Baja Bytes Fishing – Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Smallish dorado everywhere while football tuna take a backseat to larger yellowfin dominating catches in Cabo. White sea bass at San Quintin and MONSTER yellows at Cedros.
Que Pasa Baja California
The U.S. State Department has lowered its travel advisory for Mexico to a Level 3 from its highest possible Level 4 days before the U.S.-Mexico border closure is due to expire on Sept. 21.
The modified travel advisory says U.S. travelers should “reconsider travel to Mexico due to covid-19” as well as “crime and kidnapping.” A border closure restricting nonessential travel has been in place between the United States and Mexico since March 21 in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
Tijuana Bull Ring
Nice 4- to 10-pound bonito in the flats out to South Island. They’ve been biting pretty well in the mornings and around midday on trolling feathers, small plugs, and any kind of bait or shiny jig thrown at them…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
There are a few yellowtail at the north end of South Island. Otherwise, bass and bonito are around, with big 8- to 10-pound bonito foaming up just outside and below the islands over the last several days. The sea lions are terrible at the islands proper, though, especially with few boats to spread them around…Fish Dope
226-302 / Coronado Canyon / 371 / 425 / 390
Fishing was much more hit-or-miss this weekend. Even though today was a little less crowded than yesterday, the bite still wasn’t all that great in the mornings. Also, some of the yellowfin have moved a bit, with better signs out to the west from the 371 to the 390, as well as between the 371 and 302, and inside the 302. The yellowfin are still mixed in size with some schools of 8- to 15-pounders and a few schools of larger 15- to 30-pounders. There are also 2- to 12-pound skipjack mixed in with some of the schools. Most bites are taken on 20- to 25-pound fluoro and smaller #2-1/0 hooks but if you can dump a bunch of chum on a school, you can get them fired up enough to eat 40-pound.
The 425 area is still holding good numbers of dorado, plus some yellowfin and small yellowtail on kelps near the tuna pens but with the weekend crowds, the bite has been tough.
A lot of the dorado are fairly small 3- to 5-pounds, but there are a few bigger ones up into the 10- to 12-pound range mixed in. Some of the kelps are also holding 2- to 12-pound yellowtail.
There have also been enough open-water schools of dorado (and some yellowfin) that we highly recommend you troll while paddy hunting. Cedar plugs, feathers, daisy chains, and jet heads are all working fine. Zucchini, pink, green/yellow, black/purple, and blue/white are good choices for your feathers.
Dorado also love bigger, brightly-colored marlin lures – and so do marlin, which you also might find around. The good fishing continues although the SE wind has made it uncomfortable. By far most of the kelp paddy yellowtail, dorado, and yellowfin are coming from this zone – not just on kelps either, as there are open-water schools of those around too…Fish Dope
Upper Hidden Bank / Hidden Bank / Outside Ensenada
Kelps here are holding lots of dorado and yellowfin but it is slowing down a bit and not as many kelps are holding anymore. Most are on a few marked kelps that sport boats are sharing but it’s “full-speed” on the right kelps…Fish Dope
Punta Banda
Fished with Hector at Vonny’s this week.
It was an unseasonably slow day. We trolled Rapalas at the outer rocks, fought through endless solid-grade bonito to go 1-for-2 on decent-grade 15-pound yellowtail.
All the 2-pound calico you’d want on swimbait. We got a couple of sculpin – a rarity (for the point) sandy. Like that.
Beautiful conditions. The shore-casting yellowtail fishery at Campo 7 bit wide open last week, and the locals are still frothing. There must have been 50 guys on the rocks.
The borderline was approximately 5 hours—seven minutes with Sentri.
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/punta-banda-september-10.756204/
Ensenada
Photo
Excellent local fishing day – mackerel, bonito, barracuda, calico bass, rock cod, and lingcod with Javier Daniel Manjarrez and Osuna Marquez…Mara’s Sportfishing
Gamefisher crushing it in Ensenada.
A few of us who have boats here in the Cruise Port Marina in Ensenada got together and jumped on Gamefisher this morning. We left around 0430 and got home at 1830. We cruised out about 30 to 34 miles and fishing started off slow. Mike and his crew kept making adjustments with the gear and we soon started picking up 10- to 12-pound dorado here and there.
After the overcast lifted, we started running into large masses of jumping dorado, 10 to 20 at a time. It didn’t take long to limit the boat. It was a great day with great people! Oh, and hot fishing too!… blowncar
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/gamefisher-crushing-it-in-ensenada.756124/
San Quintin
Finally a photo-worthy fish! Caught in shallow water, less than 25-ft. deep with Capt. Juan Cook!… Susan Duggan
Bahía Asunción
Debra Furbee is fishing with Shari Bondy and Carl Furbee. “My first yellowtail! I caught four yellowtail, six bonito, and two calico bass! So much fun here on the Pacifico.”
Bahía de Los ángeles
It was hot and humid on the first day of our 4-day trip. The temperature was 104, high humidity, relentless sun, and little breeze … but the fish were biting! After I boated 5 or 6 yellowtail, I thought I was going to stroke out. I started dumping bottles of ice-cold water over my head, took a few breaks, and fished until noon. Only made 15 macks before some 20- to 25-pound jack crevalle showed up and ate them all. Jigs were the ticket after the macks were gone…Low N Slow
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/bahia-trip.755587/
Punta Abreojos
Guests of The Black Bass Lodge enjoying another great day on the water, thanks to the local Captains of Punta Abreojos.
Cedros Island
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Tropical Storm “Karina” forms southwest of Baja California.
