SQUID TO 45 POUNDS CAUGHT BY ENSENADA FISHING BOATS

Jan. 17, 2005, Steve Ross, Bad Dog, Marina Coral, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico Fishing:

The ocean was flat with ankle slappers for surf waves. On Saturday two Ensenada fishing boats that I know of, Melody and Wide Open, caught squid. Melody's largest weighed 45 pounds on my scale. They were all that size. Mel Ostberg, owner of Melody, fought one for an hour and lost it when the hook finally pulled out. These were brutes that pull hard. Melody caught 9 on the Banda Bank, and Wide Open caught two on the San Jose Bank. Melody gave me their largest and I took it to Las Cazuelas Restaurant in Ensenada and they cooked it for Gail and I and our guests Linda and Mike Kuhar. Everyone at the restaurant got some to take home to their families.

That drove me out onto the water on Sunday. I had my jumbo squid jigs ready on 6/0s and 80-pound mono. However, it was a totally different day of fishing at Ensenada, with 10 knots of wind and washing machine seas at 2 feet and 60 degrees. The current was very strong and we had to use 5-pound weights.

I metered lots of fish on Ensenada's Punta Banda spires, but they wouldn't bite. For two of us using only one rod, we caught 6 rock cod, 2 bocaccios and 4 starry rockcod. We searched the entire bank looking for the squid. The bocaccios were about 4 pounds each and the starry's were smaller. There was no sign of any squid anywhere around Ensenada. They were gone or wouldn't show. Perhaps they went deep, but they didn't show on my meter either.

Rumors of a few swordfish outside the inner bank. Should they be looking for a Mexican fiesta they sure will find it with these squid as there were a lot of them to show on both banks at the same time. The Ensenada sea surface water temperature was 60 degrees.