Its4Reels!-Parker23
Well-known member
Original plan was to hoop the opening weekend but with all the albacore reports and great weather during the week our plans changed. We wanted albacore. Then the weather started to turn on us and by Thursday night it looked like it would be to rough and windy to make the run outside. We decided to take the It’s 4 Reels! to Ensenada and fish the calico’s on Saturday and head offshore on Sunday. Fishing with me on this trip was Frank “Pancho” Ochoa and Ruben “the kid”. We launched out of the Marina Coral Saturday morning and headed for Punta Banda and worked the boiler rocks and shoreline hard for 3-4 small calicos and a couple of small bonito. Bait we were using was small mackerel, fresh frozen squid, plastics, and iron. Conditions looked good water was 63-64 degrees but no fish. Here's the Kid with a mini bonito:
Punta Banda conditions were nice:
Decided to fish the coast just south of the Marina entrance and we started catching some decent sized sand bass, more bonito and a sculpin. Made a drift in front of the Las Rosas hotel for nada. Drifted the break wall inside the marina and caught more decent sized sand bass and small halibut. We had rented a slip for the night and spoke to a couple very cool guys that keep their boat at the Marina and they had fished outside around the 238 and saw lots of kelp paddies but no fish. Not a good sign for us. They passed all of their mini macks to us which we would put to use the next day. Thanks guys for the bait we really appreciated it. Spoke to some folks who fished the 475 Fathom area and they said the Dorado fishing was pretty decent for them. Also the cleaning area trash cans were half full of firecaracker sized yellowtail carcasses so we had high hopes. On Sunday we headed out around 6AM for the 475. Went to see if Mike had any bait. Nada. Headed to the Gordo’s bait barge for an insanely expensive “scoop” of ‘dines. Two scoops for $30 and it was literally two passes with the small dip net. Ride out was a little bumpy but not bad. Water inside Punta Banda was 64.5 degrees and dropped to as low as 58 degrees 5 miles out. Water started warming up and by the time it was up to 65 degrees we started running into acres of boiling bonito in the 4-8 lb class. We stopped and caught a few for the hoop nets. [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']We also ran into this plastic canister which had instructions in English and had a reference to a “Canon”. Not sure what it was so we left it alone:
We did not see many kelps in this area so we turned towards the 238 which was not too far away. At 31.33.442 & 117.10.833 we ran into a group of 7 to 10 kelp paddies. Did not see anybody home at any of the first 6 or 7 paddies. The only other boat we saw all day trolled by a paddy that was outside the group we were fishing and kept on going. We decided to fish it just for the heck of it and it instant bendo on the Dorado. I wish I could say we boated these fish but someone threw a jig right over the fish Pancho and I had on (can you guess who it was?) and with 2 hot dorado jumping and criss crossing you can imagine what happened. Both fish lost. Went back to the paddy and I tossed a mini mack and it was hammered by a nice 25lb bull. I was fishing a Penn Int’l level wind with 20 lb test and was lucky enough to have hooked him in the corner of the mouth:
Pancho had also hooked up to a nice female Dodo and we fought those fish to the boat and after a couple swings on the gaff by the Kid we had our fish in the boat:
I wish I could say we were able to pull more fish out but that was it. We had a long run back to the Marina and we still had the border crossing to deal with so we called it a day early and started to head back. We did stop on a few more kelps and the Kid lost a small yellow on a plastic. We also saw something that we had never seen before. We pulled up to a kelp paddy that was sitting in the middle of a temp break and it was full of baby molas. As we drifted the Molas showed no fear and swam directly for our drifting boat. They were really curious to see the outboard as it was on while we were drifting and they all came by for a close look. Very cool to see:
We also saw a couple of whales, dolphins, and more bonito. Great day on the water. Excellent conditions, just wish we had more time as the boat that we had seen earlier came back in as we were leaving the Marina with 8 Dorado 4 miles from where we were at. Go figure.
Now about the Mexican Navy. On Saturday as we were fishing inside Punta Banda we spotted one of the smaller Navy boats heading back to port. I said to Pancho “Watch them come over to inspect us”. Sure enough they made a sharp right turn and headed our way. I wasn’t worried as we had all our paper work in order. They pulled up and asked to see our fishing and boat permits along with our ID’s. They were interested to know where we bought them and how the tackle store where we purchased them had acquired them. I explained to them that it is my understanding that they are purchased directly from Mexico for the purpose of reselling them in the U.S.A. I believe they were just trying to determine the differences, if any, between those purchased directly in Mexico and the U.S. They thanked us for our cooperation they took off. They were very professional and polite and the whole thing took no more than 10-15 minutes. So anybody who was thinking of going to Mexico I say go. Make sure your paperwork is in order and you should be fine. Although I have not heard of any incidents on the roads lately use caution as you would anywhere and just try to drive during daylight hours. I will continue to go as often as I can.
