VERY HEAVY SAILFISH CONCENTRATION FOUND AT BAJO MERCENARIOS

Oct. 14, 2006, Bill Erhardt, Loreto, Mexico:

I fished two days last week out of Loreto with my brother, Cliff, and nephew, Morgan, visiting from Oregon.

Before they arrived I was regretting a bit the timing of their visit because it meant that I would miss a week of the action just turning on in the Pacific outside Magdalena Bay. It turned out that we found fishing out of Loreto to rival that in the Pacific or anyplace else.

On Wednesday we went to Bajo Mercenarios, 30 miles north of the marina in Loreto. We found the bajo alive with sailfish. Sailfish jumping. Sailfish tailing. Sailfish finning. Sailfish biting just about any lure presented to them.

But they were just not hooking up, at least not for us. After at least 15 strong bites including several long run-outs we finally hooked up and it was a double. One of the sails we released and the other threw the cedar plug about 20 feet from the boat. We continued to troll lures and continued to get bites, but landed no more sailfish.

We did catch our limits of dorado between about 18 and 35 pounds.

Fishing on Friday, we went out to the canyon in search of tuna. There we found no other sport fishing boats, but there was a seiner with a helicopter spotter cruising the area.

After trolling for about an hour we found a school of yellowfin tuna under porpoise and diving birds. Our first pass yielded a triple hookup of which we landed two. We continued to chase small breaking schools and before the bite slowed around 11:30 we caught 11 yellowfin that averaged about 20 pounds.

We then went back to Bajo Mercenarios to try to notch a billfish for Morgan who had never before caught dorado, tuna or billfish. At Mercenarios we found no other boats but a veritable orgy of sailfish. They were jumping, slashing through bait fish, biting any lure presented to them and on this day they were hooking up. There were so many sailfish around the bajo that soon jumpers, slashers or finners warranted no comment. At one point my brother noted, "they are lined up over there just like the Rockettes," and indeed they were.

Between noon and around 3:30 p.m. we caught and released 10 sailfish. By caught I do not mean "raised" or hooked. I mean grabbed by the bill at the boat to remove the hook and then sent on their way.

Morgan who started the day a virgin tallied 6 sailfish. We also caught 3 dorado around 30 pounds.

The final count for two days fishing was 9 dorado, 11 yellowfins and 11 sailfish.

There were light winds and calm seas at Loreto both Wednesday and Friday. The surface water temperature was between 86 and 88 degrees and the air temperature was about the same. The water was clear and blue.

(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.