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June 5th and 6th saw the annual Rescate/Yacht Club fishing tournament. 28 boats showed up for a great turnout. The fishing was pretty slow though, but that always keeps things competitive. Every fish counted, as we were only one fish away from placing in the money. We actually tied for second with two other boats, but placed fourth due to the time of our first caught fish. First place went to the Lucky Ducks with two marlin, a sailfish, and a weighable dorado. Few dorado were weighed with the biggest I believe at 33#. No tuna came in, but the day before the tournament a large tuna close to 100# came in along with a wahoo of similar size.
I didn’t find any miracle fish like those last week, but saw some cool sights. I saw my ‘hottest’ pod of sperm whales ever. The full grown adults, along with the smaller ones, were spy hopping, tail slapping, and fully breaching out of the water. The sight was straight out of Moby Dick with their big square heads making quite a splash.
The next first ever sighting for myself in all my years here was what we found on a dead sperm whale. A great white of about 14-15′ was ripping off large chunks from the freshly dead whale. It’s whole body was coming out of the water as it was getting its fill. Be patient and I’ll have some pics soon. The fish was absolutely massive. I guess that the pangueros from La Manga later went out and caught one of the sharks. I can’t believe that it was the one that we saw. The catch made the paper, so I will have to look for the evidence. It was quite the sight as the fish came to within ten feet of our boat.
Check the esterito for some fresh red snapper. I heard that some of the pangueros had good catches from the reef. One of our trips caught 23 sierra in but an hour just off Martini Cove. Another sunset trip caught several in the 9# range. One trip found their limits of large dorado off of a floating gas can. We had a decent catch forty miles out on some weed patches. There is a lot of seaweed over there, so if you can go long, you can find dorado. Most days saw us catching one marlin or sail. Closer to this side the dorado catch is pretty slim, with some scattered sailfish and marlin around. Just outside the reef seems to hold some numbers, but there are fish scattered everywhere. Will be out tracking down more fish this week for something good to eat. Until next week…

tight lines,

Bryan

Team Margarita Sportfishing

The crowds have left but the fish sure haven’t. If you haven’t noticed all the sealife around then you need to get out to the beach. I must have seen five hundred turns today screeching as loud as the Semana Santa crowd in the estuary. They are enjoying their Spring. In-between their mating rituals they are finding lots of baitfish to keep their energy up. The bay is full of huge amounts of baby sardines. Expect all the big ones to be right behind this yearly event!

We made it to San Pedro a few days ago for an epic yellowtail bite. Our new friend who had married a girl from Hermosillo brought his father and brother-in-law along. He lost the first fish to the rocks, but the old man pulled out the strength to get the next one. After losing a few more fish, the young guys started winning a few battles. The father lasted for one more fish before the boys started hooking up two at time. I think he won major points with the family! It was great to finally start catching fish jigging. The fish were all around 20# and were readily taking live bait and jigs. Expect a few more great weeks of yellowtail fishing before they begin the spawn on the next full moon. I’ve heard reports of the pangas catching fish to 50#. They get big in the Spring.

This cooler is about 44 inches in length!

 Tim , Bryan, and Capt. Arturo working his fillet knife…..

Todays satellite shots show incredibly warm water on the way. Confirming that are reports of 69-71 degree water out front and pictures of marlin on the surface. A few boats have seen them lately. Expect the dorado to show up in the next few days possibly. They might not be big at first, but they are on their way. I was told of a tuna boat that caught fish up North in cold water, so they too could show very soon. Maybe we’ll ’summer fishing’ by next week. I know that I’ll be getting ready.

Lots of great inshore action around. Small and larger sierras are around. The small yellowtail have been showing up sporadically at San Antonio. Lots of small skipjack are coming in on the Miramar side of the bay. All the pargo, cabrilla, and other bottomfish should turn on soon. Big grouper will also be coming in shallow to spawn. Get out on the boat to see all the great sealife that shows up in our warmer cooler waters. I saw a nice mako the other day and a muge manta ray at the Island. The whales should be coming by soon.

tight lines,

Bryan

Some fish were caught in close today, but not this morning. Water is cold and green in close. It is turning over and will hopefully be followed by good spring fishing. The Island has had fair fishing for yellowtail. Jigs are taking a few, though we have caught all our fish lately on live bait. Supposedly one panguero caught a 42# fish. The sierras have moved off, along with most of the bait. In close my friends have had some good days catching small cabrilla, pargo, corvina, and everything else. Just read some reports of yellowfin running decent off of Cabo, so hopefully they’ll make their way north in a month.

tight lines,

Bryan

Lots of wind in San Carlos as probably everywhere in the Sea of Cortez. Fortunately our winds are often offshore and we can fish in the mornings. We made it to San Pedro Island a couple times last week. There are some big fish to catch if the sea lions don’t get to them first. Still lots of smaller yellowtail too, and most everything is being caught on live bait. The action in close just of San Antonio point between the marinas is pretty good. Lots of sierra are still around to provide some action. Schools of yellowtail are moving through throughout the morning. There are large fish around if you can keep them off the rocks. The smaller fish will take jigs, but it seems that the big ones are only taking bait. Some are being found in up to 40′ of water. Are they getting ready to spawn?

Tim and Anthony with a big one!

Big ones in close!

Well, no three-peat, but we did win the $250 and final $100 last day jackpot. I had a big one yesterday at 22.8# that missed the big fish award by 1.4#. Lots of small fish coming in. We stayed at San Antonio in the rough seas and found the bite to mainly be from 9-10. We did lose a big one on the sea mounts on Friday and caught one 17# fish at San Antonio. Some nice fish were caught at the Island. We did pick up some nice bottomfish before we were able to get our jigs up off the bottom. The tournament party was a lot of fun at Ruby Wine Bar. Just ran a half marathon, so I’m ready for a siesta!!!

Well, busy fishing again and not posting. The fishing has been up and down. Made it to the Island a few days ago, but it sounded like it was the one day the fish weren’t there. We have caught a few large fish lately. Before that we were catching lots of smaller fish, mostly at San Antonio. It looks like cool water has returned temporarily, so there should be some good fishing for the tournament. It is starting to feel like Spring. Lots of seaweed floating around. Hopefully the bait will come around soon. A few marlin have been spotted in the last few weeks. I have had a few good trips corvina fishing, catching some in the 10-15# range. Made it out bass fishing, but unfortunately we picked the worst day to go as a storm blew in. It was still nice to get to the lake. Will report after the tournament this weekend! I don’t know if we can be ‘lucky’ enough to win a third year in a row!

We had two boats out today. In the morning we caught a large yellowtail off the seamounts. The fish then came up outside and we caught eight smaller fish. The other boat caught a couple 8-10# grouper and a 12# white sea bass, along with bottomfish. We went back out in the afternoon and caught a lot of 3-6# golden spotted sea bass and one 15# red grouper. Will be back out in the morning!

Things got a little tough there after the full moon. The pangueros were sure pulling them in with bait. I think they and a few netters may have taken a toll. We had fish up the other day and a few this morning, so the birds finally got something to eat. There are still bonita in! We had two quadruple hookups this morning. Yesterday we caught four smaller yellowtail and one large one, along with eight bonita. Not sure if anyone had much luck today. Didn’t hear of much at the island. The bottomfishing should start to pick up here, weather permitting.

tight lines,

Bryan

Some big fish are in close. The Island is still a little slow. It’s shaping up a lot like last year. Shorty easy successful trips any time of day right out front. The boat caught some nice bottomfish yesterday … weather permitting. The dates of the Yellowtail Tournament looks to be Feb. 19th and 20th.

tight lines,

Bryan