Albacore andsummer mixed species for Ensenada fishing boats

Mexico Fishing News, June 20, 2001

ENSENADA FISHING REPORTS

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ENSENADA, MEXICO: LILY FLEET, Ensenada, June 14, 2001, Sammy Susarrey, Reservations Tel/Fax, 5 to 9 p.m., 011-52-617-46747; Cell 011-52-618-67485. Today the Amigo went out for albacore with two anglers, 20 miles out on a heading of 230 from the island. We caught 38 albacore 10-18 pounds. Twelve were caught on live bait and the rest trolling small feathers. Water temperature was 64.9 degrees. Seas were flat.

June 16, 2001-- Today the Tamara fished with four anglers at the 295 bank. We caught only 3 albacore to 20 pounds, and 21 yellowtail in the kelp paddies. Water temperature was 67 degrees. We saw a lot of meter marks. The Lily reported 5 yellowtail with three anglers aboard, trolling live sardines. Also limits of log barracuda, all at north Todos Santos Island.

June 19, 2001-- Today the Tamara fished with 3 anglers, catching 3 albacore, 15, 20 and 30 pounds. It was a little bumpy, and at 7:30 a.m. we decided to return to Todos Santos Island. The albacore were caught only 8 miles outside of Punta Banda on a 225 degree heading. Water temperature was 65.5 degrees. Inside, we got limits of calico bass and white seabass. Water temperature was 67 degrees. We have nice three-inch sardines for bait.

The Amigo fished locally today with 4 anglers, catching 3 yellowtail to 20 pounds, 3 white seabass to 20 pounds; 12 lingcod to 6 pounds. The Lily reported limits on calico and sand bass at University Point with 4 anglers.

June 20, 2001-- Today the Tamara fished locally with 5 anglers, and the Lily did likewise with 3 anglers. The Tamara got limits of calico bass and 3 white seabass to 20 pounds. The Lily reported limits of calico bass and 5 white seabass. All fish caught at Todos Santos Reef. Water temperature was 66 degrees. We have nice three-inch sardines for bait. Some calicos went to 6 pounds.

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, June 20, 2001, Gary Graham, Reservations Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260. Temperatures: 75-degree high; low in the mid 60s. Fair skies with some wind In the afternoon. TUNA--No catches reported. YELLOWTAIL--Not much to talk about. CORVINA--The area immediately under the bridge continues to produce good catches. SNOOK--Almejas Bay was the hot spot this week. HALIBUT--Fair catches at the bocas.

QUICK COMMENT--I had such a great time last week, I am returning for one more look before putting the finishing touches on my new book, The No Nonsense Guide to Fly-Fishing Magdalena Bay. I'll let you know how we do this weekend.

CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORTS

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CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO: PICANTE FLEET, Cabo San Lucas, June 20, 2001, Sergio Cortes, Reservations Tel 011-52-114-32474; Fax 011-52-114-35969. Fish available: Striped Marlin, Blue Marlin, Yellowfin Tuna & Dorado. Water temperature: 73-81. Air temperature: 87/73. Humidity: 48%. Wind: 10-12 Knots (Pacific), 8-10 Knots (Sea of Cortes).

Fleet production (6 boats): 15 Striped Marlin, 1 Yellowfin Tuna and 19 Dorado. Hot spots: Gordo Banks ( Sea of Cortes ). Luckiest boat: Picante Expresso ( 31' CABO). Captain: Eulogio Zumaya. Angler: Stephen Ziadie. Production: 4 Striped Marlin 120,155, 160, 180 lbs.(all released).

Striped Marlin fishing is hot at the moment, we have been averaging 2 (marlin) per boat in the past couple of days, few Dorado and Yellowfin Tuna can be caught also. If you are a Striped Marlin fan, this is the time to come down. Blue skies and beautiful fishing days. Mild to strong winds in the evenings.

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO: FLY HOOKER SPORT FISHING, Cabo San Lucas, June 17, 2001, Capt. George & Mary Landrum, Reservations Tel 011-52-117-01271; 011-52-114-87452. Thank goodness that the nice weather has finally shown up (knock on wood). The week started just as they all have started for the past several months, lots of westerly wind and the resulting dust and choppy green water. On Thursday night the wind disappeared and on Friday, Saturday and today we had almost perfect early summer conditions. Today we actually had a slight easterly breeze for the morning and early afternoon. The temperature has been in the 90s during the daytime and since the wind died off the evenings have been in the low 80s. There has been no rain this week and for the most part the skies have been cloud free during the day. Looks like it may be time to clean the screens on the air conditioner!

