STEADY WINTER WINDS MAKING FISHING TOUGH

Dec. 18, 2004, Pam Bolles, Baja Big Fish Company, Loreto, Mexico Fishing Report:

Right now, Saturday afternoon in Loreto, it's completely overcast and windy as hell. If the seas are reasonable, then I will go out. Hopefully I'll be able to.

It should take a day or two for it to slow down here, but it is much calmer than it was at 4 a.m. when it was literally howling. Hopefully it will be nice this week, lots of folks in line to go out.

Since Sunday its been wind, wind, and more wind. Tourism is just starting to pick up judging from the foot traffic into the store today, more already than in the past two weeks combined. Hopefully the wind will lay down and we can get some trips out.

At least we could do some half day trips, $130 this year, as far as all around Coronado and to the other side at Punta Colorado, approximately 4 hours long, and catch-and-release only, including drinking water and conventional gear. Bait and Mexican fishing licenses are extra, and fly gear rental is $25 per day, including flies.

Dec. 13, 2004, Pam Bolles, Baja Big Fish Company, Loreto Fishing Report:

The nortes are with us for the rest of the season and you can expect a good part of your days here to be very windy. When the winds are up, its still fishable, if you're a diehard but you'll get wet and you'll get tossed around. Enduring the seas created by norte winds will definitely make your catch well deserved. If the channel between the islands and the town is filled with whitecaps, you can bet you're better off on land. However, nortes will often rear their ugly heads late in the morning so you can still take advantage of a shore day trip out. One good thing to note is that our windy periods will be interrupted by periods of calm and that's when the fishing can be done. If its a nice day, take advantage of it since it can change.

While fishing on Sunday during a short half day trip, I landed a nice dorado on my fly rod. We saw several Dorado within a stone's throw of the shoreline just like we were seeing before the winds blew us off the water.

It was interesting to see how the fishing was after the winds, how the surface temperatures changed if at all. What we saw were areas of noticeable cold water and areas of nice warm water. The warm water was along the shoreline for the most part, trapped within the confines of the islands and the main land of the peninsula near town. As the offshore temperatures plunge for the season, this body of water will stay warm until very late in the season. This is why we're still seeing Dorado even now. If you want dorado, fish along the shoreline and chum with live sardinas. These sardinas will attract any nearby dorado.

The yellowtail are a sure thing at Punta Pulpito, and for the past three days the seas have been calm enough to get there in reasonable comfort. Even throughout the windy weather, there have been brave souls making the 40 mile trek to Pulpito. The reason? Consistent Yellowtail action and with limits easily obtained. Mackerel are working best and you'll find them halfway down the water column. Of course I'd imagine jigs are working too although not too many pangueros have ever warmed up to using them.

If you don't want to travel that far, you'll have a good chance for smaller ones right off Isla Coronado. For the most part those fish are feeding at or near the surface, although I didn't see any on Sunday when I was out but I did see a boat jigging over some specific structure which happened to be under some really rough water. The hard part was that the calm water was about a panga length away.

Since the many days of wind I was curious to find out how the inshore fishing held out. I was very pleased to see that the winds didn't have much of an effect on the number of fish nor their feeding. There are still tons of fish out there!

We used live sardinas as chum to attract the fish to within casting range of my fly rod. This chumming attracted many cabrilla to the surface and not only enabled me to land some with my flies but also my captain who used a free swimming sardina on a small hook. We saw dozens of large Cabrilla somersault out of the water all around us. Pargo were also numerous. Since I'm not big on trolling, we didn't catch our fish with this method, but Francisco was bugging me to troll. So if you find yourself fishing the shoreline soon, try trolling rapalas along the shoreline and expect to pick up both Cabrilla and Pargo.

Roosterfish have been numerous along all of our shorelines since October and even after the winds we've had they're still here. In fact, if you want to specifically target them right now we can get you on them. This is rarely the case in our area. Along the shoreline from in front of the marina to Isla Coronado you'll encounter Roosterfish from 5 to over 20 pounds. The size increases the further away from town you get.

A golden phase cabrilla was caught on Sunday with a live sardina. I think this may be why I got a Dorado. Captain Francisco said "la virgen" when he brought this fish out of the water. Sunday was the day of the Virgin Mary de Guadalupe which may be why he said it. At any rate the fish was released and I hooked up the dorado right after.

Sea condition: strong nortes ripping up the surface, wind line can be seen on the horizon.

Water Surface Temperature Range: 73-81(F).

(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.