MORE THAN 20 PANGAS FISHED ON SATURDAY

Jan. 25, 2005, Tom Bird, Loreto, Mexico Fishing Report:

This season's Loreto yellowtail fishing has one of the best starts ever. There were over 20 pangas out this Saturday, fewer on Sunday as the 4 solid days of beautiful weather went a bit breezy.

Last year was one of the strangest weather years at Loreto, as we saw winter winds and rough weather most of the summer, and now a calmer winter. The yellowtail bellies have contained, of all things, anchovies, yes, Pacific type anchovies, and lots of small fry, and 8-inch squid. It looks like Loreto may even have a better squid fishing season than has been here for the last 4 years.

I caught a large yellowtail on Saturday, January 22, 2005. It weighed about 52 pounds, and had marks on it were because of a huge seal that I had to fight with. The fishing was best in the early morning before the seals arrived about 2 miles north of Coronado Island. On my boats we only use irons. I had already hooked up on fish before the people catching bait on the south side of Coronado Island arrived. There are many high spots in this Loreto area to fish, which the pangueros all know, but they do not have fish finders to locate the fish, so they just blind drop. Biting fish were located at about 150 foot depth in about 200 foot of water.

After the morning bite dropped off, visible with binocs to all the boats, I moved about 7 miles north northwest to the San Bruno area where we were the only boat and no seals. We hooked into more yellowtail there, but in the 25-pound class. Again they were located with the fish finder and feeding 50 or so off the bottom. The bottom showed lots of bait.

Loreto fishing area sea conditions were smooth, with a 67 degree sea surface temperature, and 78 degree air temperature. Wind developed on Sunday.

(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.