BAJA SPORTFISHING BOATS FIND DORADO CLOSE TO TOWN ON WEED PADDIES

June 4, 2006, Bill Erhardt, Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Dorado Holding on Weed Paddies:

The big news in Loreto vacation fishing waters this week is that seaweed is forming into paddies, and the paddies are holding dorado.

The paddies are concentrated in the area around Islas Coronados and north to San Bruno Reef, but clumps of seaweed and paddies may be found anywhere throughout the Loreto fishing area.

Light winds and calm seas have cooperated in allowing the paddies to form and keeping them together. The dorado probably average around 12 pounds, or so, but some are over 20 and a few over 30 pounds.

There are also many sea turtles basking in the calm waters and pods of pilot whales and porpoise.

Loreto fishing water is clear blue and the surface temperature has been in the low 80's by afternoon.

I fished out of Loreto three days this week:

On Tuesday I fished 30 to 40 miles northeast of the Loreto marina for 4 small doradon blind strikes in the morning. Around noon Jim Luithly called to invite me to share the bounty of a paddy he had located in the same area but closer to shore. Fishing that paddy and others on the way back to the marina, my daughter Catherine and I caught a total of 13 dorado.

On Thursday we returned to the paddies near San Bruno Reef early and then moved further offshore in search of billfish. I caught no billfish, but did catch so many dorado were coming and going that I stopped counting. The largest dorado we caught on Tuesday and Thursday was around 25 pounds.

On Saturday I went alone to Isla Catalana off Mexico's Baja Sea of Cortez coast for marlin. I caught one around 120 pounds in the morning and another in the afternoon east of Punta Lobo on the way back home.

(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.