BajaNomad - Dorado in January (Santa Rosalia?)

Dorado in January (Santa Rosalia?)

Pescador - 1-3-2008 at 08:48 PM

Ok, just when you think you know a lot about fishing, they throw you a curve. I was fishing today with a good friend, Ed Hogan, who is a good fisherman, and he says he thinks he sees a Dorado when he pulls his bait in to the boat. I ask him what he is drinking as the water temps are 57.8 which is about 30 degrees too cold for dorado, when I actually see two jumping. We spent the next hour catching a releasing as many dorado as we wanted to catch, which I am estimating at 25 or so, and all at sup 60 degree water. I think this school must have been lost and totally temperature deficient. We did bring in a few for dinner since we figured they were stupid enough that we did not want them contaminating the gene pool.

[Edited on 1-4-2008 by Pescador]

Ken Bondy - 1-3-2008 at 08:58 PM

Pescador
This is a little off the track, but did your friend Ed Hogan have anything to do with a company called "Pleasant Travel"??
++Ken++

bajadedom - 1-3-2008 at 08:59 PM

I vote you leave 'em where you catch 'em and DO contaminate the pool.......we need more of these 60~degree dorado....and you can send 'em to Oregon for the summer.....

Roberto - 1-3-2008 at 09:01 PM

I've said this many times - Dorado are clean (as in blue) water fish, not necessarily warm water. In the Cortez, these conditions usually equate to warm water, when the algae bloom go away. In the Pacific 65 degree dorado are not unusual, at least as common as Dorado are up here at all.

[Edited on 1-4-2008 by Roberto]

Pescador - 1-4-2008 at 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ken Bondy
Pescador
This is a little off the track, but did your friend Ed Hogan have anything to do with a company called "Pleasant Travel"??
++Ken++

No, Ken, he was a machinist in Southern California that retired and moved to the beach in San Bruno.

Pescador - 1-4-2008 at 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Roberto
I've said this many times - Dorado are clean (as in blue) water fish, not necessarily warm water. In the Cortez, these conditions usually equate to warm water, when the algae bloom go away. In the Pacific 65 degree dorado are not unusual, at least as common as Dorado are up here at all.

[Edited on 1-4-2008 by Roberto]

Well, having fished this water since the 70's , I can tell you that this is a rare occurence and as far as I can tell has never really happened before. There are those times where we find a single fish that seems to be lost or something, whereas these fish were numerous and had little fur coats on. :lol:

Santiago - 1-4-2008 at 08:27 AM

Wow!

Skipjack Joe - 1-4-2008 at 09:05 PM

Have the baitfish also stayed longer this year?

I find that fish will often make exceptions (delay their departure) when there is a lot of bait in the water. I found dorado in about 58 degree water at Asuncion four years ago when the baitfish were so thick you could just about scoop them up with a handnet.

BTW I have heard it said that when dorado fish well into the winter months they show up late during the following season. So we may not have a great dorado summer this year.

Pescador - 1-8-2008 at 01:53 PM

Big eye (Ojo Gordo) although small, have been thicker than I have ever seen them, but that is a shallow running fish so probably has no bearing. The spanish and Green Mackeral have been around in clouds this year so may have some bearing. These dorado were all small and probably less than 5 lbs but they were thick and active, but it was still a rare occurence. San Marcos Mike had seen some in November but they left right away, so this was a weird school of fish that was here one day and gone the next. Maybe they were on a "school field trip".

Pompano - 1-8-2008 at 02:46 PM

Pescador, about 7-8 years ago I did catch dorado in the mouth of Conception Bay on Christmas Day. Surprised us. This was a one-day experience as we got no hook-ups on dorado in the following days. The fish we caught that day were about the same size as the ones you recently caught...5-6 lbs.

The bait did seem to be in abundance I remember...I cannot recall if the water was clear or not...but definetely cold.

This was the latest (or earliest!) I had ever caught dorado near Mulege...and like you I have been fishing these waters since the early 70's.

Hook - 1-8-2008 at 03:28 PM

I remember catching dorado in tight to San Marcos island in 96 in some of the greenest, dirtiest water I had ever seen. There was an abundance of bait in the area. Couldnt scratch up a bite in miles of trolling and paddy hopping in blue water.

I think they are just opportunistic feeders............like us in our college days. :spingrin:

Another fish Pescador caught today

Russ - 1-8-2008 at 05:46 PM

Talks cheap . Show us the photos! Now here he is with another one of his surprise catches:

Big Shark 1.jpg - 46kB

Hook - 1-8-2008 at 06:22 PM

Ya know, Russ, even a circle hook in the corner of the mouth might be a problem there, on the release.

Pescador - 1-9-2008 at 08:05 AM

Release heck, I had to change my pants. :lol:

Skipjack Joe - 1-9-2008 at 11:01 AM

It would be interesting to know why the baitfish migrations change from year to year. That is what factors affect them. Since the pelagics just follow these migrations.

Hook - 1-9-2008 at 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
It would be interesting to know why the baitfish migrations change from year to year. That is what factors affect them. Since the pelagics just follow these migrations.

These days, probably much of that involves which ones dont get wrapped by the seiners and where. It not necessarily all mother nature's doing.

Pescador - 1-10-2008 at 08:49 AM

I think Hook is right. What I remember as baitfish movements and occurences in the early days of Guaymas is a whole different story when the seiners started catching tons of baitfish for catfood production. For awhile the yellowtail almost dissapeared from the San Carlos area.
We seem to fight that now in the Santa Rosalia area and only have a decent fishery because the yellowtail are very difficult to net on the bajos and the baitfish are so close to shore that the seiners can not get their nets that shallow.
North of Santa Rosalia there used to be a very good fishery of yellowtail and cabrilla but it has literally been destroyed in a very small time.

Hook - 1-10-2008 at 12:30 PM

Jim, have you read some of the posts over on one of the San Carlos boards about a significant increase in dead rays, fish, mammals and even birds washing up on shore at times? Speculation is that the seiners are processing their sardines at sea and the resulting slicks of sardine oil in high concentrations is creating these "death curtains". Apparently, high concentrations of sardine oil are pretty toxic; maybe it coats gills and lungs or something.

Russ - 1-10-2008 at 01:28 PM

I hate these!!!! :mad:

Cypress - 1-10-2008 at 01:47 PM

Russ, They're very bad news for sport and the local commercial panga fisherman. :no:

They're burning down the house. :no: