MOLA MOLA, ALBACORE, AND YELLOWTAIL OFF ENSENADA

June 3, 2006, Steve Ross, Bad Dog, first albacore, mola mola, and yellowtail fishing off Ensenada, Mexico:

Fishing on Saturday, June 3rd, we left Ensenada's Marina Coral at 0300. That's Gail, Jando and me, the 3 of us. We were plugged with mackerel, maybe 50 pieces and ready to smack the offshore yellowtail on any given paddy.

I had two sets of numbers from La Perla Mike, who by the way is just about 99 percent out of the Ensenada live bait business. Mike supposedly bought some property and is retiring to it to do whatever and other people are going to run the live bait business. Gordo's blew an engine and is broke with no money. Start to think frozen squid, plastics and Gulps.

One set of numbers was barren, so I moved on a bearing for the Ensenada 213 spot. In the dark I saw deck lights on a San Diego party boat which wound up being the Aztec. The Aztec kept stopping so we moved in to find bonito all you wanted. If you threw your shirt in the water they would have eaten it.

After filling up the boat with enough sashimi for the Tokyo fish market I moved on to find in the early morning light a kelp paddy. One of 3 for the day. I pulled a 9 pound yellowtail out of that one and there were no more to be had. Same thing on the next paddy.

The next paddy was loaded in mola mola's. Butter and garlic please. They have this creepy way of drifting out of gaff range, kind of like sliding away, which makes me hate them more. I bum rushed one and we missed by 2 feet. Jando offered his advice of sliding downhill onto one and guaranteed the results and I drifted up to it and a 5-foot swell blew me over it. I gave up and continued for the 213.

We arrived around noon and I spent two hours trying to figure this out all by myself. The meter was full at 50 feet and at 2:30 p.m. a triple jig strike. By time I got on the deck Gail had already 1/2 reeled up hers and I started on mine. We're not chumming with mackerel. I cranked as best I could knowing that I could beat her to the deck for 1st Albacore of the Year for San Diego Anglers. And while I was confidently pulling away, slack, mine spit a double hook before deep color and Gail boated hers along with Jando.

One-hundred-fifty miles plus of driving on Saturday. We came back into the slip at Ensenada around 9 p.m. Saturday night. I'd call that a full day on the water.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Ensenada and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Ensenada may be found at Mexfish.com's main Ensenada page.