DORADO GALORE--Paul Wayne fished with his father Larry Wayne out of East Cape’s Hotel Punta Colorada and got into last week’s super-hot dorado action. Photo courtesy Larry Wayne.

THREE DAYS OF FISHING ON THE EAST CAPE BOAT YAYO
PRODUCES 3 DORADO AND 2 ROOSTERFISH

July 4, 2004, Larry Wayne, Hotel Punta Colorada, East Cape fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

My son Paul and I just got back Wednesday night from East Cape’s Punta Colorada, where we fished three days with Carlos on the superpanga YaYo.

As usual, we wanted to start with a search for tuna. Some fair catches up to 60 lbs. had been reported about 40 miles out, but we didn't think that was a reasonable distance for us to run on a panga.

We had also heard that there was spotty action on small tuna about 13 miles out, so on Sunday morning, the 27th, a very hot and clear day, we went looking for them.

About a mile off shore we spotted a big boil, and threw a live mullet at it. The fish took it and, after a solid fight, Paul landed a beautiful bull dorado in the approx. fifty lb. class.

We then resumed our trip out to look for tuna and spent the next couple of hours trolling from 13 miles on out and beyond, without seeing any sign of tuna. No porpoise, no birds, no boils, no hits on trolled lures....nada.

So we slow trolled our way back to look for more dorado from 1 to 3 miles off shore. We hooked several dorado inshore on small hoochies, and also flylined sardinas for more of these smaller fish, (estimated range 7 to 15 lbs.) for a total Monday catch of 12 dorado (including released fish), and a couple of very small bonito.

We decided to concentrate on roosterfish for Monday, and it was a lucky decision. A stiff south wind came up Sunday night and lasted through Monday; the water at East Cape was pretty ugly, although not bad enough to stop boats from going out. We both slow trolled and flyline cast sardinas along the sandy beach between Punta Arena and Cabo Pulmo, and hooked a total of five roosterfish; three of them managed to throw the hooks, and we boated and released two, estimated weights 15 and 20 lbs.

We had also hoped to try for pargo in the shallow inshore reefs below Cabo Pulmo, as we had done on our last trip this far south some years ago, but learned this is now a protected area. Although disappointed, we were also glad to learn that protective measures now seem to be enforced in this area.

The East Cape winds completely died down on Tuesday. Although Paul and I are not particularly interested in billfish, preferring to go with the lighter tackle for fish in the 30 to 50 lb. range, we decided to give the marlin a shot, and headed off shore between Cabo Pulmo and Los Frailes. We did manage to hook two (most of the cruisers out there that day did much better than that), but both of them eventually threw the hook. We both need more practice in tough-mouth hook setting.

There was also a brief flurry of excitement as Carlos heard a report of porpoise several miles out from where we were trolling, and we made a fast dash out there (the Ya Yo's 200 hp 4 stroke Yamaha really sent us flying). We got there (along with other boats from all directions) to see a school of small baitfish skittering out of the water, with frenzied tuna (30 to 40 lb.?) leaping through and out of the water to get them, all within a large porpoise school.

However, no one seemed to be able to hook them. Maybe the school baitfish were so small that the sardinas we cast did not "match the hatch". We resumed the troll for marlin, with no more strikes, and finally, in early afternoon, we ran back to an area a mile or so off shore from Punta Arena, and trolled and flylined for dorado again, landing another three.

So our score for three days (including intentionally released fish) was 15 dorado and 2 roosterfish, and our "unintentionally released" (read that as "farmed") fish count was 3 roosterfish and two marlin.