Baja Bytes – May 31, 2022
Que Pasa
Locals in the La Ventana/Muertos Bay area below La Paz are calling this one of the best roosterfish bites in the last decade! They declare this will be a once-in-a-lifetime “season to remember” if the bait remains throughout the summer.
Upon hearing about the outstanding roosterfish bite, fly anglers worldwide are flocking to the area to try their hand at catching the trophy-sized roosterfish that are being caught and released in unprecedented numbers.
BAJA (Norte)
Tijuana Bull Ring
A few legal-sized barracuda are showing down in the Bull Ring area, but there is no volume yet. So, it’s unlikely that these are the migratory fish that we have been expecting.
Calico bass fishing remains steady, with decent bites happening both mornings and afternoons. Your best bet, though, is to try and score some anchovy. The small sardines will work if you can’t get the anchovy.
Want rockfish? Those have been biting fairly well on the flats out toward South Island. The Whistler hard-bottom has been great for the usual mix of mostly smaller-sized, mixed red rockfish species and some tree fish and bocaccios, but a few nicer-sized fish were in the mix. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
The boats report that they are metering plenty of yellowtail at the Islands, but getting them to bite is difficult.
They also report excellent sonar schools along the weather side of North Island and in the Middle Grounds, but none of the fish are biting aside from one or two here or there.
Unfortunately, conditions aren’t likely to improve much with the wind coming out of the south over the next few days, so we will have to wait and see how it plays out.
The bass fishing has been pretty good on plastics fishing the Boiler Rocks in the Middle Islands area. …Fishdope.com
The yellowtail are showing in an area two miles inside the south end of Todos Santos. Local pangas score by trolling X-Rap Rapalas and throwing surface iron to breezers.
The water is extremely dirty outside the Island, and the local tuna have bugged out. …Fishdope.com
Upper 500 / 295 / 238 / Banda Bank
Much of the U.S. fleet, both sport and private boats, are working areas to the north, but the Ensenada boats continue to fish the area and do well.
The local panga fleet out of Ensenada is picking off a surprising number of bluefin trolling Rapalas and Nomad Mad-Macs during the daytime. However, it remains all about fishing the knife jigs on sonar marks at night, anywhere from 50 to 300-feet deep.
There are also decent kelp paddy yellowtail down this way, and it appears several boats did well over the last few days.
Tackle and tactics remain entirely unchanged.
The recommended tackle:
- 25 to 30-pound outfit for kelp paddy yellowtail or small bluefin on fly-line bait.
- 40 to 60-pound gear for daytime fishing with smaller-sized 80 to 150-gram jigs and sinker-rig sardine.
- 80 to 100-pound outfit for nighttime fishing with medium-to-large 200 to 500-gram jigs.
- Be sure to bring plenty of fluorocarbon for bait fishing.
- Very heavy 150 to 300-pound mono leaders work well for fishing the jigs.
The bite is nearly always 100% on the jigs during the night. The knife jig, like the Mustad Rip Roller in red, is always hot. Also, the smaller jigs work better than the big ones – 150 to 200 to 300-grams is best.
Colt Snipers from 100 to 120 grams work well at night and during the day.
The following advice cannot be stressed enough! First, fish HEAVY (80-pound minimum) tackle at night while fishing the jigs! The fish cannot see the line at night, so there is no benefit to using the lighter line at night.
During the day, the fish bite on a little bit of everything. We have heard of many fish on spreader bars, sinker rigs, small flat falls/colt snipers, and fly-lined bait. In addition, there has been plenty of action casting jig on schools feeding on the surface. When schools are breezing, puddling, or foaming, the surface irons, jerk baits, stick baits, and poppers have been getting bit.
Hot tip from Louie out of Ensenada: Nomad Mad-Macs in blue sardine trolled between 11 and 15-mph with no swivels or terminal tackle, just straight-tied to the leader to help them swim properly worked great.
The Polaris Supreme posted an excellent tip for fishing these knife jigs on the smaller grade: they recommended winding through any bites as these fish aren’t big enough to choke the big jigs down. Using the rod to set the hook will likely rip the jig right out of the mouth. Winding through the bite helps get the bottom hooks to set before the jig pulls out of the mouth of the fish. …Fishdope.com
Ensenada
Bluefin fever continues.
San Quintin
Catian Family and bluefin a perfect match…George Catian
Gonzaga Bay
More Info
I am a southern California native who moved part-time to San Felipe to further my angler goals of catching more fish. I have a house and air BnB in Pete’s Camp in town and a beach house in the South Campos towards Gonzaga. I have fished in Gonzaga Bay alone for the last five years, and this is the first year that I have fished my own vessel down in Baja (shout-out big bass sportfishing and Bebo for teaching me how to get on the fish). …Dakilla 760
Baja Sur
Ascensión Bay
Ahhh! These blustery days of May in beautiful Bahia Asuncion! Nice & cool. …Shari Bondy
Loreto
There’s been a lot of sitting around and watching the past few weeks. It’s the time of year that anyone living in Loreto knows about. “When do the dorado show up (close to town)?” Take a look at your neighbor’s mango tree, and the first hints of red will signal the start of dorado catching! The sardina are in town down at the public beach; the mangos are 98% ready, so break out 5/0 hooks and the tuna feathers. We have arrived!
