Oregon Dorado Means El Nino is Here
In a major sign that El Niño warm-water conditions have arrived, an Oregon offshore angler has caught a dorado, also known as mahimahi, according to a report from StatesmanJournal.com. Dorado are biting well as far north as California’s Channel Islands, but few expected this tropical species to ever swim up into the normally cool waters off Oregon. But then again, El Niño conditions change everything along the Pacific Coast. In the past, warm El Niño conditions brought blue marlin and hammerhead sharks into Southern California waters, so dorado off Oregon is not that far fetched.
John Boyer and his daughter Cindy Boyer of Salem, Oregon, were fishing from their private boat, Myrtle Bee, late last week about 45 miles out of Depoe Bay, trolling for albacore when the dorado struck a cedar plug, according to the report. Cindy Boyer picked up the rod, and almost immediately saw the fish jump. From fishing in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez, she knew just was it was — a dorado.
They landed the fish, which weighed 14 pounds, but when they returned to their home port of Newport, Oregon, other anglers were incredulous. A lot of people at the Newport docks never had seen anything like it, Cindy Boyer said. Later when she showed others the photo of her dorado, people didn’t believe her. “They’re like, ‘Oh, you photo-shopped that’,” Boyer said. The Boyers barbecued their fresh dorado, according to the StatesmanJournal report.
