LOTS OF SCHOOL-SIZED DORADO CAUGHT BY SPORTFISHING BOAT CONSTANCIA

Aug. 5-6, 2005, Stuart Burnett, Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco), Mexico Fishing Trip Report:

We fished out of Rocky Point both Friday and Saturday, launching my boat the Constancia out of the main harbor both days.

Rocky Point fishing water was flat and calm, with light afternoon breezes both days, and water temperatures about 88-89 degrees.

On Friday, we headed 35 miles due south of Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) to a spot where I've noted current breaks in the past. We put out a four-line trolling spread of smaller lures that I built, two in sardine pattern and two Mexican Flag.

The fishing water was absolutely gorgeous, deep blue and crystal clear. We were seeing lots of pieces of sargasso, but kept looking for areas with bigger paddies and where the current breaks had formed weed lines. Finally, we found the mother lode, an area of very scummy water with lots of big sargasso paddies, extending for about a mile or so.

We trolled through this area and immediately started catching dorado, small schoolie dorado, but lots of them. The whole school would come right up to the boat when you hooked one up. We only kept a couple for dinner and released the rest. We did have a couple of larger ones in the 10 pound range hit, but we decided catch and release was more fun.

This area was also crowded with juvenile yellowtail, and they weren't shy either. We must have caught and released 20 of these guys. They were small, about 3-5 pounds, but plenty feisty and they were jumping all over the lures, certainly a beautiful fish in their own right, with bright yellow fins and steel blue bodies.

Surprisingly enough, there were no skipjack. In past years of fishing out of Rocky Point, we could always count on skipjack being part of this mix in the sargasso areas, but didn't see any the whole trip. The same was true in San Carlos fishing earlier this summer; no black skipjack around there, either.

We never saw any billfish. We looked for them, but didn't see any.

For Saturday's fishing, we decided to go with the same game plan and headed back to the general area and started trolling. I suspect the storm, rain both nights we were there and a good rain on Friday night, blew the weed lines apart because the best we could find was scattered pieces of sargasso. The water still looked perfect, though. We trolled for several hours, changing direction and occasionally pulling up the lines and running a few miles looking for good water, but never found another outstanding weed line.

We discovered a new reef and will have to give it a serious try when the weather is cooler. It's about 33 miles south of Rocky Point, and has a nice drop off from 238 feet on top to about 247 feet on the deep side.

We saw something floating in the water and went to check it out. It was an old bleach jug with line, a marker buoy that had been there for awhile, because the line had all kinds of sea growth on it. I slowed down and started reading the bottom in the area and sure enough, there was a real nice ledge. We did a couple of drops on it with squid, big pieces from Humboldt squid we caught in May, for bait. My wife had a couple of bumps and then got sliced off on 250 pound mono leader with the 8/0 hook cut cleanly off. Had to be a shark.

This will be a great fishing place to try when the weather cools off. After a couple of drops, we went back to trolling because it was too hot to sit there in the sun with no breeze. Also, it's easy to swing by here on the way to the 51 and a little bit shallower.

After a few hours of blue water trolling, we pulled lines and ran in towards the island to try for some sierra. We made a few passes with Yozuris and Rapalas around the widow makers and along the outside of the island, but there were no takers. Lots of birds were working bait, but we had no strikes.

After a bit, we pulled around the backside of the island, dropped anchor, and my son and I snorkeled with the sea lions. This is contrary to my normal policy of not going into the water near the island because of a great white shark we hooked there once, but I let it go and we had quite an enjoyable time. The young sea lions are total clowns and have no hesitation in swimming near you and checking you out. Had one big bull swim close by me and that was a little intimidating at first. Overall, the visibility is fairly poor and there's not much in the way of sea life to see there.

All in all, another wonderful weekend on the beautiful Sea of Cortez!

(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.