Well what can I say except that we have been having a seriously WIDE OPEN Yellowtail bite off the Northern portion of Isla Carmen. For the most part my boats have been focusing on this bite so you'll have to excuse me if my tunnel vision doesn't report the other areas that we fish as well.
The Yellowtail started to spawn (as we predicted as early as in January) right around the full moon phase in April. I received stories of awe such as the one that our veteran angler Verda Boyd told me as she fished during that time. On April 22nd while fishing off Punta Tintorerra (Isla Carmen), the surface was completely calm and 30 feet (10 m) below the boat she saw hundreds upon hundreds of Yellowtail, densly packed and moving slowly. They tried to intice them with live bait, jigs, dead bait, unhooked morsels but they weren't interested. They were busy with something else and that something else was their spawn. The fish were within 300 meters of the shoreline and nothing around them could distract them from what they had to do. The Yellowtail are noted for not being interested in feeding during their spawn. This same event was repeated many times throughout the last several weeks and at many locations where we normally find Yellowtail, off the shorelines at Isla Santa Catalina, at San Bruno, at Pulpito, and off Danzante...
Once the Yellowtail finish their spawn they feed like there's no tomorrow and that's what they're doing right now off Isla Carmen. For the past week or so the most consistent bite has been off Punta Lobos but there have been good catches from off Punta La Cholla, Tintorerra and Perico as well. The key is to get out there early because that bite starts just before sunrise and has been noted to shut down or significantly slow down by 8:00 a.m. This fact was a bit of a problem for participants in the Governor's Cup tournament on Saturday May 3rd as the official start time from the marina was 7:00 a.m. By the time boats reached Punta Lobos, the bite was just ending. All this week I've been making sure our boats depart the marina by 6:00 a.m. and as a result epic catches of Yellowtail have been happening.
The Yellowtail, depending on location, are ranging in size from 20 to just over 40 pounds. Generally they school in groups of like-sized fish so if you get into a hot bite and land fish they'll be of similar size. Yellowtail coming from the Punta Lobos area have been large this week, over 30 pounds easy. They're taking flylined live bigeye or mackerel (prefering bigeye), or lightweight jigs. They are in thick schools and competition amongst them is very intense, hence the good bite for us. They are starting to show more breezing behaviour (coming up to feed for a few seconds then diving down and moving to another distant spot to resurface) and as the water surface temperatures rise, they will start to feed below the surface where the water is cooler. So far the SST's off Isla Carmen are ideal for the YT feeding at the surface so it should still be a couple of weeks at least before this good bite slows down...then we will wait for the Dorado to move in.
May 6, 2008: yellowtail taken off of Isla Carmen with flylined live bigeye.
May 6, 2008: Captain Victor Villalejo holds up a nice Yellowtail caught with caballito off Isla Carmen. Victor's skilled fishing instinct was the main reason that the new mayor's wife and her guest won the Governor's Cup Tournament last Saturday May 3rd. Although his prestigeous clients received the winning prize of 25,000 pesos it was Victor's expertise that gave them that chance.
May 6, 2008: another fine Yellowtail caught off Isla Carmen on May 6th from the other boat of the group. This group came together from the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest (USA) for their first experience at classic Baja fishing and conditions, fishing results and their captains, Eulogio Davis Sanchez and Victor Villalejo have convinced them to return for more.
The fishing for Cabrilla and Pargo has been outstanding to excellent and everything in between. This has been one of the most noteable bites on these species that I can remember. The large Cabrilla (10-20+ pounds) are now outnumbering the Pargo (10-20+ pounds) only because the Pargo are more likely to run into the rocks and break off.
These fish live along the shorelines over the reefs and we can get them by trolling Rapalas, Rebels or live bait about 100 meters from the waterline (avoiding shallow submerged rocks of course). The Pargo and Carbilla can be caught along most of our nearby shorelines, and when counting the islands we have hundreds of miles to explore out there. The best plan is to hunt for Yellowtail then move to the shoreline to fish these other species, and this has been a proven method for the past two weeks leading to stellar catches. Of course an entire day of this isn't bad either.
To our South inside Puerto Escondido we are catching Barracuda, small Roosterfish, Palometa, and Corvina. This little fishery is best for light tackle bass plug or fly fishing. I seriously encourage catch and release inside the bay for several reasons: one it is private property and we are being allowed a priviledge to fish there, and two because they have kicked out the netters and the fishery is recovering and we prefer to be part of that solution. I want to see all eyes on this place in the near future as an example of what directions should be taken when setting a new management plan for the park.
Regarding the Park, they have a new director and they say they will change the management plan again soon. Deja vu, we've heard this before. Well, for whatever its worth they'll receive our input on behalf of sport anglers this time around.
