VERY WARM LOCAL SPORTFISHING WATERS HOLDING AT 88 DEGREES

Oct. 1, 2005, Rick Barber, Mulege, Mexico Fishing Report:

Mulege fishing water temperatures are at 88 degrees outside and 85 degrees inside. The water at Mulege was deep clear blue this week, with fish easily visible 30 feet down. Mulege weather was calm, clear and hot after 1 p.m. We had 97-103 degree weather all week. The water was just about like glass all week, from sunup until early afternoon when the winds kicked it up a bit.

Yellowfin Tuna! That's been the war cry around the Mulegé fishing area lately. The yellowfin tuna are here in great numbers and are easy to find because they are tending to run with the dolphins.

Don Hieter, fishing out of Mulege with his brother Harold aboard John Haberman's boat, boated a 40 pounder on Monday. Don said the fish took a 6-inch green and black Rapala lure. Normally John trolls feathers but they had gone a way out and were conserving gasoline by trolling slowly. Seems like these fish will hit anything when they're on the bite. One of our Mulege locals said he has been having good luck while fishing on a plain cedar plug! Now where did I hide mine?

The day before, on Sunday, Jim Galvin, John Dinning and Tom Higginbotham found some good fishing about 5-7 miles off Punta Concepción. They boated and released a striped marlin in the 125-150 pound class, a sailfish they said went over 125 pounds, and, for the table, John Dinning caught a nice dorado on a cedar plug.

A couple of the local Mulege sportfishing guides went out Tuesday with the usual results. A boatload of fish, yellowfin tuna and dorado, for their customers. Everyone seems to be hanging around in the same places these days. Most of the fish are being caught off the slide or just north of it.

The best fishing directions are to leave Mulegé and head for Punta Concepción. Pass the point close and go another 4-6 miles and drop your lures in. Pretty simple.

Andy Sidler went out fishing in John Haberman's boat on Wednesday and managed to pull in a nice dorado in that location. He and John were trolling feathers and John said that conditions were just about perfect. They were looking for the yellowfin tuna, but they weren't to be found that day.

Mateo, one of our local guides, took 3 clients out on Friday and picked up 5 dorado to 28 pounds, 3 sailfish, and one blue tuna. Not a bad day! Mateo said that the guys were thrilled with their day of fishing at Mulege.

I also talked to Manuel Dias Jr. who mentioned that he saw three very big dorado chasing bait off the sand dunes just south of Mulege and in front of the microwave tower just inside the Bay of Concepción. That's a bit off the beaten track for them, but with dorado, you'll never know where you'll find them from day to day.

I don't expect much fishing around Mulege this weekend or the first part of next week, as Hurricane Otis is bearing down on us. Just in time, too, as I took "Barquito" up to Bill at San Lucas Cove to get the carburetors cleaned out. Guess they got a bit of bad gas and not enough use recently. I know how to fix the later problem and I'm working on the former. I should be back on the water just as soon as it calms down after the blow we're going to have.

(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.