Days 7/8, Dorado and Area 51

[JerryInLodi]

Because I started late I headed out to where I thought the dorado might be hanging out, about 16 miles out and a little further north. I dropped both my hoochies and was into fish immediatly.

It was a great day, four on hoochies and eight on la mosca (the fly). After the first six I took the pliers and opened my hook slightly so that I could try to shake the fish off rather than have the struggle of bringing them all the way to the boat.

There were so many dorado in the area I decided to call it Area 51. Just a patch of ocean with no particular landmarks that seemed to hold heaps of fish.

By a quarter to twelve I was tired. Handling the Judas fish on the conventional gear, moving them from rod holder to rod holder to keep clear of the stern and the fish I had on my fly rod plus landing the fish on the fly rod and handling the boat by my self had worn me out. I could have stayed out and caught double the amount of fish but I decided to give myself and the fish a rest and headed in. The largest fish of the day was on a fly, a male about 20 pounds, the smallest also on a fly, a female of about five pounds.

On day eight I thought I'd look to see how far the southern end of Area 51 extended to. I headed out south of all my marked positions and started working north. It was a flat calm day and only 88 degrees in the shade of the bimini. I trolled from south to north through the entire Area 51 patch without a single strike. The fish, just like the aliens in Area 51, had vanished.

At one in the afternoon when I was at the northern limit, I heard some boats talking on the radio and spotted them four miles farther out. They were into the fish. I decided against heading out and instead went to the shallow bays northwest of Santa Inez island and played with my eight and nine weights.

I caught a few triggers but nothing else and finally headed in. Once in I talked to one of my neighbors and told him of the flats fishing at Santa Inez. He told me the halibut were in and I could have hung one if I was lucky. I put it on my list of things to do.

Tomorrow I'll take the day off. Sunday, a search in Concepcion Bay for a mythical underwater plateau where roosters rip bait in three feet of water. Monday, who knows, maybe dorado, and then again, maybe Mr. Halibut. Then there's Mr. Pargo. I still need to get even with him.

[Darian]

I am impressed with your capabilties and the fishing Sure wish I was down there with you. It was 105 degrees today, 106 degrees tomorrow. 88 sound pretty good.

[Jay Murakoshi]

Hey Darian,

That's pretty cool. We reached 107 today, 108 tomorrow and sunday is suppose to be 111. Gotta love the hot weather. I'm riding the bike early in the morning and just before dark. I"m stopping at every super mercado and buying gatoraid.
I can't wait to get back down to baja. Just talked with Jonathan and he said the tuna bite is going off around Punta Perico and the marlin are everywhere
I sure hope they start on the house before I leave. I was told by the brick mason that if they can't match the existing brick, they will have to redo the whole front of the house
Gotta run and cool off the dog

Jay

[JerryInLodi]

Darian,
The fish handling is not that hard with Dorado, the triggers and rock fish take a lot more skill. With Dorado all you have to do is stop putting pressure on the fish and they become like a puppy on a leash. You can move around and do all kinds of stuff like take pictures, move rods, etc. The only real battle is at the boat. That's where I cheat. Instead of the 12 inches of bite tippet allowed by IGFA rules I use about 30 inches. Thirty inches of 40# florocarbon. That allows me to slip a glove on my left hand and grab the leader with my right and bring the fish in, tail and head. I still have to be careful about breaking a rod but it's not too bad. When my fishing buddy Al, and I used to fish together for Dorado in my 14 foot Western we had a rule that we each had to bring in our own fish unless it was over 20 pounds. Since we caught hundreds of dorado together, we got pretty good at it.

The striped marlin was actually pretty easy at the boat since he was really tuckered out. That's why I misidentified it and called it a sail. I was in such a hurry to take him off the hook and keep him alive that I really didn't look at the fish, just at the location he was hooked, a perfect set right between what we have as upper incisors, the first place a hook can grab relatively soft tissue.

With the rock fish you can never let up or you'll end up "rocked" with the exception being at the boat. By the time you get a rock fish to the boat he's given everything he's got and is very docile.

Jay, the weather has been mild for Mulege. Now 88 doesn't mean it was cool unless you're under cover as I was under my bimini. As soon as I stepped out of the shade the sun was beating down directly over head.

The water temperature is worrying me a little. It's TOO warm, almost 82 degrees at the surface. My sensor is only a foot under water but even on the days with with white caps I'm two degrees over the perfect 80. I'm thinking that's why the fish arn't coming as close to the shore. We need some good upwelling currents from the canyon.

Hope the brick thing works out, then again, you could wait and order a huge pile of terracotta tile when you're down here and have the whole front done in terra-cotta. Dig up a few cactus in the desert, throw some old tire rims and maybe a few pieces of corrugated roof sheeting in the front yard and tell your neighbors you got the landscaping idea from your stay in Mexico.

[Dustin Revel]

we've been getting rained on down in belize makes spotting fish difficult
dusty