Baja Bytes Fishing – Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Que Pasa Baja California
Cabo San Lucas Tournament Season underway! Los Cabos Billfish was the first out of the Gate with their first of three fishing days beginning yesterday,
Day One catches
October 13
From 6:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.: Visual checkout from Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Los Cabos marinas. Shotgun Start and Lines In fishing at 7:30 a.m. Lines Out, stop fishing at 4:30 p.m. Weigh-in and release video check-in at Marina Fundadores next to Fisherman’s Landing Restaurant.
October 14
From 6:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.: Visual checkout from Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Los Cabos marinas. Shotgun Start and Lines In fishing at 7:30 a.m. Lines Out stop fishing at 4:30 p.m. Weigh-in and release video check-in at Marina Fundadores next to Fisherman’s Landing Restaurant.
For daily catch information follow the link below.
Los Cabos Offshore Tournament begins is October 15 – 18, 2020 More Info
Bisbee Black & Blue follows on October 20 – 24, 2020 More Info
Tijuana Bull Ring
There were still some widely-scattered schools of mixed-grade “bones” that were found farther south near the International Reef in the flats outside the kelp beds.
Some of these schools are showing as breezers and others are coming on random blind jig stops, followed up with as many as 5 to 25 bait or Colt Sniper fish.
These “bones” are a mix of the smaller 2- to 3-pounders under the 24″ size limit although some are bigger units in the 5- to 8-pound class, well over the size limit. There are even a few of the giant 10-pounders…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
It has been slow fishing here. No reports of yellowtail in over two weeks.
The only things we have heard about are bonito and calico bass, along with plenty of nasty sea lions… Fish Dope
226-302 / Coronado Canyon / 371 / 425 / 475 Knuckle / Upper Hidden Bank
It has been ‘hit and miss’ fishing. Some get lucky and find decent kelp or get a good jig stop, but then some fail to find or score anything at all.
A few are ending up with pretty good counts but in nearly every case, the fish came off of a single lucky jig stop or kelp.
That said, yes, there are some yellowfin, skipjack, yellowtail, dorado, and big bonito in this zone. There are a few marlin as well.
It should be noted here that not every kelp is holding. Most are not holding anything. Then when you do find one holding, 90% of the yellows are dinks under 3-pounds. There are a few bigger from 5- to 15-pounds but for the most part, they are just tiny rats. The dorado are mixed from 3- to 15-pounds.…Fish Dope
Ensenada
1140 Finger / Lower 500 / Bumps / Outside Colonet
The same deal as yesterday and the day before that, and so on. Excellent kelp paddy fishing continues for those who can run over 100 miles.
Kelps down here are holding large numbers of dorado. Some have yellowfin on them too but getting through the dorado often proves to be difficult.
It’s still not slam-dunk fishing. You need to find that magic kelp as most of the action is coming from those with only a small number of sonar schools and jig stops happening.
This zone is a long way down. The far upper end is roughly 90 miles from Point Loma. The lower end is from 130 to 150 miles away.
San Quintin
bajafishingfamily@K&MSportfishing, Baja MX
Fish/Surf Combo Score for Baja 1000 Champion @quinncody with @ryanperry and friends!
The guys started the morning with some solid yellowtail and even a couple of white seabass. On their way in, we met up (@filletguy @argelr1de and myself) for some waves to top off an already epic day…Kelly Catian
Bahía Asunción
Got my 50-pounder today which taped out on the boat at 52.1 pounds. Then I pegged my 50-pound spring scale and came in at 50.9 pounds on the digital scale…Ross Zoerhof
Bahía de Los Ángeles
Our three fishermen fished Sunday on a hot, breezeless, totally flat sea with a pretty stiff current for seven yellowtail, a couple of cabrilla, a few saw-tail grouper, and the biggest pinto bass anyone on board had ever seen. Most of the fish were on the dropper loop. We wrapped up at around 1330 and left the fish biting. The yellowtail were mostly in the 10- to 15-pound range with one between 25- and 30-pounds.
My dad never gave up with the yoyo, but it wasn’t very productive.
Making bait in the morning was pretty tough. It took us until about 0830 to feel like we had enough bait to head out for the day. Good thing we didn’t give up, because bait was key with slow action on the iron.
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/bola-with-captain-juan-cook-10-4-10-5.758426/
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Sea lions die-off in Baja California Sur linked to red tide
The bodies of 137 sea lions were found on September 3 in Comondú.
By Susy Buchanan
Loreto
The survivable climate for humans has returned to Loreto! We even had scattered clouds, lightning, and sprinkles of rain to add to the autumn cool down. Fishing has started to open up with more boats working the high spots farther out from town. A couple of fishing boats are out today. Snapper varieties seem to be the most solid attendees. Yellowtail are spotty and smaller than the springtime version. Firecracker yellowtail in the 8-pound range are whacking the live sardina at Candeleros and closer in at Repollo. Dorado remain, working bait schools along the coastline. Most boats have been avoiding them due to their small sizes.
