REEF FISHING 40 MILES SOUTH OF ROCKY POINT

June 6, 2006, Ollie Peltier, Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco), Mexico, fishing 40 miles out:

Fishing on June 2, 2006, at approximately 9 a.m. I launched my boat from the main harbor in Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point). I was accompanied by my son, Tim Peltier, and my brother-in Law, Bob Shaw, both of Phoenix.

The seas at Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) were calm and the water temperature was around 78 degrees.

Since neither Tim nor Bob get to come to Puerto Penasco very often I decided to go to one of my favorite fishing spots which is approximately 40 miles out at a heading of 192 degrees. This particular fishing spot generally seems to produce large Gold-Spotted Sand Bass, Red Snapper, Leopard Grouper, Pinto Bass, and an occasional Gulf Grouper. Occasionally Sheepshead and Black Sea Bass can also be found.

We arrived at the reef at approximately 10:45 a.m. and had the area to ourselves. The tide change was at noon, going from outgoing to incoming.

For bait, we had some Bonito which I had caught and frozen a week prior and the ole standby, Squid. The water depth was approximately 265 feet.

With the calm seas and minimal tides, anchoring was not necessary for fishing. We baited up with Bonito and Squid and began our drift. Almost immediately we began to catch the Gold-Spotted Sand Bass. With the Bonito down, the fish didn't even look at the Squid. Most of the Bass were in the four to five pound range. Several larger ones were caught and they weighed eight and nine pounds respectively.

Just past the tide change something slammed my son's line and he boated a nice 20 pound Sardinera or Leopard Grouper. Approximately five minutes later I reciprocated with a nice 18 pound Sardinera.

We continued making our drifts, and suddenly Bob's rod tip bent. Bob being the character that he is, said, "I want a Flounder." After a short fight I got a look at Bob's fish and was surprised to see that it was in fact, a nice Halibut. It tipped our scales at 16 pounds. A lot of "high fiving" went on.

A short time later, Bob was dropping his line, when it suddenly went slack, after only going down 50 to 60 feet. Bob took up the slack and felt something fighting on the other end. A few minutes later I grabbed the gaff and when I looked down into the water, I saw that he had hooked a pretty large Squid.

Bob got the Squid to the side of the boat, waiting for me to gaff it. As he looked over the side of the boat to see his Squid, the Squid inked Bob square in his face and chest. When Tim and I looked at Bob we began laughing so hard that I had to catch my breath before I could gaff his prize. The Squid weighed in at 15 pounds.

In all, we boated 30 Goldspotted Bass, 2 Sardinera, 1 Halibut and 1 Squid. At approximately 2 p.m. we headed back to port at Rocky Point, laughing most of the way over Bob's experience. Again, the fish and weather gods had smiled on us and provided us with a wonderful day on the 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.