CASTING IRON JIGS FOR BARRACUDA AT ENSENADA'S BAJO SAN MIGUEL

June 16, 2005, Steve Ross, Bad Dog, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico:

Bad Dog departed Marina Coral, Ensenada, Mexico, on Thursday morning at 0500 and headed for the inside of the Punta Banda rocks in green 65 degree water. On board was owner Steve Ross and Marinero Jando Ruiz. With no jig strikes from the Yozuri and Rapala spread at first light we traveled around the Punta Banda rocks and headed for La Bufadora where we left the yellowtail in mass last Saturday. It was a desert.

We found hundreds of working birds off the Todos Santos Norte lighthouse with our Furuno up and down drenched in bait marks. We trolled with feeding porpoise to no avail until we found breezing yellowtail and Jando, who may be one of the best casters I have ever had the pleasure of casting with, snagged one and that became our only yellowtail for the day after hours of running and gunning.

We then worked our way over to Bajo San Miguel where we found barracuda under working birds. We would run and shoot one group and it would blow up from where we just left. It was as good as iron fishing gets. All the barracuda could be called "logs" as nothing was less than 7 pounds.

Then, on one barracuda stop, Jando reeled up a nice 4 pound calico bass which ate a blue and white Tady 45. I ran into the salon and grabbed a bass outfit rigged with an M.C.Swimbait in colors brown, silver, and with a white spot on it. On my first cast I got bit on the sink and when I set the hook the rod went bendo. As the fish came to the boat we had to lip gaff him as he was too big to lift. On two scales he went 6.0 pounds my personal best ever. This rod was a custom hex blank with AFTCO titanium guides and the reel was a Shimano Corsair CS300A loaded straight to the knot with 40 pound Maxima Flurocarbon mono. Nothing like throwing plastics with invisible ROPE.

Final count back at the slip by 2 p.m. was one 15-pound yellowtail, limits of barracuda, and calico bass from 3 to 6 pounds.

Both Marina Coral and Ensenada Harbor have the next stage of the red tide, toxic tide. Divers won't go into the water and there are dead fish everywhere with a few floating lobsters to boot. All of the mackerel in my bait receiver are dead.