Pompano Fish Report - Mulege (Good Times)

Okay, resisted the other title...MULEGE WIDE OPEN! FISH BOILS! TAILS EXHAUST FISHERMEN!..but I best tone it down to reality.

Now here's the real story..and... we caught lots of fish.

POMPANO FISH REPORT
MULEGE
DEC. 13, 2008

First..putting the boat in the water a few days ahead of time is a good start.




As usual the dawn broke with red clouds glowing like ember coals on the horizon. If you have ever awoken here, you have seen it for yourself. This sight always makes me smile. The weather adage, "Red sky in the Morning, Sailor Take Warning." was not written for Coyote Bay, folks. The dawns down here are most ALWAYS red...and the days are most ALWAYS sunny and perfecto. Today would prove to be no exception.



My neighbors, Stan and Les, and I had decided that we would target some nice tasty pintos and other rockpile/reef-dwellers for today's fishing trip. Why those, you say, when there are so many yellows around? Well, this is where it gets a little hairy..and I should really use aliases. See....we were talking and had our mouths set for the most delicious fresh fish dinner...and The Truth is that none of us really care that much for eating jurel (yellowtail). I know, I know...that's heresy! We could be drawn and *half-dollared by the pitching iron crowd. Have our Jungla barstools burned. Be thrown out of the Yellowtail Club. Shunned by Penn Senator owners and Asuncion residents.

(*the dollar has lost a lot of value lately, hence quartering has doubled.)

Sure, I have caught tons of jurel in the past and written numerous accounts of the same...praising that fish beyond all others.
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Hey, get a grip... fishermen lie..it's our rice bowl. And yes, our part of the Baja coast has huge populations of yellows. They are thick right now near Isle Tortuga and near Isle San Marcus...plus another spot I ain't talking about.

But the cruel truth is...I don't give much of a hoot about 'tails anymore. Sure, they fight pretty good with a fierce determination for the bottom. BUT, it's a lot of work and I really don't like killing the fish without really savoring a dinner from same. Please do not send me a mayonaisse recipe.

Therefore: Put me on top of a good pinto rockpile on a calm day and that's my idea of heaven. Take just enough cold beer along, a good book, the latest lure invention from my garage, very light action rod and reel, and a determination to take just enough fish to make that night's dinner.

We had decided to get underway about 7:30-8:00...another benefit of rockpile fishing...you don't have to get up so darn early, as there's no need of bait to care for as we use heavy jigs and darts.

That extra cup of coffee and the time spent laughing at CNN's news reporting in the morning is pretty darn nice. What would the world be without Wolf Blitzer high-grading the breaking news for us!...purest form of bunko ever.....but I digress...back to the fishing report.

I had checked the moon's fishing prediction the night before..and it looked good to go. Holding water..yup, a good day ahead, then.



We loaded our gear into the shore skiff..



... and motored out to the 26' Striper WA anchored in front of our casas.

A plus was that a bit of water in the skiff washed the sand off my feet before climbing aboard. The Striper WA has lots of room and we got comfy as we left Coyote Bay behind, heading towards Pta. Concepcion.



Some offshore views of familiar places. Heading out of Conception Bay we passed by these familiar sights:

Punta Arena beach....now renamed Blazing Palapas...now pretty much like it was when I first came here..bare.




Playa Naranjos ...pretty much built up to max along the shorefront.







Playa Flambes with it's distinctive lighthouse ... home and business of Nomads Bob and Susan. Hola ashore! Come and play!



La Bahia development by Mace

and Playa Suenos by Vic.





Villas de Mulege by Ricardo Castillo...used to run with Earl Stanley Gardner long time back.


and Home of Nomad laurieboats (for sale, by the way..yes, a shameless plug)



Enjoying the morning with another cup of joe, we decided to try for pintos by the old abandoned Pt. Conception mine first. Outside the Bay, around the point, down south a mile and then offshore east a half-mile. A favorite barn-size pile of rocks at 200ft coming up from the surrounding 240ft slope. If you can't catch a pinto here give up fishing forever.

Our 225 Honda 4stroke is fast at full throttle, but much more economical at 2400rpms or so...makes a mile-eating 22mph on the heavy 26-ft fishboat...a dry ride in almost any weather.




We had the old GPS coordinates in our Garmin handhelds and also on the boat console. We quickly found the spot where a lot of pintos are caught in our annual Pinto Derby on April 1st every year. Last year the winner was a whopper of 23"...a true monster for a pinto. Wow...whatta fish!..and dee-lish.



Getting right on top of the rockpile below, we checked the current drift with the gps and adjusted our position so as to drift the best way over the waiting pintos below. There was no wind at all, but a small but steady current to the northwest...moved us a hundred yards in maybe 8-10 minutes.

Stan and Les rigged up dart and a yo-yo, green + blue-white colors, and dropped them down into the depths. I was behind in getting to the 200ft bottom because I had decided to try a 3-inch orange split-tail on the hook of my 4oz green dart. I think Les had the first fish hookup..a nice little pinto...then Stan got one on of the same size..maybe 3 pounders...eaters!...I was still on the way to the bottom...ho hum...slooooowly sinking to the bottom.

Finally my line went slack and I flipped over the lever, picked up the slack, and immediately felt a good hit. Hey now, this is more like it...and then it got a little heavier real fast...this is no 3 pounder, I thought. Then it went slack about 30 feet off the bottom..damnation!...but I kept jigging up...and whammo..the fish is back on...then off..then on..then off...wha?..then the lights came on...shoot, a squid!..but that will make great bait!

