YELLOWTAIL BITING NICELY IN GOOD SEA CONDITIONS

Dec. 28, 2005, Pam Bolles, Baja Big Fish Company, Loreto, Baja Sur, Mexico Sportfishing Report:

Loreto weather this week has been unseasonably nice with calm seas. There are lots of people in Loreto so we've been jammin'.

The Yellowtail are biting nicely. Inshore fishing for Pargo, Cabrilla, and Sierra off the shorelines has also been good, but the Roosterfish and Jack Crevalle have been elusive.

The yellowtail are the main attraction for anglers fishing conventional methods. Their bite has varied from day to day with respect to size, quantity and location.

Loreto sportfishing boats are fishing for them off La Cholla, the westernmost and most proximate point of Isla Carmen to port. If they're not happening at this location then chances are that they're biting just off Isla Coronado. They've been moving back and fourth between these two locations.

My boats that made the 40 mile one way trip to El Pulpito were skunked on 23 December, so we haven't been back up there since. Prior to that date, Captain Humberto "Chacho" Murillo reported excellent fishing for Yellowtail and Huachinango off Punta Pulpito and Isla Ildefonso while fishing commercially.

Loreto fishing weather has been very mild, a pleasant surprise for this time of year. However it seems that the quality of the Yellowtail bite has been favoring the less picturesque days. Even the bait has had a reaction to the changes we've been experiencing. On nice calm days, the bait took well over an hour to catch. I even saw boats well after 8 a.m. still fishing for bait. Along with these slow bait getting days the quantity and size of the Yellowtail being caught had been less than we'd like to see.

We've had a lot of fluctuation lately. On one day fishing boats can go out and get close to limits on 30-plus pound Yellowtail while the very next day they may get one 30 pounder and consider themselves lucky, or a bunch of small ones. We are getting firecracker Yellowtail off Isla Coronado.

There are plenty of people at Loreto, and for the first time in a very long time during Christmas, southern Baja California vacation fishing area seas have been nice and calm to fish.

At the launch ramp at Nopolo you should still be able to find small Roosterfish and Sierra Mackerel.

Loreto water temperature: 63-72 degrees.

(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.