Fishing Las Conchas' side of Marua Estuary help in June

Eastwood

New Member
The last few times I have been down to Las Conchas, I have had limited success with kastmasters. Other than one nice Corvina my first cast once, I normally get skunked shore fishing. I even tried the Marua esturary several times and see a bunch of fish jumping out of the water, but none of them want the kastmaster. What am I doing wrong here? Should I take a kayak out further? Should I try a different lure or rig setup? The pompano rig never seems to work for me given the seaweed. I am going to try the zman minnowz setup, but I am not sure that will fare better than the kastmaster. Any help would be great!
 

mondone

Whitecaps
Pearl eye z-man with a blue/pearl glitter minnow-z does the trick every time shore fishing in the Morua estuary.
 

estevan

Active Member
Those fish jumping at the estuary are probably bonefish and they're not going to bite. I THINK they're spawning, but I'm no biologist. I've tried throwing everything I had at schools of them with no luck, but a lot of times you can find some corvina in the same area, you just have to time the tides right.
 

mondone

Whitecaps
Those fish jumping at the estuary are probably bonefish and they're not going to bite. I THINK they're spawning, but I'm no biologist. I've tried throwing everything I had at schools of them with no luck, but a lot of times you can find some corvina in the same area, you just have to time the tides right.
I actually caught a small bonefish with all the corvina I caught in Morua on the pearl eye z-man with a blue/pearl glitter minnow-z on the 12th of this month.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Those fish jumping at the estuary are probably bonefish and they're not going to bite. I THINK they're spawning, but I'm no biologist. I've tried throwing everything I had at schools of them with no luck, but a lot of times you can find some corvina in the same area, you just have to time the tides right.
The fish jumping out of the water are mullet.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Seconded. The back coves down past San Jorge are loaded with'em. We call them Happy Mullet because they're always jumping. You'd snag one before they ever take bait or a lure.
You guys ever use mullet for bait? I used to think they jumped out of the water because something was chasing but I no longer believe that LOL.
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
So Joe,

Mullet (Lisa) used to be the best live bait for Totuava during their spawning runs up the mouth of the Colorado River. The Mullet used to spawn right here in Yuma, in fact even in the canal only two blocks from my home. After spawning they would die by the millions and stink up the whole town.

In the old days before the modern canal system was built here in Yuma the Mullet would swim right into the farm fields thinking that they were headwater tributaries of the river system and obviously quickly croak, but in the days before modern chemical fertilizers they were a windfall for the farmers here. Bet you never tasted a truly "organic" cantaloupe or watermelon grown in natural dead fish.

They used to be the most popular disco deep fried fish in Penasco. They are no longer part of the ecosystem here since no water has flowed from the Colorado River since the 1980's.

They were netted by the millions every year in the upper Gulf to be ground up into fish meal to feed the long gone pollos in chicken farms that used to be around Caborca.

JJ
 

Jungle Jim

Well Known Member
So Joe,

The reason Mullet jump is that they are gulping a mouth full of air like Goldfish (Carp). Mullet can live in water with very low oxygen levels especially like exists in the filthy harbor at PP therefore need a little jolt of O2 every so often.

They are filter feeders just like Sardines and Anchovies so rarely take a bait or lure. I've caught a few when trolling when the lure snags them on the back mostly on the shallow rock and sand reefs between Isla San Jorge and the beach at Salinas Point. In ideal conditions they will get close to two feet long. Those are the hogs that I always keep as they are excellent grilled on the barbie. They are bony and scaly but not as bad as a Bonefish or Ladyfish that I never keep as my dogs won't even eat them.

When I was a kid in Newport Beach Commifornia they would spawn up in the Santa Ana River slough at the head of Newport Bay. When they reached the muddy creek at the head of the bay which is now where John Wayne Airport sits we would take a pitchfork and stab into the solid mass of fish until we got a gunny sack full. I would keep a few of the big egg laden females to fry up and the rest I would sell to the crab fishermen for use in their traps.

The life of Mullet is very similar to Salmon with the breeding adults returning to the fresh water creek of their birth.

By the way Joe, check out www.fishandsave.com. They have the best killer deals on deep diving lures anywhere. As for the marks on "El Producer" I'll not reveal them on this site. When you get your new money pit sea worthy I'll let you tag along and punch them in yourself!

Later,

JJ
 
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