Then it's on again..but now I feel the unmistakable pinto polka. Now it's hooked good and I wind it up from the depths... even though I go slow the rapid change in pressure bulges it's eyes clear out of it's head and it's bladder comes gushing out the mouth...great stuff, eh?

I get it to the surface and see it's a nice-sized pinto for this popular rockpile...maybe a 6-7 pounder of 20 inches or so...not bad. Would have been second place fish last year in the Derby...did I tell you a resident here took 1st with a huge 23 incher! I say a little prayer to Neptune and Bacchus to provide more like this one.



We motor back up-current and drift back down over the rockpile a few times, and pick up enough pintos to satisfy us. We want to leave room on our plates for some brownies, too...one of my favorite dinner fish of the Cortez since I caught my first one in 1971 about 1/2 mile from where we are right now.


About 11 am...just like we knew it would at this time of day, the wind came up just enough to make it hard to stay over the pintos for long. But that was okay, we had enough and had a fun time with the pintos. Time to go troll somewhere over there to the northwest by Sta. Inez Islands...about 8 miles away....nearer Punta Chivato. That the wonderful thing about fishing around Mulege..you never have to go very far to find fish...and a ton of variety. (Somebody nudge Cypress....)

Our fishing partner, Les, is a logger and fisherman of the Far North, and has an uncanny ability to smell fish underwater. He gives the air the old sniff test ....I suspect Les has some Norwegian heritage...



..and we follow his nose.



Coming into shallower waters, we motor past a panguero manning the boat for his diver-partner over the side..see the air lines running out behind? Now here's a good tip...bending the barbs down on your deep-running Mirrolure will greatly facillitate unhooking from rubber wetsuits.




Les's nose gives off 2 quick honks...and we immediately start trolling the Mirrolures. Here's some helpful info: .. follow along the 30-45 foot contour of Santa Inez Island...south side...and watch your depth gauge at all times. Lots of underwater points and boulders that will want to hang up your lure if you go too shallow. Here's another tip that all fishermen know, but I will repeat it here (to bolster your spirits, Cypress!)...always start downwind, because that's the direction you catch the most fish...in any waters..duh. Newbies, keep count next time and see for yourself.

Downwind we go...starting at the easternmost point of the islands and hugging that 30-45 ft depth. You can troll a large Mirrolure up to 8mph with 100 ft of 30lb max line and it will reach a depth of about 26-28 ft. I will trolling max speed because that lure whizzing past some fishes lair might just trigger a hit.



Take a look at the island over there...it's the largest Sta.Inez island and we are about half-way down it's length. Get yourself a landmark on that shore when you get the hit...it will produce for you again. Has for me since I caught my biggest ever right here in 1978...and many, many more over the years. The only thing that has changed is the lure...used to be Rapalas,now it's Mirrolures.


Another thing changed fast back then, though...starting out killing a couple big ones, we quickly learned to release unharmed the really big females..prime egg layers. Never keep the big gals...Who wants to kill a 100lb or bigger grouper? Just keep the small good eaters...truly a great dinner!

Note: Before we started to troll, Les offered me the selection of Mirrolures to pick from. I was in kind of a hot pink mood. He chose firetiger and Stan put on a brown/gold. All good producing colors.

As luck would have it, the hot pink was the color of the day. It outfished the other colors 3 to 1

We landed a couple more, then we spotted hundreds of birds sitting NE of the islands ..out there in much deeper waters...which meant that a yellowtail school had recently brought a baitboil to the surface.



We decide to rig up with darts and yoyos again..some with a chunk of bait.



We made a few drops in about 150 - 180 ft over a rocky bottom and did some creative jigging...then..on a fast retrieve I got a hook-up. Pretty dang nice yellow, huh? I hung it from the c-ckpit ceiling and Stan had to move out of the way..it is bumping him in the shoulder here. Honest!



Well, it's now about 1:30 and we have missed a half hour of siesta time..so it's time to pack it in, besides we decide we have all the fish we need for our dinners and then some for the freezer. We could have stayed and easily caught more. We had brought in 9 nice fish..6 short of our legal limit of 5 each, but just enough for our wants. Our morning's catch filled the portside fishtank..and that's a good day!

We head it South by South West for home...Coyote Bay..about a 40 minute run.







[Edited on 12-27-2008 by Pompano]

woody...a great topic. See the similarities in THE GREAT GROUPER DEBATE

You know how to live Roger. I agree with your dining preference btw, you can't do much better than that!
Thanks for sharing.

Pompano, Congrats on the fish and thanks for the pictures.

those look like bees

can you eat those things or are they too oily like some fish

Pintos, etc..

Igor. I had some pinto fillets for dinner last night..breaded & baked style...quite deliciouis.

It's hard to narrow down my favorite eating types, but I'll give it a try.

1. walleye
2. halibut
3. pinto

1. WALLEYE (Simply the only fish for shore lunches)



2. HALIBUT (Being in Alaska is delicious in itself)



3. PINTO BASS (Fast Food of Baja)




If in a hurry for a pinto dinner, use a baited rock cod rig.

castaway...yes.

One of the best fishing reports I've seen!

Pompano please adopt me as your son/grand son

Love to read your posts

happy new year
Amir