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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Billfish Turn On In Loreto
Fishing southeast of Catalana today I hooked 6 marlin. 2 came unbuttoned after long runouts. 1 broke the leader and made away with a lure after
about ten minutes hooked up. 3 were released at the boat after a photo op. Also caught and released was a small, 50 - 60 lbs., sailfish and a
dorado. Attached is a picture of one of the marlin posing before he was sent on his way. Not the biggest but the most photogenic. I did not see
another boat until on the way home after 8 1/2 hours on the water
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 9-2-2003
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Great Picture Bill!
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Pescador
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Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
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Shoot Bill, let a couple of those guys get through so that they make it up to Santa Rosalia. That sounds like a great day.
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bill erhardt
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Location: Loreto, BCS
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Pescador...... I'm sure that many will make their way north. They are thick outside Carmen too. They have been around for awhile, but are just
starting to get hungry. It is unusual to have so many this early.
Thanks, Skeet. Here's a shot of the baby sail.
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Minnow
Banned
Posts: 1110
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Lost Wages
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Mood: Embarrased Harry Reid is a Nevadan
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That blue and black lure looks to be the hot ticket. Great pictures. Thanks for the report.
Proud husband of a legal immigrant.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Don Jorge....... The water temp. yesterday was 78 - 79 degrees. In the late afternoon Friday north of Catalana it was flat calm and 84.5.
Minnnow....... that lure is an ALLure #28 (flying fish) http://www.allure.com.mx/. The other two marlin hit an old purple and black doorknob
[Edited on 5-14-2007 by bill erhardt]
[Edited on 5-14-2007 by bill erhardt]
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tripledigitken
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Registered: 9-27-2006
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Bill,
Beautiful pictures. Thanks!
Seven weeks and counting before I'll get a shot.
Ken
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bill erhardt
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Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Postscript
The marlin bite turned off as quickly as it turned on.
Tuesday morning I returned to the scene of the crime off Catalana. 4 hours trolling yielding nothing but one half-hearted marlin strike which did not
stick. A little before noon I picked up and ran south to Santa Cruz. Five minutes after putting out lines off the northeast end of the island I was
hooked up with a nice striper. twenty minutes later he was photographed and released. Mid-afternoon I headed on south to Las Animas. In late
afternoon I had a marlin strike and one other unidentified big fish, but caught nothing but a skipjack.
After spending the night at anchor in a cove on Isla San Jose I was back at Las Animas at first light yesterday. Nothing but more skipjacks in two
hours trolling. An hour or two of trolling at Santa Cruz, Catalana, and 15 - 20 miles east of Punta Lobo on Carmen of the way back to Loreto yielded
absolutely nothing. It was a nice boat ride though.
Attached is a photo of my 21' Bluewater on the hook at Isla San Jose with Las Animas in the background.
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Hook
Elite Nomad
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Registered: 3-13-2004
Location: Sonora
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Mood: Inquisitive
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Beautiful!
Seen any signs of longlines, purse seiners or trawlers on your travels?
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Hook........ Not this year. Last October in the canyon ENE of Loreto just about midway to the mainland I came across a seiner with not one but two
helicopter spotters tracking a school (or schools) of yellowfin. I was with a brother and nephew. We caught 11, but two days later when I returned
the seiner and YF were gone. They came into the SOC separately, but probably left one inside the other.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Pomp - Great minds....... I have one of each. When I retired 5+ years ago I brought down a 2000 McKee Backwater 172. I fished out of it 4 seasons
before buying the Bluewater. When I was shopping for a new boat I visited the McKee factory to check out the Freedom 22/24's. I decided on the BW
2150, but both are nice boats. The BW has a fishbox that is 68" long and a flush deck. There is about 6' between the console and the anchor locker
which includes the fishbox lid. That is enough room for me to lay out an air mattress and a sleeping bag with a good view of the milky way on
overnighters. I had an auxiliary gas tank installed at the factory which gives me capacity or around 140 gallons, enough for three long days. I
picked it up in Fort Pierce in January of last year. I didn't stick around for any bone fish because I wanted to get in back here for some
yellowtail. Here is a picture taken in Catavinia on the morning of the day I got back to Loreto. I was still about 450 miles out, but after 8,800
miles on the road it felt like I was almost home.
