Fish Report for 10-31-2011

Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur Mexico Fish Reports

10-31-2011
Gary Graham

We received two 'on the spot' reports:

"We fished the ridge last Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It was very slow. We heard a few reports of boats getting a wahoo or two, but we had no 'hoo hookups. Got three dorado, and a YT on the dropper, along with some small grouper. Had a marlin strike that missed. Saw about eight marlin and may have had shots at them but we weren't really interested in that. We talked to many groups of fishermen, and many locals. No one spoke of seeing tuna in quite a while, and the quantities mentioned did not gel with what I had been hearing."

The second report was from George Landrum who helped bring a boat down from Ensenada:

"Mid-morning we were at the mid-point on the Ridge north of Mag Bay and the wind finally died down, the water calmed and also started to warm up a bit. We had left Ensenada with green, 64 degree water and by the time we reached the upper Thetis Bank it had turned much more blue and had warmed up to 72 degrees. With the water warm, clean and much calmer we proceeded to put four lures out and made a pass on the Thetis. This resulted in catching the owner his largest wahoo to date, estimated at 65 pounds! Several more passes resulted in no more strikes so we continued on to the lower Thetis Bank. This area had plenty of striped marlin and we had a fish in the pattern constantly. The owner was fighting one when another one swam right up to the transom and Carlos quickly dropped another lure in the water. With the swivel at the rod tip and 10 feet of leader, he swung the lure back and forth a few times and the second fish bit and hooked up! Thankfully it only stayed on a few minutes then jumped off and we were able to leader and release the fish the owner had been fighting.

Wanting to arrive in Magdalena Bay before dark we continued on and spotted some shark buoys. Making a few passes with the lures we were able to bring several dorado on board to join the wahoo already in the freezer. We then powered up and ran into the bay, anchoring up for the night at the Man of War anchorage. With the underwater lights on we caught a few live mackerel for bait the next day and caught some shut-eye.

Up again early, our plan was to head straight out to the deep-water ledge and see if we could find some tuna for sashimi. As we were exiting Mag Bay we spotted several areas where the mackerel were feeding and caught another dozen to put in the live bait tank.

We spotted a frigate bird and caught a dorado about 20 minutes out, then under another frigate 45 minutes later we had a sailfish come in on a lure and hook up. A short fight resulted in a release at the boat. The rest of the day was uneventful until we spotted more buoys on the way in and caught three more dorado, then had a wahoo strike just off the beach on the way into anchor for the night."


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