NO BAIT AND VARIABLE WEATHER, BUT GOOD DORADO FISHING WITH CAPT. PAULINO

Aug. 7, 2004, Don Bear, Loreto, Mexico Fishing:

It's been another slow week of dorado fishing, with a good number of billfish still around.

Betsy & Frank Woolrich and I fished with Paulino Martinez for 2 and 1/2 days Monday thru Wednesday, with a 3-day catch of 15 dorado and 1 sailfish. We had several lost dorado strikes and a couple of lost billfish strikes.

Monday and Tuesday the sea was delightfully calm; Wednesday saw a stiff SE wind all day. Both sardines and mackerel drew strikes. The sardines Paulino netted in the marina; we had to catch our own mackerel, as the Loreto carnaderos were either not working or sold out well before 5:30. The mackerel were very hard to come by.

Loreto fishing water temperatures were in the low 80's close in, but reached 85-86 degrees about 30 miles out. Loreto weather has been hot and humid. Noticeably fewer pangas are going out than last week.

Francisco Martinez led his customers to 7 medium-sized dorado (15-20 lbs.) Saturday, fishing about 40 miles NE of Loreto. The mackerel he bought from the carnaderos died before he ever got there, but fortunately he picked up 15 jurelitos (caballitos) as insurance just outside the marina trolling bait catchers. He found the dorado around a floating log. Two other pangas arrived and filled limits in the same spot.

About three-quarters of our dorado strikes came within a hundred yards of a homemade sargasso-like FAD that I carry on the boat when there is no sargasso around and the fish are widely dispersed. We drop it overboard, let it sit for an hour, and then come back to it.

We've been fishing about 35 miles NE of Loreto. The FAD consists of hundreds of wine corks strung together, about 45-50 corks to a strand. The strands are attached to a clip, which is tied to a floating flag pole, so we can locate it from a distance. It has attracted nothing other than dorado. The problem with its use is that it has to be deployed in an area without other pangas present, for otherwise every panga nearby trolls by it and puts the dorado down.

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