NEWLY RECOMMISSIONED PANGA MOTHERSHIP TONY REYES FISHING TRIP

July 4, 2004, Jack Simpson, Fishing on the Panga Mothership Tony Reyes, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico:

Just got back from June 27 - July 2 trip on the new Tony Reyes ship. The ship has new pangas with newer yamaha 50 engines. Just for this trip new padded swivel seats were installed. The boats also now have fish finders, GPS, radios and seperate compartments for drinks, bait and fish-hold. We fished farther south on the first day than we ever have before. The weather for the entire trip was clear, calm, and warm. Air temp - mid 90's, water temp - mid 70's.

There were more squid than I have ever seen, we caught 127 in one night! We couldn't catch live-bait because of the squid and possibly because of the full moon. The fish my son and I caught were: red snapper (pargo), sheep's head, yellowtail, whitefish, squid, creolefish, big-mouth bastard, gold-spotted bass (pinto bass), barracuda, cabrilla, spotted bay-bass, yellowfin croaker, finescale triggerfish, and a new one. The fish is called popeye catalufa, as identified in "Sea of Cortez Marine Animals" by: Daniel W. Gotshall. I have a picture of the fish, but we are waiting for the film to be developed. The popeye catalufa was caught on chrome/blue jig, salice 6x, and cut, dead squid in appr. 200 ft. of water.

The total fish count was given to me by Tony Reyes Jr. on the last day of the trip. 265 yellowtail, 125 cabrilla, 235 pinto bass, 18 pargo, 135 squid, 15 broomtail grouper, 4 white sea-bass (one weighed 44 pounds!), plus many miscellaneus fish.

The fishing has changed from 4 years ago in the Midriff area. Hardly any cabrilla around shore lines, fewer/smaller cabrilla were caught. Way too many squid, they were visible at night as well as day. We can't catch any bait at night because of the squid. There are still lots of yellowtail, tough as ever. We saw more seals than I can ever remember, with lots of pups. We have seen ravens, vultures, cormorants, frigate birds, terns, brown boobies/blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, gulls, and a strange, unkown, small, black bird that skimmed the water.

There were many commercial fishing operations. Two divers with two helpers at San Lorenzo. At Asamblea, on the peninsula, there were six gill-netters working not more than 40 ft. of the shoreline. And gill-nets set at Punta Final. All in all, it was a great trip, Tony Reyes runs a great ship with just a few bugs to be worked out.

July 2, 2004, San Felipe panga mothership report, Tony Reyes:

The San Clemente Garage Door Charter enjoyed a great week of fishing with very mild weather with mild breezes making daytime comfortable. Very good yellowtail fishing with 265 total for the week. They took jigs readily which was fortunate as bait was difficult to get due to calamare at San Francisquito. Cabrilla of good size (125) and spotted bass (235) were plentiful. Fifteen broomtail grouper and four white seabass were caught to 43 pounds. A few dorado were seen,, but none caught. We are looking forward to our Aug. 29 trip when the dorado should be happening. The new pangas and motors (Yamaha 50 hp 4-stroke are smooth and quiet). Capt Tony Reyes Jr. and crew were outstanding. Great Service. Food and boat was spotless. They are taking great in the new boat.

July 2, 2004, San Felipe panga mothership report, Tony Reyes:

This trip we started at Snake Island. Fishing was slow in the morning, but in the afternoon was a lot better at Raza Island trolling with MirrOlures and jigs. Next morning we were fishing at San Lorezo Island where we found yellowtail up to 25 pounds. This trip was hard to make bait because of the giant squid was so thick in San Francisquito Bay. We came back to Raza Island having a great fishing again, then we moved to Smith Island in the Afternoon. Fishing was slow. We tried to make bait at La Gringa Point. Was hard because of the full moon. Fishing the coast area the next morning. Last day we caught lots of bait at Gonzaga Bay. Fishing at Enchanted Islands, Friday Morning. We had great weather all week.

(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.