Baja Bytes Fishing – Tuesday, August 18, 2020
There are yellowtail at Coronado Islands, a few striped marlin at Ensenada, plus yellowtail, and dorado under some of the kelps down the West Coast.
On the Sea of Cortez side at BOLA, dorado are mixed in with yellowtail and grouper and farther down the coast, everyone has their eye on Hurricane Genevieve.
Que Pasa Baja California
Thanks for the advice. I am already back from my trip. I found that a bit of extra time was important. I have used the CBX many times and when I posted this, I was looking for a first-hand, real-time experience of the current situation. I will add this information to my trip. CBX is convenient…
More Border Crossing info:
San Diego to Mexicali (East border crossing).
Have your paperwork in hand.
Have a mask on.
Drive through Mexicali and San Felipe with your mask on.
Have your mask on at the San Felipe checkpoint as well.
Take MEX 5 down to Laguna Chapala where it meets up with MEX 1.
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/driving-south-from-sd.752304/
Tijuana Bull Ring
It was good fishing recently for bonito and barracuda, and there have also been good spots up on the outside of the kelp line the last couple of days. Fly-lined fin bait and small shiny jigs like Colt Snipers will work well… Fish Dope
Great day fishing at the Coronado Islands! Started with limits of red rockfish! Went to North Island and started catching bonito, however, the sea lions were horrible! Went down to the middle grounds and a few yellowtail were being caught! My buddy got two right away! Started catching a few calico bass and some bonito! On the backside of the Middle Grounds, there were lots of calico bass! Went back up to North Island and the yellowtail started to bite! Ended up finally catching a nice 15-pound yellowtail at North Island! We ran out of ice so we headed for the barn! Besides, there were lots of fish to clean!
Go fishing! It was beautiful out there today! See you on the water! EL Sueño
My little buddy and his Dad got a couple of yellowtail also! I’m sure he will be a skipper soon! Doug “Sueño” ..Fish Dope
Ensenada
Ensenada is open. Lots of bottom fish plus a few striped marlin on the surface…Mara’s Sportfishing
San Quintin
We had a family reunion here in San Quintin with my brother, Edgardo (‘eri’) Cook, Frank and Sonia Cook, a couple of my nieces and a couple of grandnieces were here who hail from Queretaro, Frank is from San Bernardino and Sonia is from Ensenada. We fished three days – one super foggy one and then it cleared out some for nice, warm weather. We caught halibut, vermillion reds, and had a few trophy reds and some awesome lings.
Sister Sonia is a cooking machine and made us homemade tortillas … wow! best tortillas I’ve had in a long, long time – fish caldos, pork and beans, and lots more.
The fishing and catching were very good and very consistent; it’s looking like summer is finally here to stay for a while.
Many thanks to my brother Ere for making this happen, Frank and Sonia love you guys. I’ll see you here next summer. Thank you…….fishonnn&onnn...Capt. Juan Cook
1140 Finger down to the Bumps / Outside Colonet to San Quintin
This is still the primary zone for the 1.5-day and longer boats that can make the long run down the line. A little bit of good news on a couple of fronts today – first, there are some kelps a little farther north that are starting to hold some of the yellowtail and dorado being found in big numbers farther south. Second, there is a push of small yellowfin starting to fill in down around the Bumps area. Both good signs for the weeks to come as the fish push north into our area. ...Fish Dope
Bahía Asunción
I’m back visiting my dad down here. Things are more like May than August lately. Cool 59- to 64-degree water and green with a marine layer and temps like back in SoCal. Just the last two days have shifted to warmer and tropical and we poked outside for some 70+ degree water and found some small dorado. It’s looking up! …Troy Zed
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/bahia-asuncion-august-2020.753639/#post-5203090
Bahía de Los Ángeles
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Attention: It’s time to prepare for a likely impact of Hurricane Genevieve in a possible Category 3 or 4 in the next few days with marked hurricane effects on the Pacific Coast of BCS, starting on August 20, 2020.
Loreto
It’s been a very standard week for fishing results with an assortment of sizes for the dorado that are hitting the fillet tables. Most fish continue to be on the small size with 8 pounds being a fair average
With the cold water not far below the surface, yellowtail fishing has been almost as popular as the dorado battles. If you want to pull on twenty-five pounds of ocean muscle, you better get ready to sit on a high spot for a few hours. Soaking a mackerel before the sun gets too brutal would be your best bet.
