Fishing was disappointing this time. Maybe 10 small groupers, mostly sardineros, ranging from 2 to 12 lbs. Between Thursday evening and Sunday morning, I'd estimate we spent 12 to 14 hours fishing, most of it trolling diving lures just above rocky reefs. That also brought us several rock bass in the one-and-a-half to two pound range, which is larger than what we usually get bottom fishing with bait. Trolling higher in the water column yielded Sierra mackeral and triggers. Bottom fishing was a huge bust this time, possibly due to the tides under a new moon. Saturday afternoon we went out about two miles hoping for pintos and calicos but got blown around a bit and came up with nothing but big triggers. Scuttled that plan and went back in to a within a mile of shore and caught 3 or 4 groupers trolling.
Sunday morning we fished about an hour and a half caught only two rock bass and a 2-lb sardinero. Quitla, a local guy who functions as our guide whenever he goes out with us, noted an unusually high density of bait fish and wondered if our lures simply had too much to compete with. But that could bode well for the future.
Two huge sea turtles (or maybe the same one twice), a finback whale, some sea lions and the usual gangs of dolphins came by to further enrich the experience, although one of the sea lions did cost us a $13 lure.
Our craft, by the way, is a 21-foot panga that was re-conditioned with a couple of the ribs getting cut out in the center to allow walking up and down the boat. It's pushed by a 30 HP Yamaha that doesn't go real fast but is very fuel efficient. That allows us to troll as much as we want without having to haul a ton of gas to Lobos.
It was a disappointing catch for Lobos. But it would have been a fine catch within two miles of Rocky Point.
