YELLOWTAIL STILL BITING RELIABLY FOR LOCAL SPORTFISHING BOATS

April 22, 2005, Rick Barber, Mulege, Mexico Fishing Report:

This has been quite a week here in the Mulege fishing area. Contrary to the negative vibes I expressed last week, the yellowtail are still here, in good numbers and readily biting on just about anything thrown, dragged or dipped their way!

Last Friday John Haberman of Mulege was dunking live bait off Punta Chivato and boated four beautiful yellowtail for his efforts.

Also on Friday, Marty Robinson took a couple of visitors from Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Outlook, Wash., out to introduce them to Baja fishing. Both of these ladies are very experienced at fishing on the Rogue River in Oregon and near Willow, Alaska. They are both currently single and are on a trip looking for fishing adventures. Marty is a retired guide from that area and "just had" to show them around Mulege, with Suzie's permission, of course.

On Friday, they were dragging MirrOlures off Punta Chivato when Linda North nailed a 38-pound grouper and Lisa Ann Martinez boated a 34-pound yellowtail. Nice intro to Mulege fishing!

On Saturday, they went south and put some grouper and pargo in the ice chest.

The following day, Sunday, the trio went to Punta Chivato again and boated three yellowtail which included a double hookup. All three fish weighed in at about 35 pounds. They also caught a small gray shark. Hey ladies, whatcha think of Baja fishing now?

On Saturday, Rod Stewart and Bill Butler put nine nice yellowtail in the box, and Jim and Melinda Galvin boated two 'tails, and these are just the ones I've heard about!

On Monday, Mulege sportfishing action continued with my good buddy Dustino nailing four yellowtail that weighed 38, 30, 27 and 18 pounds.

John Dinning and Tom & Patti Higgenbotham also got into the fishing action. On Sunday, they took their boats on a 2-day fishing/camping trip to Punta Chivato. The first day out, John boated two 'tails that weighed 30 and 25 pounds, while Tom and Patti got one that weighed 38 pounds. On Monday, Tom and Patti were trolling MirrOlures off Punta Chivato and boated a couple more, both in the 35 pound range and John boated another 'tail! Tom mentioned that all of the action occurred during the first hour after sunrise and that those who bypassed making bait and went straight to lures got most of the fish.

Ed "Too Tall" Jarecki and "KC" Campbell went south from Mulege and got their share on Monday also with 3 yellowtail and a few grouper for their efforts.

On Sunday, Don Kemp went about 25 miles south of Punta Concepcion to Punta Santa Theresa and boated five nice leopard groupers. The largest weighed in at 18 pounds and is Don's largest to date.

On Tuesday, Hank Tussy took Wayne Morrison and Bill Butler out to Isla Santa Inez and Bill caught four fish including an 18 pound leopard grouper.

On Thursday, Dustino headed back to his now-favorite spot to harass the yellowtail again and pulled three beauties out, all at about 35 pound. I heard on the radio that John Dinning also scored well but I didn't get the details.

Friday, Mulege supposed to be clear, hot with flat water, but it turned out to be cloudy with a little rain, quite cool and, while relatively flat, but there were 1-foot swells that were spaced just right to pound the hell out of your boat if you opened it up. As a result, the trip up north to the Punta Chivato killing fields took a bit longer than normal. My father-in-law, who was fishing for triggerfish north of Mulege said that the bait hole at Punta Prieta looked like a parking lot. Don't know if the water temperatures had anything to do with how the catch turned out but I was reading 64-something all day until I moved down near Punta Concepcion where I got a 66.4 reading.

Tom and Patti Higgenbotham, John Dinning and a host of others had mixed luck. John boated a couple of 'tails as did Tom, but Patti tangled with some possible sharks and she lost her favorite pink MirrOlure.

I skunked for grouper while fishing at Santa Inez, again. I have a theory about that. Remember the "tube-shaped" device you could buy to put on your front bumper that emitted an ultrasonic "whistle" to keep deer from jumping out in front of your car while you were driving in the mountains? I think someone made one for fish. Gotta check the bottom of my boat!

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Mulege and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Mulege may be found at Mexfish.com's main Mulege page.