SLOW FISHING, A SKUNK DAY AFTER 70 MILES OF TROLLING

Sept. 12, 2004, Bill Erhardt, Loreto, Mexico Fishing:

I just got in from 9 hours, 70 miles on the water, skunked.

After a hiatus for a visit from my non-fishing daughter (we did catch a sailfish and a marlin while she was in Loreto in July which she dutifully photographed before returning to her book and the Baja sun), and a trip to the States, I fished 4 days this week out of Puerto Escondido.

Loreto fishing surface water temperature was 82 degrees last Sunday as the outer rings of the storm moved west into the Pacific, and increased to 88 degrees today. The only notable fish I caught in 4 days trolling between Punta Lobos and Isla Santa Cruz was a 43 lb. dorado.

I also caught a handful of skipjack and 2 or 3 small dorado less than 10 lb. but ambitious enough to take a big marlin lure. Each day I saw 6 or 8 marlin, but got none to the boat. I did hook a small blue marlin that spit out the hook down deep after about 10 minutes and to show his contempt for fishermen in general and me in particular, left a partially digested squid on the hook. I saw no working birds of other signs of yellowfin.

All in all a pretty disappointing week of fishing after a 6 week layoff.

(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.