Fishing Hot Spots, of Rhinelander,WI., brought 25 people
to Rancho Leonero on the East Cape on March 22nd. Seventeen
guys and girls fished for five days each spread out over
seven days. Several of us stayed on until the 5th of April,
and I fished for 14 days straight.
Starting on the 22nd, the weather was great, 78 to 84 degrees
and mostly sunny, with a very slight wind from the south.
I fished on board MARLIN INC.,a 30 foot Topaz with Capt.
Congo Cosio, mate Hugo and my long time fishing partner
Lorenzo Moron. Lorenzo is usually the lead captain of the
Rancho Leonero fleet. This crew and I have fished together
quite a lot, over 50 days in 1996.
At the start we fished south east of Los Frailes about
25 miles. We found the stripers right on the blue water
line. Each of our first two days we caught five marlin and
a few Dorados By the 24th the wind was from the north and
fishing was tougher, so we tried inshore for roosters, and
it was great! Within 100 yards of shore, between the lighthouse
and El Rincon the roosterfish and sierra were everywhere.
We caught and released five roosters, the largest weighing
37lbs on a hand scale.
On the 25th we left early at 6am to find blue water for
the rest of our group of five boats. We found it 28.9 miles
NE of Leonero, and the fish were there! We tagged four marlin
by 10am, all larger than the ones earlier, in the 160 to
180 range. Many large dorado were mixed in, and we boated
nine over 30lbs. Although we failed to hook it, we were
thrilled to see, bait, and watch a broadbill in the same
spot!
Fish were found every day through the 28th. All the Fishing
Hot Spots guys caught marlin and dorado. Many of these guys
were new to saltwater fishing and were awestruck. Our 17
guests caught and released 26 stripers and two were kept.
Dr. Mark Carlson, from Rockford, Ill., Caught 3 marlin and
seven large roosters!
On the 29th, while fishing with Bob Watson, owner of Eat
Me Lures, I saw more striped marlin than I have ever seen
in one day - 52!!! We were 21.5 miles off Leonero in the
blue water. There were pods of up to six fish within 20
feet of each other! We had triple hookups twice!!
The 30th through the 4th was somewhat overcast and cooler,
but the fishing was the same when you got into blue water.
The crew of MARLIN INC. tagged 37 stripers and ate dorado
every night. We caught 1 wahoo in all the time on the water.
Marlin were caught on mackerel 60%, lures 40%. On a few
days we had no live bait, dead bait worked if trolled at
about 4kph. The lure colors that worked best were pink and
white and bleeding mackerel (9 on the pink, 5 on the bleeder).
Most dorado were caught on turbo jet head jigs, and the
color didn't seem to matter. The key to the fishing on the
East Cape was the blue water. It changed location by day
depending on the wind, but was moving in from 30 miles out
to just under 18. The blue water marked a change in water
temperature from 68 inshore to 73 degrees.