WATER: Wow, this has been a very strange week as far as both the water temperatures and the water clarity are concerned. First the temperature. The Pacific side near shore has remained in the low to mid sixties all week but the temperature has been in the low 70s once you get out over 40 miles. The Sea of Cortez has been almost a mirror image with the water temperatures being a few degrees higher on average. At least that was the situation at the beginning of the week. As the week progressed the warmer water drew both closer to shore and towards us, most likely a result of the wind stopping. Second was the water clarity. All week the water had been green and warm. There were reports of blue water out 70+ miles, but for the normal charter range, green water has been a fact of life. Fortunately that situation is beginning to change also since the wind died. We are getting reports of blue water as near as 20 miles out in the last few days.

BAIT: Plenty of Caballito at the usually $2.00 per bait and I have seen no Mackerel. Some of the Pangas are offering Mullet and I have no reports of Sardinas this past week from the Cabo boats.

BILLFISH: Good news on the Striped Marlin. Early in the week the boats had to travel as far as 35 miles to the East-Southeast to find the fish. They were thick once you found them, but not biting well. Since the wind died they have followed the warm water and today they were being found just outside the Cape, as close as 2 miles. The water is very off green in color and there are squid everywhere, so the bite is not as good as it should be, but when you are seeing 30-40 marlin a trip, there are bound to be a few hungry ones! We are nearing a new moon on the 20th and as we get closer the bite seems to be improving. Almost all of the fish have been taken on live bait, either tossed to tailing fish or slow-trolled around the concentrations of squid.

YELLOWFIN TUNA: Nada, Sorry about that. I sure hope the Tuna Fisheries recovers soon!!!

DORADO: We are beginning to see some good consistent action now, and the fish are very nice sized, most of them have been over 30 lbs with a few in the 50 plus range. Marlin lures and slow-trolled live baits have been working to bring in an average of one per boat. A few boats have been getting multiple Dorado almost every day.

WAHOO: As we are nearing the new moon, just not there.

NEARSHORE: Lots of Striped Marlin being spotted this week, most boats seeing between 25 and 40 a day. 100 lb leader and #7 live bait hooks seem to help in getting strikes and we have had luck slow trolling behind a planer at 30 ft and a downrigger at 60 feet. A vertical and horizontal spread of live bait covers all the conditions. Keep you fingers crossed for improvement in the tuna bite! --Until Next Week, Tight Lines!!!

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO: JEFF KLASSEN SPORT FISHING, Cabo San Lucas, June 15, 2001, Jeff Klassen, Reservations Tel 360-402-3474. The water temps along the shoreline have been the coldest I have ever seen. Most of the time temps have been hovering between 64 and 66 degrees, dipping as low as 61.5. Every so often (about every 4th day) a slightly warmer patch drifts by, providing us with a "frenzy", if you will. We actually had back to back days, about 12 days ago, with awesome mornings, catching a bunch of roosters, some up to 45 pounds or so. Then, we hadn't seen a rooster until last night, when we saw several chasing what's left of the mullet. We didn't hook any, but it was an encouraging sign. We did get 1 nice Sierra mac.

Yesterday morning things improved (water temps) and we landed 5 medium-sized jacks, the first we've seen in 3 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Pacific-side is deadsville, or at least has been! Most of the time you can't even get over to the beaches there as it's howling so much. Freezing winds, sand-blasting you while you fruitlessly cast into ice-cold, dead water does not make for a fun outing. Most of the surf-fishing these days has been along the gulf-side, from at least Playa Acapulquito eastwards. This morning though I lost 5 pargo, all Cuberas in the 20 pound range at the old lighthouse.

Offshore fishing has been really up and down of late as well. Very few of the large Dorado have come in so far and there are no tuna to speak of. Striped marlin seem to be every where, from about 10 miles off of Palmilla, to well past the Gorda Banks, however, they are extremely finicky. Lure strikes are rare and when they happen, it is usually on darker lures, such as purple/black, petrolero and mean joe green. Tailers, or finning fish can be seen often but only about 1 in 10 show any interest in a baitfish. I figure that they are very lethargic, due to colder than normal waters.

SAN JOSE DEL CABO (LOS CABOS) FISHING REPORTS

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SAN JOSE DEL CABO, MEXICO: GORDO BANKS PANGAS, San Jose del Cabo, June 17, 2001, Eric Brictson, Reservations 800-408-1199; Fax 619-447-4098; 011-52-114-21147. While most people have not been complaining about the cooler than usual June weather, it has been yet another setback for anglers waiting for the fishing action to get back on its normal track. Just as is it appears that the conditions have settled down and the expected calm and warm days are here to stay, once again strange patterns develop. This past week it was cool northeast winds, the same ones that usual prevail from January through March, this did not help the water to either warm up or become clear and blue. Water temperatures have been averaging from 70 to 73 degrees and the clarity has been constantly changing, one day the fleet would report that it was mostly blue from two miles on out while in the same area the next day it would be a cloudy green color. The best fishing action has been found north of Punta Gorda, where the conditions were both warmer and clearer. Many species of fish were being caught but no particular species was abundant. Supplies of baitfish were plentiful and included sardinas, mullet and mackerel. Seas were a bit choppy from the wind but the swells have resided to the where they were before the passing of Hurricane Adolph.

