BAIT SUPPLY SCRATCHY DURING MIDRIFF ISLANDS FISHING TRIP

June 12, 2004, Raymond Yu, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico panga mothership fishing:

A group of 19 anglers boarded the panga mothership, Tony Reyes, on May 30, 2004. The group left San Felipe on Saturday and returned on Friday, June 4, with the following fish count: 199 yellowtail 10 to 29 lbs, 156 cabrilla up to 9 lbs, 51 pargo up to 6 lbs, 3 white seabass up to 10 lbs,4 broomtail up to 6 lbs, 23 sheephead up to 8 lbs, 1 grouper 25 lbs, 2 black sea bass 50 to 70 lbs, limit spotted bass and limit squid.

The group did quite well while fishing with no bait at all. Somehow live baits did not show up at all. Squids were used for deep water fishing. The rest of the fish were caught on casting jigs and trolling the magic MirrOlures.

The panga mothership was very comfortable with all air-conditioned rooms. Food was great. Service of the crew was excellent. We really appreciated the crew cleaning and brushing every single rod and reel at the end of the trip. The mothership just purchased a new vacuum packing machine. The fish were well packed and preserved. Overall, the trip was excellent.

The weather was quite comfortable in the Midriff. The mercury did hit over 85 degrees at noon, but most of the time it was quite nice. We did not notice the water temperature because we were not targeting tuna.

We basically fished the Midriff Islands. We did get a few baits the first night, only a few. We tried to make bait every night but we did not get a single one. Occasionally, we got a few squid, but not much. We did buy 60 pounds of frozen squid from L.A. and we used them plus the squid (not big giant squid we used to catch in Midriff last year). We jigged for bottom fishing. It was full moon when we were there. It might be a reason for lousy bait making.

Anglers in the group were: Toke Aw, Brandon Chin, Harlan Chin, Shu-Hui Lin, Tony Choi, Johnston Chu, Henry Kao, Stephen Kuo, Peter Leung, Herbert Lo, Allen Lo, Philip Moy, Richard Shyu, Jack Wax, Charn Wong, Bill Wong, Chuan-Fu Wu, Gary Wu, and Raymond Yu.

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