We departed from San Felipe heading South into the Sea of Cortez about 11:00 am Sunday morning. It was the Jose Andres's first and my first of two fishing trips this year. The group consisted of 6 fisherman from San Diego, two from Santa Cruz and 10 guys from the Bakersfield Area. Our first stop was down around the Salsipuedes. We caught a lot of spotted bass with a few yellowtail, pargo and cabrilla mixed in. From there we pulled up anchor and headed to San Francisquito to make bait. While waiting for the bait to come in squid appeared, big ones, unfortunately no live bait but a lot of cut squid.

Loaded with squid we fished the San Francisquito area the following day. The yellowtail fishing picked up a little and we managed about 40 yellowtail, mostly taken on iron. The bait situation remained the same with more huge squid being caught that night. On Wednesday afternoon at San Bernabe the yellowtail bite really turned on, we landed about 100 yellowtail in about two hours just before dark. All really nice fish averaging about 10-15 pounds with the larger fish just over 20 pounds.

Thursday we headed to Refugio in search of some cabrilla; what we found was some cold water, slow fishing and millions of tiny flies. The flies didn't bite but were quite a nuisance.

We finished up our trip on Friday fishing around the Enchanted Islands for a ¸ day. The area provided a wide variety of fish including, sierra, cabrilla, yelllowtail, pargo and our large fish of the trip: a 33.14-pound grouper. The grouper was caught by Rich Duarte of San Jose.

As for the gear and tackle, a lot cabrilla and the prize winning grouper were hooked on the troll with Mirrolure 111MR, solid pink, orange and green and gold. The yellowtail seemed to like chrome and blue and white iron although just about anything worked when the bite got hot. A high speed reel was a must, at least 4:1 and one that can easily handle 40 or 50# line. I am sure Tom at the Longfin will be more than happy to set you up.

In general the weather and the water were cool, the food was exceptionally great and the treatment of the fishermen, like it has been for the past 15 years, were treated very well. My compliments to crew of the Jose Andres, the guides, Tony Jr. and Don Tony. I would also like to commend all of our fishermen; they fished hard, even when fishing was tough.

Good Fishing,
Edward Valov