The panga fleets were concentrating most of their efforts around the area of Iman and out to Desteladera. This is where they found the most consistent overall action. Yellowfin tuna were being caught at a rate of one to six fish per boat, smaller football sized fish were hitting on trolled lures such as feathers, cedar plugs and rapalas, while larger tuna up to eighty pounds were landed on trolled baits. The same areas produced a handful of dorado, on both bait and lures, the average size was down from last week, with most of the dorado being in the eight to fifteen pound range, though there were exceptions of bulls up to thirty-five pounds being taken.

A couple of nice wahoo were taken on Marauders, they weighed in the thirty to forty pound class, this was a good sign, early in the week there had been reports of free jumping wahoo seen on the Iman Bank and once the conditions finally do stabilize these high speed gamefish should go on the bite. Off the bottom there were some amberjack, pargo, bonita and grouper being hooked up on the yo-yo style jigs but they were not numerous and more anglers were opting to fish the surface.

Sailfish were being caught this past week, despite the cooler water temperatures. They were hitting on live mackerel or mullet and weighed from forty to eighty pounds. One in five boats reported that they did have hook ups on these acrobatic billfish. Striped marlin were seen in good numbers offshore, from four to fifteen miles out, though they were not always in the feeding mood, if anglers were persistent they could catch a couple of the stripers per day, striking on lures but more so on the live bait. Most of the stripers seen this past week were a bit smaller, averaging sixty to one hundred and twenty pounds.

Along the shoreline the hot action for roosterfish tapered off, as did the huge schools of mullet. The clarity of the water was a definite factor, as at times the inshore water looked more like a dirty river than an ocean. There were some roosterfish, sierra and jack crevalle taken, with the majority of the roosters weighing less than fifteen pounds. --Good Fishing, Eric.

EAST CAPE FISHING REPORTS

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EAST CAPE, MEXICO: BAJA ON THE FLY, Buena Vista, June 20, 2001, Gary Graham, Reservations Tel 800-919-2252; Fax 760-746-7260. TEMPERATURES: High of 84 with a low of 75 with strong winds on Sun. STRIPED MARLIN--Good counts throughout the fleet on Tues. YELLOWFIN TUNA--Slow Mon. and Tues. DORADO--Still just a few here and there. ROOSTERFISH--Good yesterday (6/19). JACK CREVALLE--La Ribera slowed down this week. BARRILLETE OR MEXICAN SKIPJACK--Plenty in front of La Ribera. PARGO AND CABRILLA--Fair action this week at Punta Colorada.

OFFSHORE: On Mon., a cold, green current came into the area, but many boats had multiple billfish yesterday (6/19). INSHORE: Same story: cold green water on Mon., (6/18) but the bite came back with a vengeance yesterday. BEACH: Rooster alley produced great action yesterday.

QUICK COMMENT--Alan Christian, Danville, Calif., along with 10 close fly-fishing friends, managed to land several roosters from the beach and also caught six different species from the pontoon boat.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: BUENA VISTA BEACH RESORT, Buena Vista, June 15, 2001, Axel Valdez, Reservations 800-752-3555. Total boats out this week: 136. Temperature: High 70s--Low 100s. Water Temperature: 79- 82. Fish Count (Kept/Released): Blue Marlin 0/0; Striped Marlin 12/12; Sailfish 0/3; Dorado 49/0; Tuna 121/0; Wahoo 1/0; Roosterfish 2/153; Grupper 0/0; Shark 1/0; Snapper 23/0; Jack cravalle 1/12; Amberjack 0/0; Bonita 24/0; Yellowtail 1/3; Ladyfish 0/0; Pampano 6/0; Triggerfish 20/ 0; Sierra 24/0; Cabrilla 19/3; Skip Jack 0/236.

