FISHING REPORT FOR JJ'S CANTINA TOURNAMENT

June 16-17, 2006, Ollie Peltier, JJ's Cantina fishing tournament report for Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico:

This weekend Rocky Point had Phase II of the JJ'S Cantina Angler of the year fishing tournament.

Fishing started Friday morning. Boats with fish must be in by 6 p.m. on Friday, June 16th and Saturday, June 17th, in order for their fish to qualify for points.

Points are awarded for each species of fish caught, with 10 points awarded for the largest down to 2 points for 5th place in the species.

Awards are given during each phase of the 3 phase tournament.

Points are accumulated for all 3 phases with awards and prizes being given at the end of phase III which is in October.

Fourteen boats entered this phase at Rocky Point, with numerous fish being caught. There were 5 grouper, 33-52 pounds, 10 sardinera or leopard grouper, 12-17 pounds, 3 pinto bass, 9-18 pounds, numerous "calicos" or Gold Spotted Sand Bass in the 3-5 pound class, 2 halibut, 9 and 29 pounds, 2 seatrout 4-5 pounds, 1 skipjack, and trigger fish, 4-6 pounds.

Most of the grouper were caught at what Rocky Point locals call the "22 mile reef" where the water is approximately 85 to 135 feet deep.

Because of unforeseen circumstances I was unable to get out on Friday.

On Saturday I captained a boat for Joe Anacleto, the owner of JJ'S Cantina. Joe doesn't fish the tournament since he is the sponsor. On board was Bill Cox who was in 3rd place after Phase I, Larry "Bubba" Rice, Tom Peltier my son, and me, Ollie "Opa" Peltier.

We were not able to launch until around 10:30 a.m., but that was okay because it was outgoing tide until around 12:30 p.m. and fishing here at Rocky Point typically isn't very good on the outgoing tide.

My plan was to run about 44 miles at a heading of 174 degrees to one of my favorite spots. As we left Cholla Bay and cleared the point, the water was clearly white capping with a 2 foot chop out of the direction I wanted to go. I was piloting a 30-foot Proline powered by twin 250 h.p. Yamahas, but after 15 miles of rough road I altered my course a few degrees to about 194 and headed toward what we call the Bruha, or Witch's Hat. This reef is shaped like a witch's hat being 210 feet on top and 330 feet at the base.

On the way to the reef I decided to troll with hopes of picking up a Skipjack or Dorado. I figured that maybe we could pick up some valuable first place points since most of the fisherman would be more interested in catching the "bigger grouper."

After 5 to 10 minutes of trolling, a fish slammed one of our feathers and Bill Cox brought a nice Skipjack to the boat. We trolled for another 30 minutes but we couldn't find any more suicidal fish.

We continued to the Bruha and when we got there, another boat had already arrived. The top of the reef is so small that there is only room for one boat to anchor, so we were forced to anchor down the side of the reef. We immediately began catching nice Calicos, catching 20 in all. The largest was 4.3 pounds. We also caught 2 nice seatrout.

Since the water was still a little rough, at 3:30 p.m. we decided to drag anchor and head in to Rocky Point for the fish weigh-in. I wanted to make sure that we got Bill's Skipjack back in time because I was sure that it was worth first place points.

We arrived back at the Rocky Point weigh-in at 5:30 p.m. and found that no one else had caught a Skipjack or Seatrout, so we were able to pick up some valuable points.

Boats were able to go out fishing today, Sunday, until noon but because of it being outgoing tide I didn't feel it was worth the effort. All in all it was a good tournament and the $10 entry fee per person benefits the community through the JJ'S Santa Claus Club where gifts are given to the under privileged here in Puerto Penasco.

(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.