Tourney Time

[SoCalAngler]

I got back yesterday from my annual trip to Puerto Escondido to see my father and fish the Tripui tournament. This tourneys main focus is on Dorado but they do have a "other" division which includes all other fishes except billfish. The fishing for Dorado was tough this year, which may be a good thing, as I spoke to a local and he told me that no Dorado means no hurricanes. Though they could use the rain as last year there was very little.

I don't take a lot of pictures of fishing because if I did I would have way too many to look at, but I will include a few of this trip with my report.

To though's of you that have never been to Loreto or the Puerto Escondido area, which is 17 miles south of Loreto, I would highly suggest you plan a trip down sometime. Even when the fishing is tough to their standards in my mind it is still very good.

Here is a picture of the launching area, restaurant, club house and office area of Puerto Escondido. The bay and port area are huge this is just where you launch from.



Here is a picture of part of the bay called Juncalito just north of my dads place. I took the quad up there for this shot.



This picture is taken the second morning of the tourney at sun up. The island to the right is called Carmen where two years ago in this area I caught and released around a 225 lb Thresher. Sorry for the quality but we were running at about 27 knots and I was steering with one hand and taking the picture with the other...no fine adjustments here.



Even though we spent most of the two days of the tourney looking for Dorado they eluded us. We only saw two one a little rata about 12 to 15 lbs which I think our bigger bait scared away and another in the 30 lb range the boiled on our trolling jigs but never grabbed one. Other boats did ok and the Dorado the largest went over 36 lbs and for this two fish tourney the winning boat got two that totaled over 65 lbs. Some boats did score good numbers of fish but just any in any good size.

Fish are still all over the place there as we saw a couple of Marlin and three, Sails though we only baited one. As I sent back a live bait to be slow trolled in front of the one Sail I was picked up by something else. When it grabbed my bait it took a very short run and dropped the bait killing it. I reeled up the dead bait and cast it out in  front of the Sailfish, it came over all light up looked at it and sunk out. We did not spend any time looking to see if it would pop back up as we were hunting the dorado.

Though the Dorado did not want to come out and play with us we were able to still score other fish. We made stops at some high spots looking for yellows. I myself caught 5 yellows, one 17 to 20 lb Cabrea on the iron and one Jack Crevalle released in the 30 lb range on bait.

No giants this year but still nice fishing even though we spent way more time looking for Dorado. Here is a shot of around a 27 lb yellow.





I was on the leader board until the last half hour of the tourney in the "other" division with this fish below. I was barely edged out by a team the made a run way out to the trench area in the Sea of Cortez. Their gamble paid off and they boated a single YFT that went over 80 lbs. Ok, ok I know I wasn't "barely edged out". Good job guys.




Team Pacifico out  

[wallacewt]

nice for us down under to see your world

[Irish Jigger]

Great report,thank's for sharing. Beautiful looking country with great weather and fishing.  Nice Yellowtail you got there,well done.

[SoCalAngler]

Thanks guys for the kind words. I would like to add a little to my post.

When fishing for these mossbacks it is very critical to use the right gear, know how to use said gear and pull on your fish. The last stop of the tourney I caught two yellows on the yo yo iron. We had a guy fishing with us and his grandson and he was not that skilled in fishing. On this stop we were fishing a high spot about 165 feet deep. The bait was stacked up right off the spot in about 190 feet deep with the tails above them. Well this guy was fishing bait on a dropper loop with a Daiwa 30 2 speed with 50 lb test, my pops gear by the way. Well he gets picked up and puts the reel in gear, points the rod tip strait at the fish trying to put the reel into low gear and just lets this fish take him into the rocks. I said ok lesson learned next drop lets try a few new things. First have the reel all ready in low when you reach the bottom, crank up like 8 to 10 cranks after reaching the bottom, when you put the reel into gear make sure you get a good bend on the rod to put pressure on the fish and lastly when the fish stops running short pump the fish and crank like mad to turn the fish away from the structure.

Well we reposition the boat up wind of the high spot. I drop down my iron a couple of times and am met with another yellowtail. I'm fishing a Avet JX 2 speed, a reel I got to especially use in Baja, with 300 yards of 60 lb spectra topped with around 90 yards of 40 lb mono matched up to one of my pops 7 foot 40 lb sticks This was the 33 ponder and it put up a good fight but not really any problems for this set up and never got into the spectra backing.

Well I grab a cold drink and watch the other guy fish the live bait. After we move and slide over the high spot where all the bait is stacked up I see this guy drop back down below the bait right to the bottom. I think to myself this is not going to be good but he does crank up but only 3 turns on the reel. He gets bit again and again fumbles to get the reel in low gear. This fish rips line off the reel with him holding on for dear life. But to my amazement he is not rocked.....yet. The fish stops his run and this guy just sits there. I tell this guy to crank on your fish and he says to me "I cant the fish is pulling to hard". Well as he rests so does the fish and this time I know how it will end. Sure enough he never got the fishes head pointed away from the structure and on the second run of the fish he gets rocked and busts off. Fish 2 this guy 0.

The wind had picked up and we drifted way to fast to drop down anywhere near the high spot again though we tried. This guy lost his only shot at fish because we would not listen even though we went over the drill with him not once but again after his first mess up.

Heck we all were new at one time but to disregard people trying to help you catch a fish you get what you deserve. Then later he said that the drag was not set right on the reel, like he would know. I set my drag with a spring scale before fishing and I tested the drag on the reel he was fishing by hand after that comment. His reel was setup for 50 lb had more drag pressure than the reel I was using. Some guys will never learn.