Boats are running a lot less than last week, finding fish in front of La Rivera (15 miles), but some boats are going all the way down to Frailes point (25 miles aprox.). Some boats did go North. Both areas are producing mix results.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: RANCHO LEONERO, Bahia de Palmas, June 17, 2001, John Ireland and Roy Baldwin, Reservations 800-646-2252; Hotel 011-52-114-10216. Mild weather, with daytime highs near 90, nice evenings about 70, mostly sunny skies, flat morning seas with midday breezes and variable cool water temp around 71-78 deg. Cold green water outside has slowed the gamefish bite, however, clearing water inside has caused the inshore bite to explode, with unlimited roosterfish, jacks, sierra and big pompano taken this week. Lots of billfish remain in the area, but the dirty cooler water outside has slowed the bite. We're averaging about 1 billfish per 4 boats, with live sardinas and darker colored trolled lures working best. The largest pompano we've ever seen are biting inshore right now, with fish from 15 to 35 lbs taking live sardinas off most area beaches. As many roosterfish as you want are biting off all area beaches, with most fish from 5 to 7 lbs, and the occasional larger fish to 35 lbs taking live sardinas and lisas. Big bull dorado from 40-55 lbs continue to be taken nearly daily, mostly outside on trolled marlin lures. The inshore action for jacks, sierra and small tuna remains hot, with our fly fishermen and light tackle enthusiasts enjoying non-stop action off most area beaches.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: EAST CAPE SPORT FISHING, Los Barriles, June 21, 2001, Dave Dixon and Gil Mendiaz, Reservations 800-837-1556; Fax 805-493-5446. Over the past week, your view of fishing conditions at the East Cape would have depended strongly on where you fished. Regions offshore (35-45 miles out) continued to pump out excellent action on striped marlin and dorado. Schools of good-sized yellowfin (40-80 lbs) were found running with the cochis as well.

Closer in, conditions were much tougher. An influx of cooler water (as low as 75 degrees near shore) created a bloom of some sort of microbe or algae, generating large areas of green water as well as a foul stench. This all but shut down the great fishing we had been seeing in near-shore areas, including the outstanding yellowfin bite.

By Wednesday, skippers were reporting that the green stuff was starting to clear out, but the good fishing remained well offshore. The roosterfish bite was the exception to this, with anglers seeing decent action on pez gallo over the past week.

SST maps as of 6/20 show the cooler water inshore, concentrated mostly in Bahia Los Palmas and regions south. Temperatures increase steadily as you head off shore, with the accessible warm water and associated temperature breaks laying 35-45 miles out between W and NNW of Los Barriles. Currently, a pocket of 90+ degree water is holding over the Ocho Ocho.

Conditions like these emphasize an important point about the East Cape fishery: sometimes the good fishing is a long boat ride from the beach. Those who were lucky (or smart) enough to get on a fast cruiser with long range saw some excellent action over the last week. However, if you were unfortunate enough to be on a "clunker", or thought you'd save a couple of bucks by taking a panga out rather than a cruiser, you most likely spent your time trolling through stinky green stuff. Choice of fishing vessel is an important aspect to consistent angling success at the East Cape.

EAST CAPE, MEXICO: HOTELS PALMAS DE CORTEZ, PLAYA DEL SOL, PUNTA COLORADA, East Cape, June 17, 2001, reported by Dave "Smokey" Manuel, East Cape Smokehouse, Hotel Reservations, 800-368-4334. Significant progress the last few days on Striped Marlin. Many of the skippers that found pods of Marlin had multiples of two, three and sometimes four caught from the same locale. Most of the action was North to Northwest of Los Barriles on a line from off Punta Pescadero 6 to 9 miles running up towards Punta Perico and all the way out to the Southern edges of the "ocho-ocho". And finally for a change, several reports of hookups on trolled lures came in, which has not been very common. The past few weeks even getting a Marlin to blink at a live bait has been tough, so this is good news.

The water conditions also, surprisingly enough, haven't been that great in some of the spots that Marlin were found. Stripers generally prefer the cooler water temps of Spring and early Summer, so it's not surprising they are active, temperature wise, but several skippers said the water was "muy verde" (very green) where they had their hookups.

Dorado numbers held up throughout the weekend, it's not great Dorado fishing, but many of the fleet are boating a single Dorado or so and a few others are getting multiples of three maybe four. Bites have come from the same waters as where the Marlin were located to the North and also several came from off La Ribera, near where the Tuna bite was during the midweek period.

Very little Tuna action on Saturday or Sunday coming from anywhere, just a few random fish taken here and there. Sunday got a little nasty on the Sea of Cortez, an early wind developed out of the East-Southeast and by mid day we had rough seas, whitecaps and a pretty good shore break. If you've never fished here, we have no Marinas on the East Cape, so getting off the boat on days like this is always an adventure and worthy of a beer or two's worth of conversation at the end of the day.

