ENSENADA FISHING TRIP SCORED 2 TUNA FOR BOAT BAD DOG

Oct. 26, 2004, Steve Ross, Bad Dog, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico Fishing:

After the storm went through Ensenada last week and it calmed down, we went fishing Saturday, October 23. I took Bad Dog to the 1140 trench which is 43 miles southeast from Marina Coral. I heard that the San Diego fleet had been fishing there and doing real well on yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna. However, upon arriving there, it was a desert with no boats.

The San Diego sport boats had moved southeast to the lower 500 where a friend of mine was fishing with them. He was only catching skipjack so I elected not to go South. We had no live bait at Mike Richardson's Ensenada No Live Bait barge. So we were a "jig boat."

Our first jig strike came at 0830 in 67 degree blue water 10 miles north of the 1140 trench. It was a 14 pound bigeye tuna. We examined his striated liver. The next jig strike came at 1000 6 miles southeast of the 238. And that was it for the day. Two tuna. Gail made a fabulous poki for dinner Sunday night along with sashimi and we're grilling it on the charbroiler tonight.

Sunday, I was told that there was a white seabass bite going on right in front of our trailer. So I went on Mike Kraus' 26' Skipjack in the late morning in an attempt to get in on the bite. However, we only caught bonito...there were lots of bonito out in front of La Rosa and University Point. We caught 6 in an hour and returned to their slip.

A friend of mine metered the winds from his house in Ensenada and said that they went 60 miles per hour last week. The wind ripped off our awning and fortunately we knew a good Mexican friend of ours, Captain Manuel Velez, who came over and fixed it for us. The water off of Ensenada is warm, but there is no bait in it for tuna to stick around. Perhaps this will change.

Something is really weird. All the fish are juveniles...all of them. The yellowtail, the yellowfin tuna and the bigeye tuna in our area. It's as if Mom and Dad sent the kids in to play on the beach. Or, the gill netters are using large mesh and these are the ones who got through.

The other week I caught an albacore that must have weighed 4 pounds. The upside is that we are not killing breeders and one or two fish make a fine meal.