GOLDSPOTTED BASS AND MIXED BAG FOR SPORTFISHING BOAT MURPHY GIRL

May 5, 2005, Shawn Gustafson, Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco), Mexico Fishing Trip Report:

My wife and I spent Wednesday through Sunday in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) last week with friends and family from Minnesota and California, including Chuck Gustafson, Burnsville, MN, Tim Korby, Brooklyn Park, MN and Gary Elfering, Golden Valley, MN.

On three of the days, we went fishing out of Rocky Point on my 24 foot Wellcraft "Murphy Girl".

Fishing on Thursday, four of us headed out of Rocky Point early to catch some bait to fish with at the 51 mile reef. We had a difficult time finding anything besides spotted bay bass, sand perch, grunts and a Panama Graysby after trying for a couple hours. We didn't see any fish or birds working the surface. The ocean had large 6 to 8 foot swells from strong winds the day before, but the wind wasn't blowing very hard...yet. We started heading south to the reef at about 20 m.p.h. due to the swells. At about 25 miles from shore, the wind and swells seemed to be calming down. However, by the time we were 2 miles from the reef, the wind had picked up significantly and the swells were really growing. We managed to make it the last two miles at a max speed of 10 mph, as we all joked about the movie "The Perfect Storm". We dropped anchor at about 12:30 p.m. and immediately started getting bites on cut fish. The boat was getting thrown around pretty hard, so it was hard to set the hook, let alone stay in our seats. We fished for about 3 hours and caught two 17-pound white sea bass and seven goldspotted bass to 6 pounds. As we decided to leave for Rocky Point, the wind was blowing hard, with whitecaps and 8 to 10 foot swells.

Fishing on Friday, the four of us headed out of Rocky Point early again and had no problems making bait. We caught plenty of sierra mackerel, Pacific mackerel, and sardines, and headed out to the 53 mile reef well before noon in flat seas with a water temperature of 74 degrees. Both days we saw lots of finback whales about 40 to 50 miles from shore and stopped to take photos. While fishing in 400 feet of water for only a couple hours, we caught about 30 goldspotted bass bass to 8 pounds, about 10 ocean whitefish to 6 pounds, three gulf coneys to 10 pounds, six red scorpionfish, one moray eel, one beautiful damsel bass, and a 25-pound white sea bass, all on cut fish. We had many triple and quadruple hookups. One time while fishing with two-hook rigs, the four of us reeled in seven fish at the same time! We had two sea lions hanging out by the boat that would bite and hold onto the tails of a few of our fish as we reeled them in, making for some unexpected excitement. It was a wonderful day on the water. We headed back to Rocky Point at about 3 pm.

On Saturday, we took out one group on the morning and another in the afternoon for fishing some of the nearby Rocky Point reefs in great weather. We caught lots of fish, but nothing big. The fish included sierra mackerel, Pacific mackerel, lizardfish, spotted bay bass, triggerfish, barred serrano, spotted rose snapper, and sand perch.

On Sunday, my buddy Tim got stung by a stingray on the beach in front of Las Conchas and we learned the hard way (ouch!) that the best remedy is to soak in hot water with unseasoned Adolph's meat tenderizer.

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