LA PAZ FISHING REPORTS

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LA PAZ, MEXICO: JONATHAN ROLDAN'S TAILHUNTER ADVENTURE SERVICES, La Paz, June 17, 2001, Jonathan Roldan, Tel 626-333-3355; Fax 626-333-0115; Pager 323-349-8111; Message Pager 877-310-7734. Well, maybe we got too optimistic too quickly. We were wishing too hard. It seems like we are somewhat over the hump and definitely into fish, but the blow-out bite of the previous week has given way to more realistic reports. The La Paz side still doesn't have much of a bite to speak of with fingers of green water still prevailant, but there's the occasional whack of fish, then fade to black or green as the case may be. The Bajo or north point kicks out yellowtail or tuna, then falls off. I"m just going to try to steer my clients around the area until it gets hotter or unless they get stocked up fishing the Las Arenas side first.

Because that's where the fish seem to want to go bendo. There are some good and some bad days, but the good days far outweigh! In all honesty, it's NOT as WFO as we have had it, but yellowfin tuna are still the rage and with a few more dorado each day, I've got my fingers crossed that we're really on the cusp of a big turn around finally. Most of the action is centered off the high spot at South Pt. on Cerralvo Island, but there's been tuna taken off the Castle near the Las Arenas light house and a few boats venturing south towards the Perrico/Muertos area also found spots of tuna. Most are ice-chest grade 20-25 pounders, but it's not unusual to see 30-60 pounders come out of the guys fish boxes when the pangas are unloaded off the beach. Even bigger news is the fact that wahoo seem to have moved into the area.. I see one or two hit the beach every day, but hear even more stories of guys whose line goes spinning off at light speed, then just stops! They crank in and it's a clean cut visit by Mr. Hoo!

By the way, we're now offering afternoon panga fishing at the Las Arenas area during the summer for those anglers coming from S. Cal who arrive too late to catch the normal morning fishing, or simply can't get enough fishing too soon! It's a unique time from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. when most boats have already left the fishing grounds. Just because the boats leave doesn't mean the fish have stopped biting! --Tight lines! Jonathan.

LA PAZ, MEXICO: HOTEL LAS ARENAS, Punta Arena de la Ventana, June 19, 2001, Linda Glassman-Davis, Reservations 888-644-7376. Captain's Fausto, Beto, Daniel, Fidel, Efren, Cachora, Tolon, Adrian, Guicho, Zapata, Daniel, Tony, Lazaro, Ramon Green, Valente, Liciano, Chimango report: 42 Yellow fin tuna, largest 35 pounds; 10 Dorado, largest 50 pounds; 3 Yellowtail, largest 50 pounds; 2 Wahoo, largest 54 pounds; 1 Striped marlin, 70 pounds; 4 Roosterfish; 11 pargo; 6 Cabrilla; 8 mackerel; 5 Bonita; 3 Amberjack. We still have a few spots open for the Roosterfish School!; Come on down and see us! --Saludos, Linda

LA PAZ, MEXICO: FISHERMEN'S FLEET, La Paz, June 14, 2001, David Jones, Hotel los Arcos, Reservations 011-52-112-21313; Fax 011-52-112-57334. The fishing seems to have gone a bit retrograde over the last two days. The same fishes that you've been reading about are still here, but we've caught about 75% of the numbers we had been generating.

The Tuna are holding forth at the south end of the island still, attended by a huge flock of boats including many of the East Cape guys who run 2-21/2 hours to get there (makes that van ride look pretty good me thinks). The Tuna are running 15-65 pounds with a fairly bell curve like distribution within that range.

Yellowtail are coming from underneath the Tuna (3/4- 1 ounce rubber cores are the trick) as well as some nice Cabrilla. Jurel (yellowtail) are also coming from the front of the Punta Arena lighthouse, El Castillo, primarily in the afternoon. Pargo, Amberjack, and Cabrilla are still at Roca Traversada off the south end of Cerralvo, and have been hitting bait and Rapala's very consistently.

Bait remains in very good supply, in fact, if you check out the new fish pictures on this website, you can see the bait just off the beach behind the fishholding fishermen.

We've started to pick up a few, very few, Dorado in the Tuna school, and the other day I saw a couple of Sailfish there as well. These sightings, along with a warming trend in the daytime temperatures, and a slight change in the direction of the winds in the morning all indicate that we may be starting to move into our summer pattern. It could just be my normal boundless optimism, eh Bert?, but I think that we are on the front edge of summer patterns. I will go out on a limb and say that withing the next 2 weeks our Dorado counts will start to go up, and water will blue appreciably. Check back and find out.

LORETO FISHING REPORTS

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LORETO, MEXICO: ARTURO'S SPORT FISHING, Loreto, June 18, 2001, Arturo Susarrey, Reservations Tel 011-52-113-50766; Fax 011-52-113-50022. Air Temperature 85-90. Water temperature: about 75.

