San Carlos Mexico Fishing Report July 27, 2010

Sorry if you missed me last week. I took the opportunity at the spur of the moment to jump on a friend’s boat to Baja. We stayed at Tortuga Island (55 miles out) the first night and San Marcos, near the town of Santa Rosalia, the next. On the way over all seemed quiet except for the whales and dolphin. Then, we started getting bites halfway across. We couldn’t keep the small sails on though and we lost all eight or nine fish that came up on short hookups using both lures and baits. Sometimes they just aren’t swallowing the bait. We did get a nice surprise though with a 35 pound wahoo on the way over. We were whooping and hollering as it came onto the boat. We ate lots of wahoo sushi! The next morning we headed to San Marcos with a couple knockdowns and one nice striped marlin for my friend’s wife. She was hurting, but it was worth the effort! We spent the day at San Marcos snorkeling, picknicking on the beach, and I of course fished. I saw my first elusive golden cabrilla, which is really just their spawning color. There was lots of life over there and the water was a very refreshing 76 degrees F. Off the point in the dinghy I thought I had a nice yellowtail. What I pulled up though was a 25 pound jack crevalle. Still a nice catch, but not good for dinner. On the way back we finally found one small 13 pound dorado. It pained me, but as my friend stated, “We’re not going to keep the last spawning dorado in the whole ocean.” It’s good to release those females no matter what size! Maybe we were rewarded with the two nice bonita that we caught just miles from port in exceptionally warm water for that species.

The dorado are definitely scarce, though there have been some pockets of fish found. Some boats stumbled upon some fish 26 miles out, catching dorado, sailfish, and striped marlin in a pocket of water with flying fish. I think even one tuna was found. A few boats have reported some exceptional catches of large dorado north of Tortuga and all the way up to San Martir Island. You’ll need a fast boat, or to fish all day, to fish areas 55 to 65 miles out! Hopefully these fish will travel a little closer to our side later in the year.

In close I have not noticed any activity along the shoreline. That hasn’t seemed to stop some people from trying their handlines to get at least a little fish for ceviche. There are some sierra and small dorado in the bay, but I haven’t heard of any exceptional catches. Some bottomfish are out there if you can find fishable conditions to drop deep and bare the heat of a calm day. With the positive reports that we had last weekend, hopefully we’ll see some fish brought in during this weekend’s first annual Hooked on San Carlos Tournament. Hope to see you there!

tight lines,
Bryan Replogle repsilon@aol.com
Team Margarita Sportfishing San Carlos Aquatic Adventures