San Felipe panga motherships find good Midriff Islands fishing action

Mexico Fishing News, July 2, 2000

SAN FELIPE FISHING REPORTS

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SAN FELIPE, MEXICO: JIG STOP TOURS, July 7, 2000, Larry Burson, 6-day trip aboard the mothership, Captain Villegas. Doug Biedebach of Ventura put this group together and they caught lots of fish. Again, the Cabrilla fishing was outstanding.

They had plenty of live bait and the Cabrilla loved it! Yellowtail fishing was good but not great. This gang did score some nice grouper and a big 56 lb White Seabass.

Dorado hit the scoreboard for the first time this season, with 4 small 10-12 pounders. The ship went directly to the San Lorenzo area and stayed at the southern islands most of the trip, including Isla San Esteban south of San Felipe. The pangas worked the shoreline with live bait and jigs, for some great action on Cabrilla. Surface iron such as Salas OKY and DX were top producers, but bait was king. Big Cabrilla were very aggressive on bait. When you cast a live bait, it's best to have your reel already in gear when the bait hits the water, or you'll lose a lot of big ones. Big Squid were balling up bait during the day causing a lot of bird activity. At night Squid were plentiful under the lights for those wanting to take some home. The ship's scores were 438 Cabrilla, 101 Yellowtail, 5 Grouper, 21 Pargo, 4 White Seabass and 4 Dorado.

Mike Clinton from Ventura got big fish with a 58 lb Grouper. Dave Sanchez of Ventura scored a 48 lb Grouper. Kerry Hansen from Bremerton, WA, weighed in a 45 lb Grouper. Warren Shelton from Santa Paula, CA, weighed in a 56 lb White Seabass. Alan Reents from Canyon Lake, CA, checked in a 26 lb Yellowtail. Seas were calm. Wind was never a factor affecting fishing. The water temperature remained 72 degrees most of the trip. Tel 949-496-0960; 800-521-2281; Fax 949-496-1384.

SAN FELIPE, MEXICO: BAJA SPORTFISHING, INC., trip ending July 7, 2000, Gustavo Velez, 6-day Midriff Islands trip aboard the panga mothership, Erik. Some wind, but otherise beautiful seas. Fish Counts: 721 cabrilla; 136 yellowtail; 80 squid; 14 pargo; 200 miscellaneous. Tel 619-523-1822, 800-770-2341; Fax 619-523-9896; fishbaja@pacbell.net.

In other mainland Mexico and Baja fishing action this week:

MAGDALENA BAY FISHING REPORTS

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MAGDALENA BAY, MEXICO: BAJA ON THE FLY, San Carlos, July 8, 2000, Gary Graham. Temperatures: 84-degree high during the day dipping to 69 with light winds in the afternoon. Water temperature: 74 - 68 degrees in the mangroves and 66 offshore. STRIPED MARLIN - A few being reported 8 - 15 miles offshore. DORADO - Pretty consistent 5 - 12 miles west of the entrance near the shark buoys. TUNA - Some rumors about tuna outside of Tosca. SIERRA - Good catches at Isla Santa Margarita. CORVINA - Power plant producing fair catches. SNOOK Only a few reported. YELLOWTAIL - Mostly down deep near the entrance. QUICK COMMENT - This marks the beginning of our second year reporting on fishing conditions at Magdalena Bay. Like last year, we are just now starting to receive a few reports of billfish offshore. It will be interesting to see how the reports compare with last year's.Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260; bajafly@aol.com.

MAGDALENA BAY, MEXICO: BAJA ON THE FLY, San Carlos, July 5, 2000, Gary Graham. Temperatures: 84-degree high during the day dipping to 69 with light winds in the afternoon. Early morning fog is helping to cool things off each morning. Water temperature: 74 degrees in the mangroves and 66 offshore. STRIPED MARLIN - None reported. DORADO - Still continuing to provide the best offshore action. TUNA - None reported. SIERRA - Good catches at Isla Santa Margarita. CORVINA Good catches up by the power plant. SNOOK Only a few reported. YELLOWTAIL - Large school showing 9 miles from the entrance on a NW heading. QUICK COMMENT - Light pressure this week yielded good catches in the esteros (estuaries) for the few fishing.Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260; bajafly@aol.com.

CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORTS

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CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO: PISCES FLEET, Cabo San Lucas, July 6, 2000, Tracy Ehrenberg. BILLFISH: For most people, this week produced pretty amazing fishing. Just to mention a few: the Dennis James party from Houston, Texas, released six striped marlin on July 2nd, aboard "Tracy-Ann", a marlin a piece for each angler on board. The day before this, "'Rebecca" released three stripers, as well as a two hundred pound plus blue marlin. This same day Ken Dellinger from Plano, Texas, released four stripers aboard Karina, at the Cabrillo Sea Mount northeast of Cabo.

Towards the end of this period Randy Wiggin from Cleburne, Texas, boated a 310 pound blue marlin, after it took a beat up red and black lure, at the 95 spot, taking him one hour and thirty minutes to boat on 60 pound test line: - Randy also released a striped marlin this same day aboard "Andrea" . I tell you these Texans are lucky! Some other anglers that did really well were Larry & Cindy Keppner from Edwardsville, Illnois, their tally after three days on "Rebecca" was six striped marlin released, one blue marlin released and two dorado over the fifty-pound mark. You can hardly beat a fishing trip to Cabo as a graduation present and this is what Larry Franfekner, did for his son Dan, who brought along buddy Mike Dougherty, all from Vacaville Ca.

This group's day out, again on the Rebecca, yielded three striped marlin and two dorado that almost reached sixty pounds. We also want to congratulate Ernesto Melo from Ca, on his first ever marlin, as well as a beautiful 63 pound dorado. So it went for most of the week, with standard catches of two striped marlin per boat - to be honest we were all pleasantly surprised. It appears that the fishing is about a month behind, as these are the kind of catches we would expect at the end of May. The blue marlin though, are right on schedule. As we approached the end of this period fishing did slow down and we began to see some "skunks", which gave us an overall catch success rate this week of eighty-six percent. Pisces anglers caught a total of 75 striped marlin, with all except one released, 5 sailfish all released and two blue marlin, one released the other boated.

OTHER SPECIES: Not a lot of smaller game action offshore, except the dorado, the majority of which were of an impressive size, in the 50 to 60 pound class. Other smaller fish were caught in the 20 to 30 pound size; mostly trolling in the area were dorado were. Inshore plenty of bonita, with anglers often getting a dozen or more. Some jack crevalle and roosterfish also. LOCATION: Destiladeres, Cabrillo Sea Mount, Punta Gorda & 95 Spot. WEATHER CONDITIONS: Still cooler than normal - anglers have been wearing jackets in the early morning hours, now warming up, skies partly cloudy, seas on the rough side, now calming. AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 77-78 F. BEST LURES: Live bait, red/black, orange/brown. Tel 011-52-114-31288; Fax 011-52-114-30588; pisces@piscessportfishing.com.

EAST CAPE FISHING REPORTS

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East Cape Fishing

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: BUENA VISTA BEACH RESORT, week ending on July 8, 2000, Axel Valdez. Great news this week, as you probably already know, we had Presidential election this week, and we are still celebrating that we had finally changed party. Therefore we are expecting many changes and we are excited for what the future will bring. We had new friends that came to dive this week and they had a lot of fun diving in the Cabo Pulmo Marine Park, they found a nice school of mantas and a lot big Jacks. Water temperature was a little cold still, but Mark, our dive master in the area, told us that the warmer water is moving in fast, and if we continue with the weather like we have it up to now, the water temperature will be in the 80's very soon.