DORADO: At the beginning of this week we found many dorado schools at El Bajo del Medio and Punta Lobos at Carmen Island, but all of them medium size, at the end of the week they can find the big ones schools, but we recommend to catch and release this way you can keep only the big ones and tried to get only the male and give to the female another chance.

Average weight between 20 to 40 lbs.

STRIPER & BLUE MARLIN: East Punta Lobos Carmen island, 20 miles out "El Bajo Punta Lobos" is the best areas for them. We are finding very good size striper marlin.

SAILFISH: The most of them are in same Dorado areas.

SPECIALS: Yesterday in one of the boats Mr. Rick Conway and John Sliva caught the first wahoo with a 63 lbs weight.

BAIT: we recommend buy it for $1.00 usd each this way you do not lose fishing time. But if you want to catch it, there are at Coronado Island lighthouse at 6:00 or 6:30 a.m.

SQUID: outside from Loreto, Morning time 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. approx. weight between 1 to 5 lbs. Sail fish is biting better with squid; we recommend bringing squid jigs. --Best regards, Arturo.

LORETO, MEXICO: EL FUERTE SPORT FISHING, Puerto Escondido, June 13, 2001, Ty Miller, Reservations Tel 714-775-6658; Fax: 714-755-3501; Loreto 011-52-113-30863. Hola Pescadores. Dorado are here and are on the move. Some days we find them off White Cliffs and Punta Perico and other days they have moved back to where they first came in; Isla Coronado. These fish have yet to settle in a particular area due to the water temperatures and color that seems to be unstable. There are plenty of paddies holding outside with some quality 18 to 35 pound Dorado. An occasional bull over 40 pounds sneaks in every once in a while. This is the first time I can remember catching Dorado in 76 to 78 degree water with such a green color. Most of our quality fish this past week were caught off the backside of Isla Carmen just beyond the Deep Bait hole. As soon as the water color and surface temps break, we should be in for a solid season.

Bill fish keep moving into surrounding areas daily and it's pretty much a no-brainer to put the bait on one or two per day. We have only had one Striper come into the plastics so far, though! Bait is steady off Punta Baja around sunrise with mostly green macks being caught. Bait has been on the large size, so take time to do a little culling for the smaller bait. It's worth it! The Dorado and bill fish season is here and hopefully will stay with us throughout the summer as expected, but there is one little secret I must share: We are still catching some huge yellowtail! You might want to pull on a few those boys early in the morning before you do the Dorado and billfish thing!

LORETO, MEXICO: LORETO NOTES FROM CAPTAIN JUANITA RANEY:

*** Still in the local news is the sale of Puerto Escondido. The same group of guys has purportedly paid their deposit and are in the midst of the traditional Baja time frame for the process of completing all the paperwork and settlements on who gets paid what. It is expected to be completed some time this year. We still have not heard exactly what their development plans are but it is pretty much agreed upon around town that it most likely won't be much different than what Fonature had designed so long ago.

*** A new condominium complex is being built on the golf coarse next to the abandoned hotel project and it's going up fast! This one might actually get finished!

*** Loreto is in the middle of a major road repair of a portion of highway 1 from airport to the entrance to town. Right now it's like riding on a washboard road and we all hope they aren't done yet. They better be putting a top coat on it soon or it will soon be just like the detour road we had to drive on around it for a week or so.

*** Tripui RV Park is still in the same progress pattern: slow. The old laundry trailer building next to the office has been moved out in front of the pool in the dirt parking lot and is under reconstruction to turn it into Alma's new office. This is a project that could take a while. Restaurant remodel plans have been put on hold as well. The electric gate is still inoperable and is expected to stay that way until the new office building is complete. There were rumors that the store was going to be shut down, but it seems that has been put on hold as well. The restaurant has new hours again. I guess too many people wanted it open for breakfast, and so be it. They won't be closing for the summer either. They will just be closing for breakfast in September.

*** El Fuerte's new office and tackle store will be open this weekend and we will be looking forward to seeing you there! Still no go on the paperwork for the bait concession, though, unfortunately. We know everyone would be ecstatic to be able to buy bait right now! Hopefully soon.

*** Come see our new shop and try out our new fiberglass sit-on-top kayaks around the beautiful islands here! We can also rent you some snorkel gear to take with you so you can jump in and swim with the mantas or dive under a patty and see the wonderful world of Dorado like never before.

BAJA BIG FISH COMPANY, Loreto, June 14, 2001, Pam Bolles, Reservations Tel/Fax 011-52-113-50448. Come visit our shop!: We're located in front of the "El Pescador" Supermarket and we have lots of T-shirts and tank-tops in stock with our cool logo for only $10! We're also clearing out our conventional tackle, so come on down for a bargain and talk fishin' to me!