Punta Banda conditions were nice:
Decided to fish the coast just south of the Marina entrance and we started catching some decent sized sand bass, more bonito and a sculpin. Made a drift in front of the Las Rosas hotel for nada. Drifted the break wall inside the marina and caught more decent sized sand bass and small halibut. We had rented a slip for the night and spoke to a couple very cool guys that keep their boat at the Marina and they had fished outside around the 238 and saw lots of kelp paddies but no fish. Not a good sign for us. They passed all of their mini macks to us which we would put to use the next day. Thanks guys for the bait we really appreciated it. Spoke to some folks who fished the 475 Fathom area and they said the Dorado fishing was pretty decent for them. Also the cleaning area trash cans were half full of firecaracker sized yellowtail carcasses so we had high hopes. On Sunday we headed out around 6AM for the 475. Went to see if Mike had any bait. Nada. Headed to the Gordo’s bait barge for an insanely expensive “scoop” of ‘dines. Two scoops for $30 and it was literally two passes with the small dip net. Ride out was a little bumpy but not bad. Water inside Punta Banda was 64.5 degrees and dropped to as low as 58 degrees 5 miles out. Water started warming up and by the time it was up to 65 degrees we started running into acres of boiling bonito in the 4-8 lb class. We stopped and caught a few for the hoop nets. [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']We also ran into this plastic canister which had instructions in English and had a reference to a “Canon”. Not sure what it was so we left it alone:
We did not see many kelps in this area so we turned towards the 238 which was not too far away. At 31.33.442 & 117.10.833 we ran into a group of 7 to 10 kelp paddies. Did not see anybody home at any of the first 6 or 7 paddies. The only other boat we saw all day trolled by a paddy that was outside the group we were fishing and kept on going. We decided to fish it just for the heck of it and it instant bendo on the Dorado. I wish I could say we boated these fish but someone threw a jig right over the fish Pancho and I had on (can you guess who it was?) and with 2 hot dorado jumping and criss crossing you can imagine what happened. Both fish lost. Went back to the paddy and I tossed a mini mack and it was hammered by a nice 25lb bull. I was fishing a Penn Int’l level wind with 20 lb test and was lucky enough to have hooked him in the corner of the mouth:
Pancho had also hooked up to a nice female Dodo and we fought those fish to the boat and after a couple swings on the gaff by the Kid we had our fish in the boat:
I wish I could say we were able to pull more fish out but that was it. We had a long run back to the Marina and we still had the border crossing to deal with so we called it a day early and started to head back. We did stop on a few more kelps and the Kid lost a small yellow on a plastic. We also saw something that we had never seen before. We pulled up to a kelp paddy that was sitting in the middle of a temp break and it was full of baby molas. As we drifted the Molas showed no fear and swam directly for our drifting boat. They were really curious to see the outboard as it was on while we were drifting and they all came by for a close look. Very cool to see:
We also saw a couple of whales, dolphins, and more bonito. Great day on the water. Excellent conditions, just wish we had more time as the boat that we had seen earlier came back in as we were leaving the Marina with 8 Dorado 4 miles from where we were at. Go figure.
Now about the Mexican Navy. On Saturday as we were fishing inside Punta Banda we spotted one of the smaller Navy boats heading back to port. I said to Pancho “Watch them come over to inspect us”. Sure enough they made a sharp right turn and headed our way. I wasn’t worried as we had all our paper work in order. They pulled up and asked to see our fishing and boat permits along with our ID’s. They were interested to know where we bought them and how the tackle store where we purchased them had acquired them. I explained to them that it is my understanding that they are purchased directly from Mexico for the purpose of reselling them in the U.S.A. I believe they were just trying to determine the differences, if any, between those purchased directly in Mexico and the U.S. They thanked us for our cooperation they took off. They were very professional and polite and the whole thing took no more than 10-15 minutes. So anybody who was thinking of going to Mexico I say go. Make sure your paperwork is in order and you should be fine. Although I have not heard of any incidents on the roads lately use caution as you would anywhere and just try to drive during daylight hours. I will continue to go as often as I can.