FISH REPORT Boats out: 93. SPECIES: Blue Marlin 7 (6 release); Striped Marlin 35 (32 release); Sailfish 101 (98 release); Dorado 105 (38 release); Tuna 169 (0 release); Skip Jack 75 (60 release); Bass/Grouper 3 (0 release); Jack Crevalle 6 (6 release); Amberjack 1 (0 release); Red Snapper 31 (1 release); Needlefish 5 (5 release); Trigger fish 4 (0 release); Sierra 1 (0 release). Water Temperature: Water still is very alike last week, with temperature ranging from 80°- 84° Inshore the water is a little cooler ranging from 75°- 80°. Weather Temperature: Weather was nice through out this week, with temperatures ranging from high 80´s to mid 90´s, during the day and we had a nice cooling breeze during the evening.

Fishing Spots and Distance: Early in the week most of the fleet was going south, but as the week went on the fishing started to switch north, specially due to the good numbers of tuna found. Now the fleet is fishing south of Cerralvo Island to La Rivera.

Successful lures: Chivato (orange/yellow), Purpuras (purple/black), green/black and they are also trying the petrolero (black/orange). Very much they are using the same color than last week.

Bait Used: Sardine for the dorado, tuna and inshore fishing. Big bait being used is radadillo, small jacks, and some mullet.

Highlights of the Week: Tuna is back at East Cape, but this time is north, where we are also finding some school dorado. Also yesterday Jesus Araiza found some porpoises with tuna, he capture a nice 60 pounder. A lot of sails this week, and the best part is that we have been very successful releasing them, only 3 of the 101 were accidentally killed.

Weeks Comparison: Very much the same average billfish per boat, but this week the good news is that we have found the tuna again.

This week we had our long time friend William Parrete, he was accompanied with his grand son Ryan (10 year old), who came down to see if he could break the IGFA junior world record, in the striped or blue marlin category. He was short from the blue marlin, since his weighted 270 lbs. He also caught a striper, but since the mate touched the rod, it did not qualify, but it was smaller than what he needed, so he released it.

