Salmon Landed in Baja, Mexico

Here's a report from a friend of mine in Ensenada, Mexico

On 3-15-13 Mike Lovoi and his crew from Sacramento came down with an assortment of Western-Hoegee baits and were looking for the elusive yellowtail.  We worked hard in foggy, cold, then clear, warm than foggy, well you get the idea, conditions looking for them at all the usual spots but it would be a no go.  We fished many inshore spots and managed a nice haul of lings, reds and rockfish.  Those Western-Hoegee plastics were working especially well on the lings.

 

Saturday the 16th was the same as far as the yellows go but we did manage to get into the lings and rockfish again.

Now about the salmon.  Yes on 3-21-13 Alvin Mathis fishing with a Salas 6x jr caught a 17 lb King Salmon on the It's 4 Reels fishing the bajo off Ensenada.  The day before Pete Harms and Kenny Rangel fishing on Pete's boat "Pole Dancer" hooked 5 yellows and landed 3 off the north point of Todos Santos Island.  That was enough for me to get a crew together and chase them the next day.  Well "Pole Dancer" headed out to the area where the yellows appeared the day before while we headed for San Miguel Reef where we have found them the last couple of months.  There would be no yellows for anyone this day but while drifting the inside edge of the high spot in 75 ft. of water and with birds all over the place Alvin hooks up to something good.  It didn't fight like a yellow but it did take some drag.  We finally saw color and it was moving pretty fast which was most probably due to the large seal that was chasing it.  At first we thought it was a large bonito but as it came closer to the boat and with the seal all over it I said 'it's a #@?% salmon!".  I won't get into the details on how I tried to net this thing that was too big for the net but a perfect gaff head shot by yours truly and we had our first "It's 4 Reels" salmon.  The wind came up on us early but we did manage to incidentally catch a nice calico, a couple of reds and lings and assorted rockfish.  Water temp was 55-57 degrees on the high spot.