SPORTFISHING ACTION SLOW FOR ALL OFFSHORE SPECIES

June 6, 2005, Don Bear, Loreto, Mexico Fishing Report:

Fishing at Loreto has been very slow the past week. The dorado, tuna and billfish are relatively few in number and a long way out. Loreto fishing water has been a little on the cool side, very flat early in the week and quite rough the last couple of days. Bait, jurelitos, has been plentiful at the carnaderos, and sardines are easily netted in and around the marina. The number of fishermen going out at Loreto has been quite low for this time of year.

On Saturday, Paulino Martinez took his two fishermen from the Camino Real to about 36 miles NE of Loreto. They hooked and lost 2 marlin; they caught and released 1 sailfish. They used mackerel and jurelitos purchased from the carnaderos. They did not see any sign of dorado or tuna. The water was rough, as the west wind has continued. It's still blowing off and on Sunday, and from my place the water looks less than pleasant.

An interesting side light: With one of the marlin yesterday, the first cast of a mackerel failed because the mackerel came off in mid-cast; but the marlin ate it. The next cast was with a jurelito, which the marlin also ate. After a few jumps the marlin came unbuttoned, and the hook came back with the mackerel from the previous cast!

I and others fished out of Loreto Wednesday and Friday with Paulino Martinez on my boat.

Wednesday we traveled a total of 160 miles, to and from Isla Santa Cruz, on a beautiful flat calm day and saw not a single dorado or tuna, which were our primary target. However, Wayne Ferenz of Chico caught a 300-350-pound blue marlin on 40-pound line in a dramatic hour and three-quarter fight. At one point he was almost spooled, while later we had some spectacular grey-hounding near the boat. We tagged and released the fish to fight another day. All of us were really proud to see the fish swim strongly off with that yellow tag placed in just the right spot by Paulino. Water temperatures ranged from 72 to 76 degrees.

Yesterday, Friday, we went fishing 42 miles out of Loreto on a 30-degree heading in a rough sea caused by a strong west wind that refused to slacken. We saw 4 or 5 large dorado chasing flying fish, but none of them hit any of our baits or feathers. Fabrizio Marangoni of Nopolo and Thousand Oaks caught 2 football tuna, 15 and 20 pounds, on blind strikes, one on bait and the other on a Mexican flag feather, as well as a 40-50 pound sailfish on bait, which we also tagged and released. At one point we saw a school of football tuna crashing bait on the surface, but we were involved with one of the hooked tuna and couldn't get over to the action. Water temperatures ranged from 69 degrees at the Loreto marina to 78 degrees midway out. Our action was in 76-degree water.

I also had a report from Kevin O'Hara of Destin, Fla., of good action on large yellowtail and cabrilla on the bottom near Santa Cruz Island. He fished out of Puerto Escondido on Tuesday.

(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.