Cows flying . . . fish fickle . . . few folks

Kelly Corcoran organized the “Baja-Ha-ha Fishing Tournament” over the weekend with participants from the northwest, WA, AK, OR and CA in fifteen boats. The sounds of friendly ribbing about just 'who would catch what' punctuated with laughter could be heard as the teams boarded the five pangas and five cruisers each day.



At the awards party on the beach the last night of the tournament, everyone had a few fish stories to exchange. The bottom line was that they caught a mixed bag of fish and the winner was honored for the 43 pound winning dorado during the Mexican Fiesta which was topped off with margaritas and carne asada, rib cooked to perfection, served beneath a starlit Baja sky.

Throughout the the week, fish were scattered out from the ocho-ocho, 88, to the North to below Las Frailes, our boats found tuna, dorado, wahoo and both striped and a few blue marlin, as well as a couple of sailfish.

Our fish counts for the week reflect good inshore fishing for roosters, pompano, pargo and still a few yellowtail on the high spots outside of La Ribera.

Late in the week I headed out to the ocho-ocho where 'cows' were flying everywhere chasing flying fish. There have some nice tuna caught every day. But the run and gun experience, while exciting, was dampened by the frustration of trying to find the fish that would bite. Those anglers with patience were rewarded.

Hotel guests caught seven over 100 pounds for the week using caballito and sardina. We have also been catching another bait under the numerous shark buoys we call camiseta (t-shirt) because of their unique blue/purple-with-black-stripes coloring which makes them look like a caballito duded up for a Mexican Fiesta. These seem to attract the larger tuna

Our catches on 48 charters for the week included:

47 striped marlin 40 R
2 Sailfish 1 R
66 Dorado 6 R
3 wahoo
7 tuna
64 pompano
14 snapper
4 sea bass or cabrilla
13 roosterfish all released
3 yellowtail
1 amberjack
4 triggerfish
71 skipjack
21 jack crevalle all released

Felipe Valdez, Manager
Hotel Buena Vista Beach Resort