This week we Mr. Mark Howland together with the Big Bear Lake Rotary Club organized a private tournament, in memory of a great friend Mr. Curtys. They had a lot of fun. Mr. and Mrs. Powell, Vince Smith and Carl Francis fishing on the Marisol with Ronnie Verdugo placed 1st, with a blue, 2 stripers, 1 sail and 3 dorados. And of course, this tournament was catch and release. Buena Vista Beach Resort, 800-752-3555, axel@hotelbuenavista.com.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: RANCHO LEONERO, July 8, 2000, Gary Barnes-Webb and Roy Baldwin. Another great week at Leonero, with daytime highs in the low 90's, evening lows about 70, calm seas, afternoon breezes and water temp in the low 80's. This week's big news is the return of yellowfin tuna, with larger fish to 175lbs outside, while the north side of the bay is full of 15 to 40lb fish, taking live sardinas and trolled lures. Our manager, Gary, took a 25-pounder from a kayak on Saturday right in front of the hotel. The billfish bite remains phenomenal, with blues, stripers, and sailfish thick throughout the bay, from 2 to 20 miles out. The marlin are taking live bait and lures, with green/white and blue/white still working best, while the sailfish are almost jumping into the boat, taking anything in the water, dead bait, live bait, and all colored lures. On Saturday one boat released 12 sails. The big bull dorado bite continues, with fish nearly all over 50lbs located outside, from 10 to 20 miles out, from Leonero to Cabo Pulmo, mostly on live caballitos and all patterns of marlin lures. The roosterfish bite continues with limits of fish from 10 to 30lbs inshore throughout the bay from Punta Pescadero to Punta Colorado, taking live mullet, caballitos and sardinas. Roger Torreiro & Richard Hassberger and their sons of Laguna Beach, CA, while 5 days cruiser fishing, released 15 striped marlin, 4 blue marlin, 12 sailfish, a 175lb yellowfin tuna, and limits of dorado to 50lbs. Tel 011-52-114-86503; rbaldwin@rancholeonero.com.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: BAJA ON THE FLY, Buena Vista, July 8, 2000, Gary Graham. Temperatures: High 91 with a low of 72; Humidity = 81%. Cloudy skies, wind in the afternoon. Water temperature: 76-86. STRIPED MARLIN - Good catches reported by all hotels. BLUE MARLIN - Great catches with some larger fish being reported. SAILFISH - Many multiples reported. YELLOWFIN TUNA - Finally seeing some of the larger fish in the area. DORADO - Good catches of larger fish. ROOSTERFISH - Find the bait and the roosters will be there. JACK CREVALLE - Lots of smaller fish feeding on sardinia. BARRILLETE OR MEXICAN SKIPJACK - Good catches all up and down the coast. PARGO AND CABRILLA - A few smaller fish caught along shore from Muertos to Punta Colorado. OFFSHORE: Producing excellent catches of billfish and good counts on the dorado. INSHORE: Roosters, pompano, jacks, sierra and a few pargo continue to keep our clients busy, particularly in the morning. BEACH: Gray light is time to be out on the beach for some fast paced action for roosters and jacks. QUICK COMMENT: How long a day do you want? At gray light, hit the beach with an 8-weight, tie on an olive over white deceiver on a #2 hook with lots of flash, cast it 50- or 60-feet, let it sink to a count of 5 and hang on. Next, get on the boat at 7:00 a.m., catch a few pompano and jacks at the bait boat, hook a few skipjack on the way out to the bluewater, tease up a sailfish, get back to the hotel for a quick nap; get up, and go back down to the beach for a few shots at crashing fish at sundown. You can call it another East Cape day. Look for me on the beach. -- Gary. Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260; bajafly@aol.com.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: BAJA ON THE FLY, Buena Vista, July 5, 2000, Gary Graham. Temperatures: High 88 with a low of 75; Humidity = 73%. Flat calm with some wind in afternoon. Overcast skies. Water temperature: 76-82. STRIPED MARLIN - Good catches reported by all hotels. BLUE MARLIN - Good catches reported. SAILFISH - Many multiples reported. YELLOWFIN TUNA - A few larger fish reported. DORADO - Good catches of larger fish. ROOSTERFISH - Good catches continue along the beach in front of Rancho Buena Vista all the way to my house (about a half-mile up the beach) and at La Ribera beach. JACK CREVALLE - Lots of smaller fish feeding on sardinia. BARRILLETE OR MEXICAN SKIPJACK - Good catches all up and down the coast. PARGO AND CABRILLA - A few smaller fish caught along shore from Punta Pescadero to Punta Colorado. OFFSHORE: Billfish still great with large dorado still being caught. INSHORE: Roosters, pompano, jacks, sierra and a few pargo still providing the bulk of the action. BEACH: More fish being seen every day, plenty of sight casting opportunities. QUICK COMMENT: Take your pick: Offshore, inshore, or beach it is all providing great action. Look for me on the beach. --Gary. Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260; bajafly@aol.com.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: EAST CAPE SPORT FISHING, Los Barriles, July 3, Gil Mendiaz. With the good conditions that exist weather-wise on the East Cape and temperature breaks all over the bay, fishing is "muy bueno" for those visiting the Cape. Air temperatures are running @ 100 for the highs with lows of 72 degrees. Water temperatures are a great mix offering many breaks and excellent fishing in various zones. About half of our fleet are working the northern end of the fishery and finding bull dorado on the troll from Punta Perico to Punta Sur at Cerralvo Island, where breaks are 86 degrees on one side and 89 on the other. The shark buoys are producing excellent size fish as well. Bulls 40, 50 and 60 lbs. have been taken with live bait, both large baracutas and small (5") sardinas. Outside towards the Ocho Ocho, marlin & sailfish are eating and being caught & released regularly! In the south end, Las Frailes to Vinorama again it's dorado on the troll. Near shore at Vinorama, the tuna have turned on, with fish being taken in the 30, 40, and 50 lbs. categories, all caught with sardinas and some soft plastics, along with (2) 50 pounders on the yo-yo taken aboard the Petunia. Strangely, the tuna are without the dolphins and are schooling up feeding on the bait hanging on the 86/89 degree breaks, again a difference of about 3 degrees. This kind of a break always means fish are available. Outside blue marlin to 350 lbs. are being sighted and nailed by those that are seeking this world class fighter. Earlier this week the dolphins were encountered, and they were the right kind: gray bottlenose juveniles we call Pintelios. Strangely, no tuna were found with them. But with all the temp. breaks that are holding bait, it figures that the tuna are having an easier time there than they would chasing the dolphins for their scraps. In the bay proper there is another break 84 to 87 degrees producing dorado, skipjack, bonito, and football tunas. Inshore, roosters, pargo and a variety of hard fighting jacks are making their presence known. Best working colors: Mean Joe Green, dorado, Mexican flag, blue & silver hoochies and natural color cedar plugs. Notable catches, Fishing for (3) days on the Petunia out of Hotel Los Barriles, Jim Roberts of Cabo Tours bagged 4 dorado to 55 lbs. (8) tuna to 40 lbs. and caught and released (2) marlin and (3) sails. "We brought down our third group this season and all (8) our boats from East Cape Sportfishing Charters had flags flying every day! We'll be back in September, these crews really know how to work with the anglers that want to bait their own hooks and hook their own fish." Tel 800-837-1556; Fax 805-493-5446; gil@eastcapefishing.com.

