YELLOWTAIL FISHING IS HOT AT PUNTA CHIVATO

May 1, 2005, Rick Barber, Mulege, Mexico, Fishing Report:

The yellowtail season continued to run red hot this week in the Mulege fishing area. Last weekend, Mulege had great weather, 68 degree water, and fish trying to jump in the boats. All the local guides were scoring with both live bait and trolling. Most of the yellowtail are running in the high 20's to high 30's and the "cabrilla," mostly leopard grouper, were running in the low teens on average! My neighbor, who made his final trip to Punta Santa Theresa before he had to return to Gringolandia, returned with eight grouper to 17 lbs. That's a long trip to get fish but that is relatively virgin territory and the fish bite readily.

The Mulege fishing boats that went out to Punta Chivato rocks on Monday came back with ice chests loaded with big yellowtail. Those fishing live bait scored in 175-250 feet of water north of the light while the trollers just followed the birds. Most of the fish were taken from one to two miles north or northeast of the Mulege light. Dustino was out harassing the fish again and boated some humongus fish early this week.

Fishing at Mulege was a bit slow on Tuesday but there weren't too many boats out either. I guess everyone was resting up from the weekend action.

On Wednesday, Wayne Morrison and Dr. Dale Behymer ran into the birds working a school of porpoise north of Punta Chivato light. They trolled the area for a couple of hours and were rewarded with three yellowtail that weighed 26, 33 and 38 pounds. Additionally, they caught eight leopard grouper that tipped the scales at 7 to 13 pounds.

Marty Robison, "KC" Campbell, Bill Butler, Jim Galvin, and Rod Scott went fishing out of Mulege on Tuesday and/or Wednesday and everyone scored on the big 'tails. Most of the guys were trolling and "following the birds". Marty and "KC" concentrated on cabrilla most of the time but they managed to boat a 'tail or two this week also.

The winds picked up on Friday in the Mulege sportfishing area, and most of those that did try to get out came back in almost immediately, many soaked! The one main exception was Alex Buckovecz, one of our fine local Mulege fishing guides, who took his clients 3-4 miles "more or less" north of Isla Santa Inez and got THREE DORADO! Yes folks. These are the first dorado of the season. Alex said the water was a bit raggedy but they stayed out to bring in the fish. Alex said they were small, 10 to 13 lbs., but that's good eating size as far as I'm concerned.

Saturday's water conditions are forecast to be quite rough at Mulege, so it looks like Sunday is going to be the day to go out after the dorado and yellowtail this weekend.

(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.