Only about one-third of the boat trips have been for fishing. Scuba and pleasure cruises fill out the rest of the trips.
This past Sunday afternoon was the busiest time at the marina in months. There must have been 30 rigs lined up to pull boats out at the end of the day. Tourists and families are finally getting out on the water.
Mandatory face coverings are still the order along with all the other restrictions, but life is perking back to whatever the new normal will be…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz
This week was a tad better than last week, but still wasn’t quite where it should be. This is turning into a funky season in more ways than one. It’s like the fish have been affected by world events or something like the rest of us.
One day, it feels like summer fishing with specias like dorado and billfish in the counts. The next day, it gets rougher and cooler and the wind pick up and the waters turn over. And we’re back to spring-time fishing catching cabrilla, pargo, snapper, jack crevalle and other inshore fish. All very fun, but not typical this late in the year.
Thankfully, big roosterfish are still hanging out and throwing some thrill at the anglers.
Honestly, it’s been up and down. If you fish a few days, you’ll do OK. Some days some boats do better than others or one spots is hotter than another. If you only fish 1 day, you could be that one boat that just has a slack bite.
Cooler than normal at 95 degrees during the day. There’s still bands of very cold water on the outside. ..Jonathan Roldan, Tailhunter Sportfishing
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
East Cape
https://www.teamjenwren.com/los-barrilles-web-cam.html
Puerto Los Cabos
Tuna, Almaco Jack, Grouper in Tropical Conditions ~ August 16, 2020
For the most part, the winds had settled down, though on Saturday they picked up, gusting from the south; this has been the scenario for the past couple of months, just as water clarity improves, we have setbacks again.
This is the time of year where typically we find blue water within a mile or two of the shore. It has been a bit more stirred up this season – unpredictable from day-to-day. Caballito has been the main bait being offered from the marina area, though last week there were limited amounts of smaller-sized sardina appearing. Anglers have also been using yo-yo style jigs off of the various high spots from San Luis to Vinorama, where there were more consistent grounds and better-looking water. Ocean temperatures are averaging 80 degrees or more, and once clarity stabilizes, we should see improved gamefish action on these local grounds.
Most charters were concentrating on areas north of Punta Gorda, as cleaner currents were found in this direction. Working the bottom rock piles produced a wide variety of catches, much of this was on yo-yo jigs, but also bait. We saw Almaco jack to 50-pounds, dogtooth snapper, red snapper (huachinango), pompano, barred pargo, yellow snapper, leopard, and broomtail grouper, bonito, and black skipjack.
There was more yellowfin tuna action on these same grounds, though still spotty, numbers were greater than in previous weeks – the average-size tuna were from 40- to 65-pounds, and many of these were taken on yo-yo jigs versus live bait. A few much larger yellowfin tuna were hooked into while using bait such as bollito, found on the same grounds, and then slowly trolled. Also, there were sightings of large black marlin, one of which speared a tuna that was being reeled to the boat, following it in and making for a show under the panga before leaving the tuna and disappearing.
There were a handful of dorado and wahoo also reported, though no big numbers or hot spots yet for these fish.
Along the coastal shoreline, we are still seeing good numbers of mixed-sized roosterfish, as well as jack crevalle and a few nice pargo. It’s late season now for this inshore action and the arrival of large storm swells could put an end to this action.
Much farther offshore there were reports of medium-sized yellowfin tuna being found associated with the traveling porpoise; also a few blue marlin were hooked into.…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
What a week for Pisces 38-foot C Rod! Two blue marlin released close to 300-pounds each – including one that hit in the porpoise school when fishing for tuna. The blue hit on a lime-green lure on the port side and was brought to the boat within 15 minutes and safely released so they could keep on landing their yellowfin! They caught a total of TEN that day, all between 30 and 90 pounds. Then on a half-day trip, it was one striped marlin and a skipjack.
This week’s dorado! Finally seeing them show up just a little more… Six caught in one day (and two released) for Pisces Panga and two littles released on one of our 55-foot Chica Mala Yacht. They were cruising in the afternoon and decided to put out some lines. Perfect first dorado for the kids and safely released. Plus, one other for Pisces 31-foot Tracy Ann and Pisces 30-foot Karina with striped marlin released as well.…Rebecca Ehrenberg
Gary Graham – That Baja Guy
I really love your reports Gary!