LA PAZ FISHING REPORTS

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LA PAZ, MEXICO: JONATHAN ROLDAN'S ADVENTURE SERVICES, La Paz, July 4, 2000, Jonathan Roldan. Hey Pescadores. ...lot and lots of heavy ice chest going out of the airport right now filled with fillets! It's still up and down at times here in terms of fishing, but thankfully, the good days are so good that no one really complains for the few times a week when the bite moves off a bit. Las Arenas fishing continues to be consistently good. The area in front of Punta Perrico/ Muertos Bay south of La Paz has been great for peanut and football sized tuna. The other hotspot has been the rocks off La Reynita on the west side of the island. Fish are MUCH bigger, but we get two days on, then two day off. When I say BIGGER, the average size of the yellowfin has been 40 pounds with some fish a whole lot bigger and tougher. The area, surprisingly still holds the occasional wahoo with a real range of 'hoos from 20- 50 pounds. The problem is that the wahoo are touchy and not readily amenable to wire. Also, if you have the wire, the tuna won't bite it. The result is that most everyone is fishing string and when the wahoo bites, they get nada! If you really want dorado, you gotta fish the La Paz side. Boats are getting 2-limits on the dorado every day right now. A few things you should take note of it you're coming down. 1. The bite is largely in the morning. Although many operators have been including bait and will take you to go catch it, most anglers are opting to save the time and simply pay 10 or 20 dollars to get onto the fishing IMMEDIATELY. Right now, especially with the tuna, arriving an hour or two late could mean missing the bite, so be prepared to buy bait each day. That's it for now. I'm headed to teach the roosterfish school at Hotel Las Arenas this week from Wednesday to Sunday. Tel 626-333-3355; Fax 626-333-0115; Pager 323-349-8111; Message Pager 877-310-7734; Riplipboy@aol.com.