None of the Marina-based boats have struck the summer gold so far, and that might be because few are looking. The biggest action for the Loreto boats has been just taking the beach crowd to Coronado Island. Maybe it’s related to the covid recovery and being stuck at home and wearing a mask!
The 10 to 18-pound yellowtail are still hitting live bait at Punta Lobo and Tinturera.
Surface action has perked up with a big mix of the rocky coast crowd. Cabrilla are thick and active north of “Doctor’s Point,” with various snappers and firecrackers in the mix.
Cabrilla will be the best target until the dorado show up hungry for the Loreto sardina buffet. …Rick Hill, Click Here
Keep a close eye on those mangos and throw the boat in the water when the green turns a subtle red!
The cabrilla inspection and quality assurance team.
Captain Tony returning from a family outing of bass enthusiasts with a load of cabrilla, pargo, yellow snapper, a firecracker, and an odd triggerfish.
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for the Week of May 18-25, 2022
La Ventana
Paul Lombardi’s daughter Katie got her first rooster on the fly today with Fedilito! Around 60 pounds! …Gary Bulla Flyfishing
El Cardonal
Torneo de pesca el Cardonal 2022 – Cardonal fishing tournament 2022.
1st place Marlin 114.20 lbs. – Blackbeard teams. Fisherman Tayron Unzon.
$52,800.00 plus $67,150 pesos jackpot of $500 and $1,500.00
2nd place gold of 49.00 lbs. – Ardor Team Angler Todd Berardi,
$35,200.00 plus $108,800.00 jackpots of $500.00, $1,000.00 and $1,500.00
Gonzalo Alamea Camacho, Bisbee Tournament Advisor. Cel. 6131136276
Correo: gonzaloac878@gmail.com
East Cape
Fishing is heating up on the Sea of Cortez. Good-sized #dorado and #roosterfish serving up the action. Great job, Captain Nestor and Deckhand Ailton! …Scorpion Sportfishing
Nice rooster landed by angler Tim Harbolt on the Rosa Maria with captain Israel Castro and Guide Mark Daugherty out of Hotel Palmas De Cortez…Anibal Miranda
Sum, some, summertime! Yellowfin return to East Cape. …Elmar Hernandez
Puerto Los Cabos
Moderate crowds of anglers arrive in Los Cabos. Weather patterns are very comfortable, a bit cool, although skies have been clear and sunny, and highs have reached the upper 80s. Lows have been around 72 degrees. It’s a perfect time to visit Los Cabos.
Most sportfishing charters have been fishing areas from La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis, and Vinorama. Bait options have remained similar, with caballito, sardina, and anchoveta being available and ballyhoo or slabs of squid if desired.
There isn’t much offshore surface action now. Striped marlin spread out on offshore grounds, 1150 Spot, and others. Some larger bull dorado have been caught, but not in significant numbers.
As a result of the warmer water, there are very few wahoo in this area, although we did hear reports that near Los Frailes and Cabo Pulmo, some good early morning wahoo action was found by trolling Rapalas.
Yellowfin tuna were hanging around near Vinorama, though getting them to come up and bite has been nearly impossible on most days, as we only saw a handful of yellowfin tuna brought in for a whole week. These fish were in the 20 to 30-pound class.
Fishing the various rocky high spots, average depths of 80 to 200-feet, using a combination of yo-yo jigs and various bait, produced varied results from spot-to-spot, day-to-day, every day a bit different. We saw many species, including red snapper to 15-pounds, yellow snapper, barred pargo, Almaco jacks, black skipjack, jack crevalle, triggerfish, bonito, whitefish, leopard grouper, and even one Cortez halibut and black sea bass.
Closer to shore, anglers have been catching some nice African pompano, in addition to sierra, pargo, jack crevalle, and roosterfish. Even though the peak season is still weeks away, the roosterfish have shown up in more significant numbers. Quality-sized roosterfish action has been reported from the beach zones along the corridor. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
May began as an excellent month for the big roosterfish, and then the lunar eclipse shut off the fishing for a few days. Soon after, the fishing turned back on again, and we were catching giant roosters, jacks, and snappers. May through the end of July is prime time inshore, and it’s big roosterfish season in Cabo. …Grant Hartman
LOCATION: The best fishing locations have been the Herradura Bank, three miles from the Point, Cabrillo, Sol Mar, the 1150 Spot, the 95 Spot, Chawita, and Cerro Colorado, and 25 miles outside the old Lighthouse.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps run from 69 to 73-degrees. The ocean has been calm, with three to five-foot swells and 5 to 9.5-knot winds. Air temps have been from 73 to 83-degrees with clear skies.
BEST LURES: The best bait has been alive or dead mackerel, flying fish, sardina, ballyhoo, caballito, and red and white plunger style marlin lures, in addition to deep-running plugs like Rapalas and Marauders.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
