AERO CAL UPDATES - DORADO and MARLIN MAKE PRESENCE FELT - DID SOMEONE SAY TUNA? - PHOTO OF THE WEEK
AERO CAL UPDATES
At this point, amigos, it's hard to know which side is up. I just know that Aero California planes are still not "up!" Here's what we do know:
1. La Paz local newspaper wrote this week that several Aero Cal planes have been flown from Los Angeles to La Paz and back as well as Mexico City in "tests" for the inspectors.
2. Aero Cal now says (here we go again...) it will NOT be flying before the end of May.
3. Pilots and flight attendants are still on alert to get ready to return.
My honest opinion is that if you're holding Aero Cal tickets for the first week of June, you need to start thinking of other alternatives. Aero Cal could be up in the air and surprise us all and it's clear that something is sure going on. But, then again, we've been holding our breaths for almost 3 months now. Manana...manana...manana. It's easy to be pissed off at Aero Cal, but in reality, there's a lot of support for Aero Cal in La Paz. It's the Mexican government that's keeping Aero Cal on the ground.
Onto fishing...
WATERS WARM and SO DO THE FISH!
Ahhh..it's that time of year again when we got a little of everything going on! Lots of those lazy flojo marlin that were just lying around for several weeks have finally started getting with the program...and gotten hungry for boats working out've Las Arenas. In fact, even the East Cape boats were getting in on it with boats snaking up to fish the 88 spot and our buoys east of Punta Arenas. Sailfish and a snap of big tuna also perked interest (see story below). Of course, as is often the case at spots like the 88 or at El Bajo, huge fish can lurk, but everyone gets excited and charges out there the next day and POOF! Fish are gone. Right place right time, but you never know. It's that time of year when anything can happen!
As well, pargo, big old toad bonito, some yellowtail, some floater squid, and cabrilla mixed in with roosterfish for quite a buffet choice of species. Late in the week, even some dorado came up to check out the pangas so get ready...things are cooking!
For our boats that went out of La Paz, the pargo and fat cabrilla are still the ticket. There was some excitement because some floating sargasso weed (Mexican kelp) was seen in the channel which usually means dorado could be around, but nothing produced. Still, that's a good sign!
It's warm! Bring the sunscreen and your shorts!
FIRST PERSON REPORT
My amigo, Mark Rayor, is the owner of Vista Sea Sports on the East Cape running his scuba diving charter for all the East Cape hotels, but Mark is also an excellent fisherman and owner of the Jen Wren. Mark went mana-a-mano with a big 190 pound tuna this week. I'll let him tell it:
"The cramps are finally gone out of my arms so here's the story.
Pretty much the whole East Cape fleet is fishing the 88 right now. I hate fishing with the fleet! On my day off I want to hit a home run. There is no pressure to produce. I don't have a guy sitting next to me asking every 5 minutes "where are the fish
". I'm willing to strike out knowing there is the potential to hit one in the bleachers. My feeling is the odds of doing that are slim fishing in a crowd (Seems like the crowd keeps getting bigger but that is whole different story). Anyhow, we were about 25 miles straight out in front of our house, all by ourselves not another boat in sight. My real motive is to bag another broadbill but in the back of my mind there is always the tuna factor. Sure enough about 11 am we spotted some porpoise. As we approached we could see huge tuna crashing. I was licking my chops! We left the marlin lures out and I added a couple of cedar plugs. We made several passes through the porpoise with no luck. I chummed a few sardines and the tune came crashing but would not eat the jigs. We switched to live bait and started slow trolling sardines and mackerel. The tuna were totally line shy and would not bite anything with a hook in it. We made pass after pass without luck. Well, without any tuna. We did get a triple hook up on stripers. After about 2 and a half hours we were ready to give up. It didn't make sense to drop to lighter gear. Every time I would throw chum the bruisers would crash. Chuy and I had decided to make one more pass and call it a day when wham! This monster boiled on a trolled green back mackerel That was it. I stood in the corner toe to toe with this fish for 2 hours and 10 minutes before finally bringing it to gaff. They are tough and my butt was kicked. Luckily it was hooked perfectly in the corner of the mouth so there was no wear on the straight 80# mono.
On Jen Wren was skipper Jesus (Chuy) Cota, long time friend Don Oser and yours truly. If the name Don Oser sounds familiar, it is because together we caught the first 2 albacore ever documented in the Sea of Cortez."
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
Photo 1 - Mark Rayor's big 190 pound slug yellowfin tuna
Photo 2 - Gama "Da King" Flores from Cathedral City CA took this nice yellowtail on live bait off Cerralvo Island
That's my story!
Jonathan
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