LA PAZ, MEXICO: JONATHAN ROLDAN'S ADVENTURE SERVICES, La Paz, July 3, 2000, Jonathan Roldan. Have been on the water now for almost two weeks straight and although there were a few less-than-banner days here and there, for the most part, everyone is taking home fish and it seems that every other day the fish just go stupidly wide! This past week was no exception. Las Arenas boats started slow, but then just went turbo. Keith Meehan of Kicker Jigs and his great group fell right into the lottery when Punta Perrico broke full bore this week with the footballs flying like mad puppies. I fished with Keith and his dad and we had limits on jigs, bait, feathers and lures by 9 a.m. and we were probably one of the slower boats. We had 18 fish on board and released/lost another 15 in that time! The water was almost frothing and you could have tossed a piece of tortilla in the water and it wouldn't have lasted 10 seconds! Next day, Punta Perrico went off the map again with a wide open bite on the footballs, but the yellowfin literally exploded at La Reynita with fish in the 40- 70 pound class! Additionally, dorado counts also increased. Bob Jackson and his son racked some tuna then found a dead goat carcass crawling with dodo! Additionally, if you're wondering about roosters, they seem to be back. Fishing with my pal, Dave Castanon, both of us slow trolled big saballo (ladyfish) at Las Arenas Beach and in 10 minutes we had a simultaneous hookup bringing two 80 pound class roosters to the boat to be released! Smaller ones were being hooked across at the southwest corner of Cerralvo Island. As for fishing straight out of La Paz, it's dorado city with lots of fish this week. Bajo was giving them up as were various spots in the channel. We're seeing more marlin and sails and surprisingly getting a good number of wahoo up to 77 pounds this later in the year. Had several of my freedving pals here this week as well. Steve Kang pulled the trigger on a 70 pound grouper and his brother, Jeff Kang, might have busted the world record on a 120 pound amberjack that he stuck. By the way, be prepared to buy bait as it saves a good hour or so getting onto the bite which is better in the morning! One note, several of my clients have been turned away at the airport by Aero California lately. The airline is no longer accepting "Affidavits of Citizenship" any longer and are being extremly stringent as well on having the proper documents if you are travelling with a child and both parents are not on the trip. Tel 626-333-3355; Fax 626-333-0115; Pager 323-349-8111; Message Pager 877-310-7734; Riplipboy@aol.com.

MULEGE FISHING REPORTS

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MULEGE, MEXICO: MULEGE, July 2, 2000, Lyn Porter & Jens Kolbowski, reporting for baja-web.com. Air Temp 82º-105º. Water Temp 77º. Humidity 75% - 95%. Seas: calm to choppy after 11 am. Skies: cloudy. Wind: slight easterly. Fishing wide open on all species at Mulege. Best June for fishing that we have had in the last 5 years. Bring sun screen and wide brim hat. BILLFISH: Sailfish showing up in good numbers. Marlin occasional but good. BOTTOM FISHING: Triggerfish, Cabrilla, Red Snapper all taken on cut bait or small sardines. CABRILLA: Very good, but everyone is fishing for Dorado and other surface fish. DORADO: Excellent fishing. Catch your lmit in 1 to 2 hours in front of Pt. Concepcion out 3 miles or pick your favorite spot. GROUPER: These are being caught by the Cabrilla fisherman - A few big ones - up to 35 #'s. POMPANO: Schools are showing up in local areas, trolling with Krocodiles. ROOSTERFISH: spotty - A few schools have been seen. SIERRA: no reports. SQUID: Big schools of big squid are in the area, for those who like the big ones. Found at the deep reefs with squid jigs, some are 50 #'s. TRIGGERFISH & SNAPPERS: excellent biting, good early a.m. and late p.m., off rocky points and taken on cut bait, it is easy to catch your limit. YELLOWFIN TUNA: Some small Yellowfin have been caught this week, around the Tortuga Islands area. Showing signs of an early season here. YELLOWTAIL: The water temperatures are getting warmer, nice Yellowtail can be caught on deep Reefs, Live bait is necessary.

Roosterfish

Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International at La Paz with an 80-pound class rooster. Whoa! Da kine! Nice hat too!

Cabo San Lucas anglers Fish Photo 1

Happy Pisces Fleet anglers at Cabo San Lucas this week. Left to right, Dennis James party, of Houston; the Larry and Cindy Keppner, of Edwardsville, Ill.; and Mr. & Mrs Henry from Karnack , Tx., aboard the Adriana.

BAJA MEXICO FISHING REPORT ARCHIVES AND FISH PICTURES