YELLOWTAIL FOUND IN SCATTERED BITES BETWEEN WINDY FISHING PERIODS

Feb. 16, 2006, Loreto, Baja Sur, Mexico, Baja Big Fish Company, Pam Bolles:

The wind has calmed down at Loreto today, and now it's still and warm here. Maybe will be nice tomorrow. We're going out. Lots of folks have cabin fever and want to fish. Hopefully we have some nice weather days ahead.

The Loreto Mexican vacation area had a few days of calm and fishable weather before last weekend. Over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th, sea surface conditions were good but the fish were not biting.

Fish are often an indicator of coming foul weather as they go off their bite if they feel an atmospheric pressure change, and generally a pressure change means wind.

So after getting skunked while fishing on both Saturday and Sunday, we turned down trips on Monday even though Loreto weather was fine to go out. We felt it was best to not charge for "boat rides." With the fish being the accurate weather indicator that they are, the anticipated winds returned late in the morning on Tuesday and they have been increasing in intensity ever since.

Our last successful inshore Yellowtail catch was on Monday, February 5th, when firecracker Yellowtail were caught off Isla Coronado. These fish are breezing, prefer sardinas over mackerel, and weigh from 10 to 15 pounds.

In Loreto fishing on Wednesday, February 14th, Yellowtail of the same size were reported off Isla Coronado and north at Puerto Almejas.

Larger yellowtail in the 20 pound size range were being caught off Sailfish Point on the south side of Bahia Salinas on Isla Carmen.

Fleeting schools of feeding Yellowtail, called "breezers," north of Loreto at Puerto Almejas to the Punta Pulpito area are present in what I call "localized bites." These brief fishing opportunities are only available to those lucky enough to be a short distance from them, when they become visible to the unaided eye, because they do not last very long.

Fishermen camped in "fish camps" in these areas are reporting this action when they return to Loreto. These occurrences are too short lived and too distant, given the weather, for us to reach them.

Besides the few Cabrilla that are also being caught while targeting Yellowtail, there's not much else to report for these Mexican fishing waters.