FISHING TRIP YIELDS VERY FEW DORADO

Aug. 7, 2005, Chuck Bayard, Loreto, Mexico Fishing Trip Report:

Several of us Northern Californians, mostly from Redding, just spent three weeks in Loreto.

We had people in and out of Loreto between 7/8 and 7/30. Primarily, it was Rob Smyth, Ed Roach, and I. We rented a house at Loreto Shores, and fished on Rob's boat, pulled down from Redding, and we used Panga's for the others arranged by our friend Captain Alphonso Murillo.

The Loreto fishing reports are quite accurate. No dorado. We found beautiful clear blue water, 82 to 85 degrees outside, lots of bait, lots of squid, and fair amounts of billfish. There were some nice Yellowtail being caught in 250-400 feet of water. One of our friends pulled up next to us and caught a 40-plus on his first drop with iron.

Of the VERY few Dorado caught, Dr. Jack Nichols showed the rest of us up with a lone bull close to 40 pounds. I had the big fish of the trip with a Blue Marlin in the 250-300 pound range.

With the Dorado being SOOOOOOO slow, we ventured out for Grouper some 35 miles north of Loreto and in 350-600 feet of water. Ed Roach of Gridley, Calif., proved the hot hand on the Grouper landing 3 over 30 pounds.

We had pretty pleasant weather, for summer time in Baja, but an annoying consistent southwest wind virtually every day. As has been reported by others, we observed long liners working just outside the Loreto restricted zone around Carmen Island. Don't know if that's why the fishing has been so slow for the last couple of years, but it can't help.

(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.