The snorkel and scuba trips have been going out five to one. Local pangas are out putting food on the table, and the clam hunters are working the coastline for food (and a little cash).
The snorkel and scuba guys all report the ever-present dorado along with large roosterfish. (most boats have roosterfish on the same “avoid list” as the little dorado.) Judging from the hand measures, the roosters would all be over 40 pounds. If roosterfish are on your bucket list, then now is the time to catch a memorable version…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Magdalena Bay
The marlin showed up here at Magdalena Bay– 36 over the last two days with only two anglers, who also swam with them much of the time. There was also a whole bunch of dorado. The marlin are far out still but large numbers of them…Toby Magbay Lodge
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Oct. 3-9, 2020
East Cape
The water is 86 degrees, clear, and flat in the mornings, with an afternoon SE wind.
Beautiful weather, clear skies, and cool for October, with highs in the low 90s.
The fishing is very similar to last week. There is an incredible amount of bait in the Cortez. The bait is holding a lot of game fish but making for very picky biters. Nice-sized yellowfin taken on sardina in Rincon, close to the Pulmo Park West boundary. Some dorado are mixed in. The billfish are around in good numbers, but there isn’t much fishing pressure. There are lots of roosterfish around, but again they are very picky biters. There is lots of sardina available which is helping the fishing.
Most boats are catching a couple of yellowfin tuna in the 15- to 50-pound class on sardina while drift fishing. They are mixed in with lots of big bonito – two or three taken for every yellowfin. There are lots around, but again they are picky biters.
Not many dorado this week. They have been mixed with the tuna and under floating debris and are in the 5- to 20-pound range.
Very light fishing pressure. There are lots around, but they are picky biters. I had a nice-sized blue on yesterday, but I couldn’t get him to the boat… John Ireland, Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
More numbers of anglers are arriving now, as the start of the busy fall season has officially begun. Weather patterns are ideal; mornings are starting to chill slightly, with lows down to 73 degrees, though by mid-day, the temperatures are quite warm, around 90 degrees. No storms are seen developing in the forecasts now, and ocean conditions have remained very calm, though we have seen some wind picking up later in the day. Water temperature is still averaging about 85 degrees.
Anglers are mainly relying on sardina for bait, which are being found along the beaches near the Marina entrance – other options have been strips of squid and ballyhoo. Larger baitfish such as chihuil and skipjack are being found on the fishing grounds but there is no guarantee for finding them each morning. Local fleets this past week were fishing from off Palmilla Point, Gordo Banks, La Fortuna, Iman, and as far north as Vinorama. The all-around action as to where the better bite was found was more sporadic this past week, but it was changing daily.
Mid-week there was good action found close to shore off of Palmilla Point for both wahoo and dorado, then as the word spread more boats showed up and this action faded out. Wahoo up to 40-pounds and dorado to 25-pounds were reported and many charters were limiting out. Later in the week, the action slowed and most boats were heading north; the yellowfin tuna were harder to find, though they were seen, getting them to bite was another story. Of the tuna found, they ranged from 10- to 70-pounds though larger fish to 150-pounds were hooked into, but lost. Anglers were doing well to land one tuna in their overall catch.
Not much bottom action, though a handful of dogtooth snapper was landed earlier in the week. Also, a few Almaco jack and grouper were landed, but nothing consistent was going off the bottom. Billfish were limited as well, although a few sailfish were landed, as well as some blue and black marlin hookups – one estimated 500-pound black was lost after a battle from a super panga and one 200-pound blue marlin was landed. The problem is, if the marlin strike while anglers are using lighter leaders intended for line-shy tuna, they did not stand much of a chance. Big marlin are in the area, just have to put in some serious time targeting them… Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Overall Catch Success rate: 95%
Billfish 32%, dorado 73%, tuna 22%, other 4%
It has been a crazy week of fishing once again! It’s truly hard for me to showcase all of our boats and their catches, but I can tell you this, every single boat that was out had great fishing (except for four boats that did not have any luck)! We had a 95% Catch Success Rate for 92 boats. The total number of fish caught were as follows: 35 billfish released, (with quite a few more blue marlin showing up compared to previous weeks), all were in the 200- to 300-pound range. Eighty yellowfin tuna were caught, the largest was caught on Pisces 66’ Reels N Dirt – a 158-pounder, along with three others. Pisces 38’ C Rod, Pisces 28’ Andrea, and Pisces 30’ Karina all had tuna in the 100-pound range as well. A staggering number of dorado — 560 with all catch and size limits released, as well as some caught for scientific studies as we are collaborating with Biologists in La Paz now. Other catches included a few roosterfish released, along with wahoo and grouper.
LOCATION: From the old Lighthouse to Migrino or farther out 30+ miles for tuna on the Pacific side.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Some swell towards the end of the week, with sunny skies, and humid.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 83 to 86 F.
BEST LURES: Live and dead caballito, ballyhoo, hoochies, red/black lures, green/yellow, guacamayo, feathers, cedar plugs. Some tuna on kites…Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Photojournalist
http://www.thatbajaguy.com/
Cellular (760) 522 3710