HEAVY DORADO ACTION OFF PUNTA CHIVATO DURING FAMILY CAMPING TRIP

July 30, 2006, Steve Whiteside, Family camping and fishing trip to Punta Chivato:

Three generations of the Whiteside family fished at Punta Chivato south of Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico on July 23-25, 2006, out of a 14 foot Zodiac.

Don Whiteside, age 71, Steve Whiteside, age 44, and David Whiteside, age 12, caught and released many dorado on a heading towards Tortuga Island and about 6-8 miles from camp.

The fishing water temperature was in the low 80's and the color was fairly clean.

We had the best luck catching fish when trolling Mexican flag colored Zuckers at around 9 m.p.h.

The weather at Punta Chivato was influenced by a southern hurricane and the weather became increasingly windy, cloudy, and finally, rainy.

On July 26th, the family finally rolled over on the weather and headed to Bahia de los Angeles for another 4 days of fishing.

The campground at Punta Chivato was in good shape, as was the graded dirt road in from Mex 1. The little store at the hotel was closed although the hotel was open, with 4 guests total.

Our total catch for at Punta Chivato was 9 dorado, 2 sierra, 1 golden leopard grouper of 16 inches, and a handful of bay bass.

There was a group of guys down the beach from us at Punta Chivato. They had 2 boats and maybe 6 guys. They fished one day for 8 hours and reported to me that they had caught 90 Dorado. This was the day before the storm blew in.

We fished at Bahia de los Angeles for 2 days without too much of note. We primarily fished Smith Island, at the north point, jigging with iron and trolling Rapalas for 2 Barries and one 3 pound yellowtail. We had better luck trolling along the shore of Baja north of Smith Island. We caught 10 triggerfish, 5 Barries, and 5 bass.

We caught and released everything and fished for no more than 3 hours per day.

(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.