LOCAL FISHING BOATS CELEBRATE ANNUAL BLESSING RITE

June 5, 2005, Rick Barber, Mulege, Mexico Fishing Report:

We have really been having some beautiful fishing weather at Mulege lately. The days have been into the high 80's and low 90's with generally calm winds and calm seas in the mornings.

Sunday was a Chamber of Commerce day for the annual blessing of the Mulege fishing fleet. Many of the local fishermen decorated their boats with flowers and ribbons and the padre said mass at the waterfront. He then went out on a panga to bless the fleet. Quite a few people attended and a good time was had by all.

Some Mulege guys went out on Sunday to see if they could coax a dorado or two into the ice chest, but generally didn't have much luck. Cabrilla were plentiful, though, and many limits were boated. Marty Robison said he went to Isla Santa Inez and then to Isla San Marcos where they got one nice cabrilla. He then headed for Isla Tortuga hoping to find warmer water. Marty said that the close-in waters were all in the very low 70's. As they headed out, however, the water started turning warm and finally, about 35 miles out from Mulege, they found 78 degree water, but no dorado.

Wednesday turned out to be another beautiful day. I decided to try for cabrilla since the dorado have been making themselves scarce of late. I trolled from Punta Concepción to south of the mine and managed to boat enough for a nice dinner or two. Carl Austin, of Sacramento, who is down here on another short vacation, was trolling off Pt. Concepción and boated and released a 35 lb. bull dorado. I had trolled a weed line earlier in the day in that vicinity with no luck. I found that the water was only 72-74 degrees so, while some bait fish were in the area, I didn't expect to see any dorado. Guess I should have hung around a bit longer.

Dave and Mary Landgraf had a pretty good week fishing at Mulege. They brought in a nice bunch of leopard grouper on Tuesday and Thursday from the Punta Chivato rocks and The Mine respectively. Then on Saturday, they were fishing off Punta Chivato again when "Skipper" Mary saw a large bait ball and they trolled through it. Apparently, large roosterfish were feeding and Dave hooked what he described as a 50 lb. class rooster on a MirrOlure. Dave fought the fish for 20-30 minutes, bringing it alongside the boat four times. Mary said that they have a 4' foot gaff aboard and the rooster was a little longer than the gaff. The line finally parted at the lure and the fish got away with some jewelry hanging from it's lip!

Dustin Brown, fishing in about 120 feet of water off Punta Chivato on Thursday bagged a very nice broomtail grouper of about 30 lbs. Dustin reported that the rest of the week was a bit slow but, hey, for a 30 lb. broomtail, who needs a lot of action?

Marty and Suzie Robison, on Marty's Boat, and "Bim" Hastings, on Bimboat, are fishing today, and Marty had a very large grouper on for about 20 minutes before executing a "long line release", a maneuver Marty invented.

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