Although for now “It poses no danger to Mexican territory,” the Conagua (Mexico’s national water authority responsible for managing and protecting the country’s water resources 775km southwest of the beaches of Cabo San Lucas.) Forecasts estimated that “Karina” will remain a tropical storm until next Friday, when it would weaken to a tropical depression.
Loreto
This week started with a wet bang, a surprise wet sunrise. The early morning sun was shining under the clouds and the rain decided to bust loose for 15 minutes. Let’s hope that the next few days will be hopping more than the fishing we had this past week.
Roosterfish and plenty of dorado are working over the bait schools down south around Danzante Island and the south tip of Carmen. It has been the same going north from the marina at Loreto. Along the coastline, all the way to Almejas Bay roosterfish are mixed in with school-sized dorado. Outside you can pick at endless numbers of bonito with hopes of nailing one of the larger dorado.
Fifteen pounds was the largest dorado with most fish under half that weight. Roosters have been coming in all the smaller sizes. Twenty plus pound roosters have been mixed in but hard to get to the boat on light line.
Pintos, snapper, and triggerfish are all solid catches you can count on. Cut bait is the ticket when fishing these shallow highspots.
A good sign of things to come is the opening of the marina parking lot. This morning it was full along with half the street parking spaces.
The local public beaches are still closed. The hotels, restaurants, and stores are open for business. …Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz
TAILHUNTER SPORTFISHING MID-WEEK MINI-UPDATE Sept. 14, 2020
East Cape
Wahoo- 2 or 3 a day are coming to the cleaning table. Nice fish from 25-45 #. Most taken on Rapalas, Marauders, and slow trolled Ballyhoo. 1/2 to 3 miles off the beach from the park boundary to Punta Colorado. The lighthouse area picking up the most fish. By far the best Wahoo fishing of the year…John Ireland, Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
The ocean is now averaging 80 to 84 degrees, cleaner blue water is found within a couple of miles of shore. Some scattered schools of sardina are now congregating around the marina jetties, as well as some caballito, though in recent days the more consistent action was found while using sardina, as well as strips of squid, which are also available through local bait vendors. There were reports of chihuil being chummed up on the high spots, also some skipjack and bolito being used for larger trolled bait.
The hot wahoo bite from the week before has now faded out; perhaps the wahoo are sluggish in the warmer currents, as they can become. The backside of the full moon can put them off, though surely they are still in the area and certain conditions could trigger activity again. Yellowfin tuna are now the main gamefish species being found. Some scattered dorado are being found while trolling lures and drift fishing bait.
The schooling yellowfin have been found near San Luis, and Iman Banks, north to Vinorama, and in recent days, the tuna became more active on the Inner Gordo Bank. The most successful methods being used were drift fishing with sardina, dead or alive, as well as using strips of squid. The caballito bait have not been as enticing this past week; yellowfin now prefer sardina or squid. Average size tuna was in the 40- to 70-pound class, and charters were landing one, two, three, and four of these tuna per morning, with a 40- to 60-pound test line and mainly fluorocarbon leaders of 50- to 60-pound being used. The fish were a bit finicky at times, though they were strong fish, sometimes taking an hour to land.
A few marlin sightings, and hookups, but no reports of large marlin being landed. Not much off the bottom besides red snapper, a couple of Almaco jacks, and dogtooth snapper. Always a chance at a big grouper this time of year, but not many anglers are specifically targeting those currently.…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
This week was closer to our typical summer fising season, with some inconsistency through the beginning of the week. Water temperatures changed from last week to this (with temps on the Sea of Cortez reported to 88 F) and the fish moved quickly. However, towards the end of this week, the dorado picked up with almost 30% of the boats landing them, compared to only 5% last week. This helped pick up success rates and catches for anglers. Tuna numbers dropped slightly, but probably because the dorado showed up and were easier targets than heading out for the tuna. A few more billfish this week as well, although not in large numbers. However, blue marlin catches rose compared to last week, with an outstanding catch and release of an approximate 600-pounder on Pisces 37-ft. Reel Cast. That same day the guys also landed two yellowfin and lost two other blues! All in all, this weekend was one of our most impressively productive fishing days of the year so far. Just on Saturday for example, we had 81 fish caught (Catch limits respected with releases and all billfish released) See below!
LOCATION: San Jaime, Los Arcos- Migrino, Punta Gorda, Golden Gate.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Sunny, hot days mostly. Partially cloudy on others. Calm water overall, no swell.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 82 – 87F
BEST LURES: Caballito bait, cedar plugs, feathers, guacamayo lures, hoochis, rapala…Rebecca Ehrenberg Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
This is a special day for our little SpiderMan! Click through to see THEN and NOW, 27 years later! That’s our very own Rebecca Ehrenberg and now her son, Mischa, with their first dorado at the very same age (4 years old). And.. he did it with mom and grandpa on board, just like his mom did when she caught hers (Grandpa Peter Ehrenberg and founder of Pisces in the third pic. We get a few people asking if fishing is appropriate for the little ones; we believe taking them fishing is one of the best things you can do for them – learning and creating memories that last a lifetime (or two or three!). Plus, our crews are the best at teaching and taking care of them! The years can pass, but the feeling remains the same… we love seeing our anglers experience this, too, and to be a part of it. Forty-two years of Pisces Sportfishing, and we’re not stopping anytime soon! #FishForTheFuture
Ps. Another perk of fishing? They always take a nap.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Photojournalist
http://www.thatbajaguy.com/
(760) 522 3710