sardines and some 50 pelicans had settled down. Between 5 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. every cast produced a strike and for these 5 afternoons I totaled 83 fish, mainly Ladyfish, also small Roosterfish, Yellow Snappers, and a few Sierra's and 21 inch Jacks.

Fishing that same spot early morning produced only 1 to 4 fish. During these super days I also fished two times, from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., with the aluminum boat resulting in respectively 16 fish, of which 12 Sierra, and 2 Sierra the second time.

The total amount caught for these five days including the early morning catch plus the boat catch came to 117 fish, my best ever result for five days in a row.

After that it was a struggle to catch even a few fish at any spot. It was never very windy so the lighthouse spot was mediocre at best, resulting in only 29 fish for the last 9 days.

Also, I started fly fishing this year. The results were: 21 Ladyfish, 6 Roosterfish, the biggest 24 inches, 2 Jacks around 21 inches, 2 Pargo, the biggest 27 inches, 3 Yellow Snappers, 23 Grunts, a variety of them, 8 Croakers, 12 Needlefish plus a few Cornetfish, and little Green Jacks, etc., totaling 88 fish.

Spinning tackle fishing highlights included a 42 inch Jack that took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to beach on 10 pound line. The calculated weight was around 32 pounds.

I caught my first ever Paloma Pompano or Pancake Pompano, of 19.5 inches, and a Ladyfish of 27 inches.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from East Cape and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for East Cape may be found at Mexfish.com's main East Cape page.