We're noticing a rise in the humidity level but the breezes in the afternoons and evenings are making it seem unseasonably cool. Highs are in the high 90s to just past 100 and early morning lows are in the mid 70s. We had a couple of fronts pass through that caused overcast skies during the weekend but we're back to clear skies again. The winds have been prevailing mostly from the south and west. Calm in the mornings then picking up in the afternoons as is typical in summer. Calm morning seas that build to moderate swells when the afternoon winds pick up. Water temperatures are heating up. We're getting readings from 77-81.

The latest from today is that the dorado are feeding off Punta Lobos and the bite turns on at about noon. There are many large fish out there and this is about as good as it gets! Fish are ranging in size from schoolie (12-18 pounds) to very large 50+ pounds. The most popular method conventional anglers use is trolling live bait. Casting spinning lures will be very effective too and is a fun alternative to trolling. Just about the only complaint I'm hearing these days is that the sailfish are competing successfully with the dorado and are becoming a "nuisance".

So, you want sailfish? There are literally as many as you want off San Bruno. They are large pacific sailfish in the 100-130 pound range. You'll hook into them by trolling or fly-lining live bait or trolling feathers (blue/white, pink/white, Mex flag, green/white). Many people hoping for pure dorado fishing are calling the sails a nuisance. I think they're a bunch of whining babies! There's great fishing to be had out there. Marlin are in too but are not getting or staying hooked up as often. They're bigger, more powerful, and generally have a higher I.Q. than the sailfish.

Now there is bait for sale every day right in front of the marina. Expect to pay $1 (U.S.) per mackerel or caballito, or about $15 (U.S.) for enough bait for two persons for a day's fishing. Be sure to get out there early because it is selling out fast.

BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES (L.A. BAY) FISHING REPORTS

ALL ARTICLES, REPORTS AND FISHING INFORMATION FOR BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES

BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES, MEXICO: CAMP GECKO, Bahia de los Angeles, June 20, 2001, Abraham Vazquez, Tel 011-52-515-19454; Fax 011-52-665-03206 (goes to Guillermo's), satellite EMAIL direct to Camp Gecko at L.A. Bay. This week has been a rollercoaster as far as the weather, water and fishing. The weather has been nice then super windy out of the west with temps over the 100s then it got nice, then it got humid, and then we had a little chubasco last night with strong south winds that caused a couple of sailboats, and a 60 ft yacht to drag anchor and end up on the beach sideways in front of the village in the same area as the escalera nautica is supposed to go.

The water temperature has done a 14 degree climb in just one week, it started at 63. The wind blew and the hot water came, and came, an increase of 3 degrees per day it was not long it got up to 77 in the channel, it seems to be getting down a little since today it was 75.

The first few days when the water warmed up the yellows started to get very active, very little short of wide open, then as the water got hotter they disappeared, and now we are invaded by the 2-3 pound yellowtail to the point where they are a nuisance. The others we had, we don't know where they went, hopefully they will reappear soon. There is still a few nicer size yellowtail but not abundant at all.

The Vagabundos yellowtail tournament is turning out to be another difficult one but it still has one more day to go. The groupers are very active, they are in the shallows and sometimes are seen boiling on the baitfish, there was the first sailfish of the season landed two days ago, the bait is very abundant, road is good, gasoline $3.05 per gallon. Picture is of last Saturday.--Abraham

June 21, 2001-- Fishing was wide open today, the water temperature went down from yesterday to 72 and the yellows came back, hot spots where Punta Pescador, and Soldado Reef, yellows are all 15 lb and some nice groupers also. --Abraham

SAN FELIPE FISHING REPORTS

ALL ARTICLES, REPORTS AND FISHING INFORMATION FOR SAN FELIPE

SAN FELIPE, MEXICO: TONY REYES FISHING TOURS, 6-day Midriff Islands trip aboard the panga mothership, Jose Andres, Tony Reyes, Exclusive booking agent, The Longfin, 714-538-8010. Trip #8, ending June 15, 2001. Water temperature 90 degrees. Fish count: 179 cabrillas 20-15 pounds; 153 spotted bass; 136 yellowtail 18-28 pounds; 62 red snapper 10-14 pounds; 7 grouper 35-59 pounds, 5 sheephead 6 pounds; 1 black seabass 40 pounds; 1 broomtail grouper 10 pounds; 2 pinto bass 10-12 pounds; 12 squid 15-35 pounds.

