Baja Bytes – May 3, 2022
Que Pasa
From the border to Ensenada, down to San Quintin, the local sportfishing fleets offer adventure fishing trips offshore to catch monster-sized bluefin tuna seldom found this close in range.
BAJA (Norte)
Tijuana Bull Ring
There is a typical mix of small to medium-sized reds, bocaccio, treefish, barber pole, bank perch, and whitefish outside the kelp. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
On the weather side of North Island, the yellowtail bite perked up Friday with excellent signs of 10 to 15-pound fish, but we have not received any Island reports since. We did receive information saying that South Island still is dealing with dirty water while North Island is clean.
Recently fish were caught on bait, trolled Rapalas, and a couple of yo-yo fish, but it sounded like they preferred colt snipers. So mega-bait sank out and fished like yo-yos.
A few fish in the 10 to 15-pound range were caught on trolled Nomad DTX minnows. Chlorophyll charts show that there’s still a good amount of green water, mainly around South Island. Keep an eye on this. If it continues to clean up, there is a good chance the yellowtail bite will continue to pick up with better odds of finding action on the surface. …Fishdope.com
Upper 500 / Double 220 / 295 / Hidden Bank
The big news from this zone is that the cows are moving into the mix with our first word of fish over 200 pounds picked off on a balloon/California Flyer combo yesterday. Check out John’s report below for more on that. Also, a few fish over 200 pounds were reported on sports boats yesterday from this zone. …Fishdope.com
A few fish in the 10 to 15-pound range were caught on trolled Nomad DTX minnows. Chlorophyll charts show that there’s still a good amount of green water, mainly around South Island. Keep an eye on this. If it continues to clean up, there is a good chance the yellowtail bite will continue to pick up with better odds of finding action on the surface. …Fishdope.com
Ensenada
We are pleased to share that we were present at the Traditional Family Sport Fishing Tournament of Orilla, organized by the Club “Pura Vida de Ensenada,” which was a State selected to choose fishermen who will comply with the P.R. 8th B.C. Sport Fishing selection will represent us in the 2022 National Championship held in September in Huatulco, Oaxaca. This family event brought together more than 140 anglers, in addition to men, women, and children.
Dr. Alma Rosa García Juarez, (INAPESCA), was present. Rogelio Sanchez, Director of Aquaculture, also counted on the presence of the federal authorities of SEMAR, represented by the Captain of Corbeta el C. Hector Juarez. The CONAPESCA was represented by the official, Manuel Nah.
We appreciate all the attention and big congratulations to the organizers, the C. Roberto García and Reynaldo Flores, and their STAFF for this great initiative to promote a healthy family spread and responsible fishing.
San Quintin
Pictures worth a 1,000 words…Cristian Catian
Tony Reyes Trip
Gary Barnes-Webb shared photos of some of the 911 fish caught by 21 anglers on their recent Tony Reyes Trip.
Bahia de Los Angeles
We recently returned from the Gulf side of Baja, Bahia De Los Angeles. Great day on the water with David, Jason, and Fernando Sportfishing.
The Snowy Grouper was caught at 400-feet deep on a Lead master 300-gram Speed jig. I fished with the new Accurate Tern2 500. The casting is fantastic; it goes a mile with no professional overrides. I caught a half-dozen yellowtail on Jigs.
Such a beautiful time of year, out on the water and the desert drive — the cactus was in bloom.
I love my “Baja Time!”.. Lori Byron-Sachau
Baja Sur
COASTAL MARATHON
Ascensión Bay
So, here’s something of interest for all of my friends. I zoomed in on one of my photos of the Great Blue Heron as I was curious about which way his eyes pointed. It looks like they point right down his beak. In the animal world, you can generally distinguish between predator and prey by how the eyes are set in the head. Raptors (hawks and eagles, and owls) can be identified by having talons, and their eyes are pointed forward. Other than raptors, most birds have their eyes set into the side of their head and point 90 degrees from their beak. Like wolves and foxes, Mammals also have eyes pointing forward, while rabbits and squirrels have eyes pointed 90 degrees from their nose. Add to that, the prey animals and birds generally have stationary eyes. Meaning they can’t move their eyes within their socket. They have to turn their head to change views. It seems the deck is stacked against them. I sometimes noodle over what my life would be like if I could only see 90 degrees in either direction from my nose and how easy it would be to sneak up on me directly from my front. …Ross Zoerhof
Bahía Concepción
Nathan Burbey finds a variety of trophy-sized fish signaling that Baja Spring has arrived in his area.
Loreto
The retreating Easter holiday crowd has created a considerable yellowtail vacuum at the filet tables. As a result, very few boats are working Lobo or even the close-by spot, La Cholla. That should change shortly, with a few tournaments only a week away! For the boats working Coronado Island, the cabrilla are biting! Triggerfish are thick and pesty at the mouth of the white sand bay/beach.
The weather has been fantastic, with springtime winds and near 90-degree temperatures. Sargasso is washing up onshore in larger clumps as expected for early May.