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BajaBruno
Super Nomad
Posts: 1035
Registered: 9-6-2006
Location: Back in CA
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Mood: Happy
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Bill, I see now how you do those overnighters in a center console. I can live on sandwiches for a while, but I think I'd need a camp stove for my
morning coffee!
Christopher Bruno, Elk Grove, CA.
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Thanks for the report and the pictures!Your boat looks like a fishing
machine.
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
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Thanks again Bill: Brought back many Memories on the same trips I took.
Went to Flordia, bought a 217 Wellcraft Fish, converted from a Ford Marine to a 230 Yannmar Diesel.
Try that same Trip when it gets a little Hotter. Yellow Fin are usually all over the Water at Animas in July and August!!
Skeet/Loreto
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Alan
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Posts: 1626
Registered: 4-6-2005
Location: Yucaipa, CA/La Paz
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That is one beautiful rig Bill and the picture going through Catavina is pure classic Baja. I must say though that you take a different route through
Catavina than I do when headed to Loreto. I'm afraid I don't know that short cut.
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Diver
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Registered: 11-15-2004
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Pompano,
I think you will like the Bluewater better.
They run about 20% lighter than the McKees and have more deck room than most. They have much more useable deck space than many of the new generation
of boats like Anglers and Maco's and Aquasports.
The Bluewaters are lighter than almost all of these and will be much easier to tow and launch. They also have larger stardard fuel capacity then most.
That 2150 is a really nice ride !!
.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Bruno - Fresh brewed would be nice, but choking down a couple of spoons of instant dissolved in tepid water is a small price to pay for waking up 15
minutes from the fish rather than having to launch and run an hour and a half.
Skeet - Las Animas, which is really just a rock, actually 3 rocks, jutting up out of the depths is a fishy spot. I've not seen any YF in the area
yet, only skipjacks, but maybe when it gets warmer. For at least the past month there have been 6 or 8 handliners working out of a single panga
tender mining the sheer drop-offs. Just about every time I have glanced at one of them he has been pulling up a rockfish.
Alan - I brought the boat down Mex. 1 through Catavinia. I pulled off on a side road at daybreak for a photo op.
Diver - Those were my conclusions exactly. The BW 2150 with the Armstrong bracket although nominally a 21 footer has about the same usable space as
the Freedom 24, but for my purposes is laid out better. The 2150 is enough lighter that I get about the same performance with a Suzuki DF175 as the
Freedom with a DF250. You can also deal directly with the factory and have it built to your specs.
Attached is a photo of a couple of handliners working one of the Las Animas rocks Wednesday morning.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Pomp...... If you would like to test drive a BW 2150 with the DF175, let me know the next time you are going to be in Loreto. Or, if you want to make
a special trip before the fish start biting up there let me know and we will coordinate it.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Pomp........ That is just about right. 4700 rpm gives me 30 knots (depending on how much fuel I am carrying) and I usually cruise at 4500 to 4800.
Figuring fuel consumption is not as simple as it should be. Although not as notorious as the old Pemex in Santa Rosalia, the pumps at the two older
stations in Loreto and the station in El Centro in Insurgentes are calibrated similarly. We have a new Pemex now in Loreto. Since I have been
filling up at the new stations here and on the highway at Insurgentes, my mileage has improved considerably. I have been keeping track of miles run
for the last two tanks and will pass along mileage the next time I fill up.
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bill erhardt
Super Nomad
Posts: 1372
Registered: 4-2-2005
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Pomp...... I filled my boat up this morning and over the last 624 miles recorded on my GPS (4 long days) combination cruising and trolling the average
gas mileage was 3.3 statute mpg.
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