SAN FELIPE, MEXICO: SEA OF CORTEZ SPORTFISHING, 6-day Midriff Islands trip aboard the panga mothership, Celia Angelina, Bob Castellon, Reservations 626-333-9012; Fax 626-336-1966; San Felipe 011-52-657-71778, trip ending June 18, 2001. Sixteen anglers led by Clarence Becker of Upland California found the fishing a bit slow. Lost one full day due to a wind storm at Sierra Prieto. Wide open fishing for cabrilla fishing has slowed down considerably and the yellow tail fishing was strictly scratch. Water temp. continue to rise 77 degrees at Golden reef to a low of 63 degrees at Snake Island. Air temp 90 degree at Enchanted Island to low of 74 degrees at Refujio Bay. Once again bait was difficult to make! The best day of fishing was at the Golden Reef. Unfortunately the reef is loaded with Totuaba, we release 10 to 14 Totuabas 62 to 100 Lbs. Bob said he was very pleased to see one of the other party boats releasing and puncturing air bladders before releasing. Fish count was: 1 Grouper released too, 91 cabrilla, 56 yellowtail, 1 white seabass, 1 pinto bass, 171 spotted bay bass and lots of miscellaneous.

Cell phone report from the bridge of the Celia Angelina, anchored at San Francisquito, June 20, 2001: Wide open fishing today. 130 yellowtail caught, one-half of them over 30 pounds, largest 38 pounds. Weather is excellent. Water temperature 73.1 degrees. Air temperature 84. No wind. Over 90% of yellowtail hit on MirrOlure MR111s. Very few on iron. They refused to hit live bait today. So go figure that. Anyway, we are heading north now, and we will be fishing at the Golden Reef tomorrow on the way back to San Felipe. This has been a great trip. Best colors on the MirrOlures were purple, black, and some pink.

SAN FELIPE, MEXICO: BAJA SPORTFISHING, INC., 6-day Midriff Islands trip aboard the panga mothership, Erik, Gustavo Velez, Reservations Tel 619-523-1822, 800-770-2341; Fax 619-523-9896, Trip ending June 15 (Reported by Gordon Byrne). On a trip with John Latamo as charter master, we fished mainly at Refugio and the Golden Reef, finding excellent fishing. All colors of MirrOlures were working well, also chrome or green-yellow iron. Water temperature 73-75 and air temperature between 90 and 100 degrees. The Erik has a new chef, and we all enjoyed the Poncho's excellent cuisine. The fish count for this trip: 267 yellowtail 20-45 pounds; 45 pargo to 15 pounds; 210 cabrilla; 197 miscellaneous. Lots of wind the last two days.

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A beautiful pompano caught off San Jose del Cabo last week. The angler is Jeremy Knox ( 8 years old ) who was out with his father and skipper Marcelino when he caught this 20-pound fish of a lifetime on a live mullet near the La Salina shipwreck. Full report from Gordo Banks Pangas in the Los Cabos Section, below.

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Yeeeah! Gordo Banks Pangas client, Monty Knox,from Camarillo caught this 35 pound yellowfin tuna while trolling a live mackerel over the Gordo Banks.

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More action this week with reliable Gordo Banks Pangas: These happy anglers (above) were fishing with skipper Tony ( on right ) when they encountered this 35 pound dorado. And below, Greg Young from the Santa Monica area was visiting Los Cabos for some surfing and fishing, he will not soon forget this monster 45 pound dorado that he caught with skipper Jesus.

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OOPS! DEPT.-- Sunday's East wind caused this shore break by mid-day at East Cape's Hotel Palmas de Cortez. Monday morning's dock departure was much more calm (below). Photos courtesy East Cape Smokehouse.

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Here's Jonathan Roldan clients, Jim Hirotsu of Diamond Bar, and Craig and Keith Tsuchiyama of Rosemead Ca with yellowtail from the bite we had off the Arenas lighthouse the first 2 weeks of June. Craig, being a sushi chef knew what to do with these hamachi!

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Hey! What's that next to the dorado? Arturo's Sport Fishing scores the year's first wahoo for Loreto last week, a 63 pounder.

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L.A. Bay broke wide open on yellowtail this week. Here's a 38-pounder caught out of Camp Gecko.

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Another catch out of L.A. Bay's Camp Gecko. Large yellowtail are now moving north through Canal Salsipuedes.

BAJA MEXICO FISHING REPORT ARCHIVES AND FISH PICTURES

Albacore andsummer mixed species for Ensenada fishing boats

Mexico Fishing News, June 20, 2001

ENSENADA FISHING REPORTS

In other mainland Mexico and Baja fishing action this week:

MAGDALENA BAY FISHING REPORTS

CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORTS

SAN JOSE DEL CABO (LOS CABOS) FISHING REPORTS

EAST CAPE FISHING REPORTS

LA PAZ FISHING REPORTS

LORETO FISHING REPORTS

BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES (L.A. BAY) FISHING REPORTS

SAN FELIPE FISHING REPORTS