YELLOWTAIL BITING IN SOME WINDY CONDITIONS

Dec. 18, 2005, Rick Barber, Mulege, Mexico Sportfishing Report:

Mulege fishing water temperatures have been running in the mid to low 70's and the air has been in the upper 70's to just over 80 on one day. Seas, unfortunately have been running 1-2 feet at BEST and 3-5 feet on worser (that's a meteorological term) days.

The yellowtail are definitely here.

Marty Robison, Jim Keller and I tried to go out to Isla Santa Inez on Monday but we got blown off the water.

One guy did brave the winds but chose to fish Hornitos Point across the mouth of Bahia Concepcion. He was trolling small broken-back Rebels and took home an ice chest full of small yellowtail in the 5-8 pound class.

Now I'm here to tell you not to scoff at these smaller yellowtail. My wife, Lucia, has me leave them whole and then she puts some salt and pepper in the cavity. She then stuffs it with "dipping salsa"--the veggie kind you dip out with chips, not the juicy kind--wraps them in aluminum foil with a little butter and garlic, some slashes in the skin and either barbecues them or bakes them in the oven. I am here to tell you that these little critters are DEE-licious! So much for Monday.

Now Tuesday, since it was Lucia's birthday, I stayed home like a good husband. Marty, Jim and Dudley Young, in my place, went to Santa Inez and spotted some birds. Jim and Dudley put in some MirrOlures and Marty managed to find them some fish. They boated three yellowtail of 18, 28 and 33 pounds, and for good measure, a 16 pound cabrilla.

Jim caught the big yellowtail and Marty said it was near impossible to wipe the grin off Jim's face!

Somewhere near Marty, my old buddy Dustino was out in his boat with Dave Welborn and they also ran into some yellowtail and cabrilla. Dustin said "something" hammered one of his poles and, whatever it was, took all of 20 seconds or so to spool him! Dustin is guessing that it was a big wahoo. Probably a pretty good guess.

Wednesday was a bit lumpy at Mulege, but a couple of the local fishing guides managed to get their clients some very nice sized yellowtail in the upper 30 pound class.

There are plenty of them out there according to Mulege guides Mateo and Alejandro. At this time of the year, they can be boated using either live bait or lures, preferably MirrOlures.

I've gotten reports of some of the guys scoring on the smaller yellowtail in a lot of Mulege fishing locations. Some of the hot spots include off Hornitos light, off the Gallitos (across the mouth of the Bay from Hornitos), just in front of the Mulege lighthouse (saves gas), off Punta Prieta (ditto on the gas) and just about anywhere around Isla Santa Inez with the south end being especially hot right now.

I haven't gotten any Mulege sportfishing reports from outside Pt. Concepcion so you're on your own there.

Manuel Diaz Jr., my fishing partner, reports that sierra are plentiful right now. To prove it, both he and my father-in-law came in with a gaggle of sierra, probably 30 or 40 between them.

Dad caught them, and some barracuda, in front of the Mulege lighthouse while Manuel got his off Hornitos light.

Another buddy also reported that sierra can be had off the southwest corner of Santa Inez, as usual. The ones at Santa Inez are running just a little larger than those closer to Mulege but the ones Dad and Manuel brought in were 20-24 inches long.

So, the bottom line is, when Mulege water is flat and the wind ain't blowin', get out. The fish are there and are biting. Sea ya out there!

(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.