Santa Rosalia, Mexico:
Sailfish, Striped Marlin, And Blue Marlin Caught In Offshore Fishing

Oct. 22, 2005, Mike Kanzler, Isla San Marcos, Santa Rosalia Fishing Report, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

We're still dealing with windy days in the Santa Rosalia fishing area, but once again the end of the week saw fishable waters and some of the best fall action in recent years.

Santa Rosalia fishing weather is as nice as it gets temp-wise. Other than windy for most of the week the latter saw just beautiful conditions. Air temps are cooler in the morning hours to the mid 60s, with days in the mid 80s. Water temperatures are 78-81 degrees, and visibility is about 30-40 feet.

When I was ready to fish early this week, the wind came up out of the northwest and shut things down until Friday.

Even on Friday when I first woke at the usual O-Dark-Thirty it was gusting, so I went back to bed only to get back up at little later and noted the winds had subsided.

I grabbed the gear and made haste for the bait grounds, where I struggled due to the fact I was a bit late, so had to work for the needed mackerel.

I made for the bajos of Isla San Marcos and made a few drops with no results. But I kept getting good hits on the sounder, so decided to give some iron a try. That was the ticket. I started catching small yellowtail and nice bonita on nearly every drop. Then I hooked a nice yellowtail in the 20+ pound class, and when all was said and done I had a pair of nice yellows and a few smaller ones. It was just good to see that things are starting to liven up on my home bajo stomping grounds.

And down a few miles, offshore boats from San Lucas Cove where having banner Billfish, and even those scarce dorado, action.

On Saturday, I got up early and went over to my buddy's house and banged on his window. After a fashion, Daniel Lopez was ready to go. We made our bait and decided to give the reef a spin. We caught a nice cabrilla and too many Bonita with iron, but the yellows were a no-show.

Offshore we go, and we trolled up some nice dorado and listened to everyone earlier screaming, Double! Triple!, and as many as four billfish at a time coming into the spread... not just sailfish, but striped marlin and even small blue marlin out there.

However, other than the best Dorado bite of the year on an old longline tangle of floats and rope, we only had one good rip with a Marlin that hit the jig at full speed from the side and jumped the hook. Everyone else out there had multiple releases on billfish. Dorado were just as thick as one could want, like shooting them in a barrel really, and good fish to about 25 pounds. Best I've seen all year.

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