bill erhardt - 10-9-2005 at 03:24 PM
Hurricane Otis came and went last weekend with little affect on Loreto. We got only a little rain, not enough to flush debris sufficient to hold
dorado out of the arroyos, and a couple of days of winds 20 knots or so. By Tuesday the sea had calmed enough to be fishable if you don't mind a
little bit of spray. I fished three days this week with varying success.
Tuesday, with my brother Cliff who was visiting from Oregon, I went south to White Rock where two weeks earlier there had been billfish, dorado and
tuna along with many hundreds of rays basking and and entertaining with aerial acrobatic displays. We found surface water temperatures of only 82
degrees and no sign of either fish or rays. By mid morning the water had calmed enough to run north to a point five miles or so off Punta Perico.
Trolling two or three more hours off Perico and Punta Lobo also produced nothing but a couple of half hearted bites and we went home skunked.
Wednesday, with Cliff and sister-in-law Sharon, I went northeast of the Loreto marina about 25 miles. There was a moderate chop as we ran to the
fishing grounds but shortly after sun-up a north wind of 10 knots or so developed. In a building chop and whitecaps we lucked upon a small pod of
porpoise with hungry yellowfin tuna under them. Over a period of about 2 1/2 hours in the late morning we boated 14 yellowfin, the largest 45 lbs. We
lost a couple more trying to deal with three lines on a 17' boat in 3 - 4' seas. The yellowfin hit cedar plugs and jet heads as well as marlin lures.
At around 11:00 a.m. the tuna bite stopped although the porpoise continued to feed on small baitfish. On the way back to the marina we caught and
released a sailfish. This was just exactly the kind of day I had hoped for for my visiting kin who are more accustomed to the dainty little lake trout
in Oregon that would be too small for the bait bucket on the Baja.
Friday my brother and I went back north to where we left the porpoise and tuna two days earlier. We could find no porpoise and five hours trolling
yielded nothing. In the early afternoon on the way home we hooked a big sailfish that spit the hook after running out half a spool of line. The only
thing that kept a skunk out of the boat was an ambitious dorado about 5 lbs. that bit on a marlin lure as we approached Isla Coronado.
Saturday I put my brother on a plane headed north with a cooler full of vacuum packed tuna.
Today the wind is howling.
In the aftermath of Otis the surface water temperature in the Sea off Loreto has dropped about 5 degrees. The highest water temperature I saw all
week was 85 degrees. The weather also changed markedly mid-week. The air temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the relative humidity about 10%.
It feels like autumn in Loreto.
Great Report
LaTijereta - 10-9-2005 at 05:10 PM
We are on our way down this week..
Osprey - 10-9-2005 at 05:27 PM
Limit is 10 fish per day, 5 fish any one specie, per fisherman. Just a reminder. There are days we don't catch a thing. Has any one wondered about
that?
bill erhardt - 10-9-2005 at 05:39 PM
Osprey - Last time I checked 5 times 3 is 15. I'm aware of what the limits are down here.
Nice!
Don Jorge - 10-10-2005 at 07:48 AM
Good job Bill! Good to see a fish report and photos of tuna, I am forgeting what they look like!!