Two photos — a typical scene at our filet table. The four-footed audience gets a front-row seat on any upper-level seat whenever Tony comes back with fish. A chicken or two can be found in the lower sections. …Rick Hill,
La Paz
Rotary International Yellowtail Tournament held on April 24 -25th attracted 33 boats with 121 participants. Both days, they enjoyed excellent weather, with most fish caught locally in Bahia La Paz.
Many teams that arrived at the scale with 18 yellowtail weighed in as well as several cabrilla, and one pargo
The largest yellow weighing 35.4 pounds caught by Cesar Del Río from La Paz received a Volkswagen Saveiro truck valued at $15,000.
The second-largest yellow weighed 33. 9-pounds and the third weighed 32.3-pounds, all caught on mackerel.
There was also a 21.3-pound cabrilla and 34.3-pound pargo that won prizes
The event was sponsored by 11 individuals and businesses covering the expenses. Plus, over 15 local and U.S.-based companies provided many prizes, according to Kit McNear, Tournament Director.
Photo
At the La Paz Charity Yellowtail tournament organized by the local Rotary Club, we won one of the jackpots.
We are extremely pleased that our clients made it to the weigh station and the winners’ list! …Felipe Valdez
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of April 26-May 2, 2022
East Cape
The water is warming fast, up from 75 to 80 degrees, a good start. Clear and flat all week! Warmer 80-degree water from Pulmo south.
Beautiful spring weather temperatures. Highs are in the low 80s, with cool evenings and mornings and clear skies!
An excellent week of fishing! The water has warmed this past week. The five-degree jump in temperature has improved the fishing! Temperatures are 75-degrees in front of the hotel, but they jump to 80-degrees from the Lighthouse south.
There have been dorado limits for most anglers with nice-sized fish to 45 pounds. Almost all were taken under the numerous shark buoys and floating debris south of the Lighthouse. Live sardina worked best, but they also took trolled lures and ballyhoo.
Lots and lots of stripers! Tailers everywhere, south mixed with the dorado. We baited eight and released three last Monday. Some big fish to 175-pounds. We were taking trolled lures and ballyhoo.
Lots of small roosters were taken, especially around the new marina entrance. A few 10 to 20-pounders were mixed with the small roosters. There are many small ones, and it should be a good year for them. They were taking sardina.
There were many African pompano, with limits for all the anglers targeting them. Boats are drift-fishing sardina along the Pulmo Park boundary. Nice fish to 7 to 8-pounds. Boats caught all on live sardina.
Some nice-sized grouper were taken off the bottom this week. Most on chunked skipjack….Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
The water temperature is warming, ranging from a chilly 67 on the Pacific side to 75 degrees near Vinorama. Warmer water is found closer to shore to about five miles out, where cooler currents are sweeping through. Overall, the conditions are rebounding nicely, with cleaner blue water pushing in, as we are still in a transition period. This year, everything seems like we are a month behind, so hopefully, we see more of a consistent pattern and improved fishing action with this new month.
Not much is going on with the surface action for the exotic pelagic species. The fishing action was centered over the various rocky high spots to the north of Punta Gorda. Anglers using a combination of bait and yo-yo style jigs are working hard to find a variety of species. Although they have to deal with aggressive sea lions that have taken up residence on these same grounds, waiting around for anglers to arrive and then hooking into fish to get easy meals can be very frustrating. The Pacific bonito, a few nice cabrilla, red snapper, and amberjack have been the most common catches.
Yellowfin tuna have been caught occasionally on the grounds from San Luis to Iman Banks, but not every day. These tuna are hanging around in small schools and are being very selective. The few hooked have been striking on squid strips, and average sizes have been 60 to 80-pounds, excellent quality. We are optimistic that we should see some more consistent action with the weather settling down and warming up. A few wahoo have been seen swimming around; these fish usually go on a bite this time of year, so we are waiting to see what happens in the coming weeks.
Not much is going on close to shore now. We should see the annual migration of schooling mullet appear later this month. This will bring in more jacks, roosterfish, dogtooth snapper, and other species. Things can change in a hurry this time of year, and every season can be different in what develops…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Weekend fun on the Pisces 35′ and 32′ Bill Collectors: Anglerette Donna Candioti landed a bull dorado aboard the Pisces 35′ Bill Collector, and her group also released a striped marlin. The previous day, on the Pisces 32′ Bill Collector, they targeted yellowfin on a half-day trip and made it happen. Then the guys finished up with some bonito. (Yes, we know how to cook them up good in Cabo!)
Angler Mike Brin caught his first wahoo EVER today aboard Pisces 45′ Chasin’ Tail, and what a nice wahoo at that! This one weighed in at over 43-pounds, and he also managed to release a nice (estimated) 120-pound striped marlin during his half-day trip with friends.
The Pisces 31′ Rebecca caught bull mahi-mahi and released three striped marlin. Other boats also released marlin and hooked tuna. Things are picking up!
Wahoo today! What a surprise for anglers from Tennessee on the Pisces 31′ Tiburon, who also caught a few yellowfin. Fishing is improving these days; although still inconsistent and fast-changing, we’ve now had a few more pelagic species showing up. … Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