In other news regarding the park, I have to report my discouragement. I went to the park to complain about the gillnetting within 300 meters of the shoreline at Isla Carmen after I discovered in the Park Management Plan (rules of the park) that this activity was illegal from April 1 through August 30. When this was pointed out to park personnel they informed us that we are correct and they would investigate the following day, April 22. Unfortunately instead of sending a park boat to Carmen Island to bust the illegal netters, they went about 40 miles South to Isla Santa Catalina to check marine park tickets of visiting sportfishing anglers! They check $2 tickets 40 miles away when they could stop tons of fish from being illegally taken 12 miles away. I have been here a long time and this defies all logic! Because of the surplus of Yellowtail on the local market it is considered a junk fish and sells for as little as $100 pesos (about $10USD) for a fourty pound fish, that translates to twenty five cents per pound. Someone needs to educate these folks on basic economics then perhaps when they have grasped even a portion of these concepts then maybe they can move on to fisheries management. In the meantime I just try and grind away at my own job.
May 6, 2008: panga working within 300 meters of the shoreline at "Playa Blanca" an area between Punta Tintorerra and Punta Lobos.
May 6, 2008: a little panoramic of the extended net. This activity is in clear violation of the Marine Park Regulations that specifically state that between April 1 and August 30 it is illegal to use nets within 300 meters of the shorelines around the islands of: Coronado, Carmen, Danzante and Montserrate. The loophole is that around Isla Santa Catalina netting like this for Yellowtail only (not other species) is allowed throughout the year.
OFFSHORE; DORADO AND BILLFISH
I'm not hearing too much about the Dorado or other pelagics but that may because of a couple of things: wind and great Yellowtail fishing. For the last few days we've had enough wind so as to mess up the offshore sea surface, making venturing the 20-30 miles beyond Isla Carmen totally not worth it. Do not worry this is only the first week of May and we shouldn't expect them to come in for at least 4-6 weeks the way things are looking. Yes you can go out and put 100 miles on your boat and end up with a couple of 15 pound dorado if you're lucky, but considering the limiting out possibilities on the Yellowtail so nearby I personally consider it foolish. We're still in Yellowtail season and its a very good season at that. And while catching Yellowtail you never know what else you may land. On May 6th Captain Francisco Munoz' client Frank VanZile of florida, flylined a live bigeye bait into a school of feeding Yellowtail. He didn't think much of it when he hooked up until a 60 pound class Sailfish jumped out of the water connected to his line. Sailfish are usually the first of the summer pelagics to show up for the summer season and we're seeing them more frequently now. The sargasso situation out offshore and also near the shoreine is very good, the best we've seen in years. As the Dorado scout fish start to migrate up the Cortez, this flotsam will hold them in the area so lets hope it sticks around for the entire season!
NEW SHOP LOCATION AGAIN!
I am not real pleased about this but there's not much I can do as we have to move our shop yet again! I was very careful to set up a long term contract to maintain the location that we are currently in and as per the law, tenants with a contract have a lot of rights. We were promised the back section of our store to expand and permission to open a bar, then the owner of the hotel informed us that there was a sale of the entire property pending. So after weeks of waiting, out from under some rock, the real owner comes to reclaim the hotel property that he purchased six years ago! Well that person has kicked out who we all thought were the real owners of the hotel, the people who built the hotel. And now these new owners as of six years ago are kicking out all the tenants too. Our location has to change fast and so does the office next to us, Eco Alianza Loreto. This is a great difficulty to us being at the threshold of our busy season and also to Eco Alianza who just set up shop in January before the Sea Turtle conferences. Even with the advice of our lawyer, who tells us that our contract protects us, we have to be practical and just leave. This new owner is a former politician (who lost his position at city hall when his political party was defeated) and is well connected. This kind of person is above the law. Yeah we could fight for our rights, spend lots of time stressing and lots of money on a lawyer to defend us and still lose because we are not well connected, so I figure why bother? We do have some leads on a new dig and once we make the final decision on it we will announce it. For now we're still here, same phone numbers, e-mail address, web domain name and same contact information as those won't change with the move. And you'll still be able to find me at the marina daily before sunrise sending out the boats.
BAIT AND MARINA SCENE
The baitsellers are selling mackerel and bigeye again. They are the three or four pangas with lights on them right off the entrance of the marina.
Sardinas are still on the small side and located inside and outside the marina just off the structure. They're rising at about 6:30 a.m. but as much as an half hour to an hour later if there's cloudcover.
Less than one case left of the Greenwashing Issue (No.20)! We have back issues of Baja Life on sale at our shop for only 5 bucks. All proceeds go to Loreto Eco Alliance.
