DORADO STILL SUPER ABUNDANT IN FISHING NEAR TOWN

Aug. 26, 2006, Don Bear, Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Dorado fishing continued its fabulous pace at Loreto, Baja California Sur, this past week, except for a drop-off today, Saturday, to a more "normal" pace. Loreto weather has continued to be hot and humid. The sea has been uniformly calm. Fishing water temperatures have ranged from 83 to 87 degrees. Mackerel have been easy to make, except today, and sardines have been abundant after dawn in the marina. One couldn't ask for a better week of dorado fishing.

On Monday, Robert and Elena Vrcon of Milan, Italy, and Giovanni Petronio of Florence, Italy, went out with Antonio Davis, spending the whole day on a school near Punta Colorada, estimating a catch of at least 20 dorado, mostly on flies.

On Tuesday the same 3 Italians joined Francisco Martinez and me on my boat. We caught at least 30 dorado of all sizes from 10 to 40 pounds near Punta Colorada and at the buoys. Robert and Giovanni used flies and Elena and I used plastics and poppers, while Francisco chummed with sardines. We left feeding schools at both places.

On Thursday, Giovanni and I went on Paulino Martinez' panga, spending a short day on the school at Punta Colorada until 10:30 a.m. We caught at least 20 fish to 30 pounds. Again, we left the school hitting anything we threw at them.

But, today I went fishing alone with Paulino on my boat, and it was a little different. We were able to catch only 2 mackerel in 45 minutes. The same was true of the other boats at the spot that had been teeming with mackerel the whole week.

More importantly, we never really found a dorado school the whole day, although we were able to catch 15 dorado trolling as far north as Punta Diablo. Judging from the radio chatter, no other boats came upon a dorado school today either. Because almost all of the dorado we caught coughed up pieces of squid, Paulino speculated that schools of squid had moved in and the dorado had gorged on them. All of our fish came on sardines.

There were no apparent effects along this part of the Baja Sea of Cortez coast from hurricane/tropical depression Ileana, although I suspect points south of here might have felt it. There have been afternoon thunderstorms in the sierra on a couple of occasions, but only a stray drop of rain here in town.

(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.