Baja Bytes Fishing – Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Que Pasa Baja California
Stormy weather in the northern Baja while gamefish frolic from Magdalena to the tip of Baja.
Tijuana Bull Ring
Gale warnings…Fish Dope
Lower 9 Mile Bank / Coronado Islands
Gale warnings…Fish Dope
226-302 / Coronado Canyon / 230 / 371 / 425 / Upper Hidden Bank
Gale warnings…Fish Dope
Ensenada
Stormy Weather
San Quintin
More cold and windy weather.
Bahía Asunción
November 6th
We caught a nice goat yesterday along with yellows. And we grilled one of the small yellows. Also, we caught lots of bass.
Today, we had a slight scratch on sand bass and nothing but one small goat was willing to bite in that spot. It was getting lumpy and the wind came up, so I called it a day. Saw a couple of yellows following the jig, but they weren’t that interested in feeding. It’s gonna turn for a few days, maybe more, so time to fish for service stuff.… Daniel Powell
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Tuna Jackpot spreads a record $1,035,700 among 9 teams
By Rich Holland -November 7, 2020
CABO SAN LUCAS – A field of 149 teams made their way to Land’s End to fish for a record $1,035,700 in cash payouts in the Western Outdoor News Cabo Tuna Jackpot and the 22nd annual running produced a 210-pound Tuna Jackpot Champion fish for the Reel Godz of Rodz team of Gary Sigle and Shea Sumner.
Local government officials enforced COVID restrictions that required an isolated weigh site at the Pisces Dock in Cabo’s Marina del Rey. Action at the scale was live-streamed and reports were posted continuously on tournament social media.
Taking $61,625 as the Champions and another $19,000 from the $500 daily, the Real Godz of Rodz team on the Olé Olé (the crew was actually from the Mucho Bueno but had to switch vessels) ended up with $80,625 for their Day Two tuna to go with the Championship Trophy and a permanent place in Tuna Jackpot history.
Loreto
Yellowtail and roosterfish were in the crosshairs this week.
The high spots around Coronado and to the north have been good for yellowtail and snapper with the bigger fish caught south of Pulpito. Yellows from 12 to 24 pounds along with small yellow snapper hit the ice.
Roosterfish got center stage at San Bruno along the beach. Sardina have been working well for both roosterfish and cabrilla. The possibility of hitting the roosters was finally picked up by some fly fishing enthusiasts.
Roosters from 18 inches to 35 pounds scratched off some lines on a few bucket lists.
Dorado are still hitting live sardina with most fish still in the small range.
Great weather with still a few days of north winds, that should settle down to a predictable cycle of a few days on and a few off… Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Magdalena Bay
11/2-3-4-5/20 I’m fishing in Mag Bay with Rockodilejohn, Jim Phelps, and Larry “Handsome” Hansen; here are a few photos of our three days on the water in Mag Bay. We caught snook, pargo, wahoo, triggerfish, bocaccio, and grouper.
fishonnn&onnn-Juan Cook
11/6-7/20 Our last two days on the water in Mag Bay, fishing with Captain Rubén Duran out of Puerto Lopez Mateos on the 6th, we fished the 23-fathom spot for three wahoo and on the 7th, we fished near-shore for snook, gulfies, baby broom tails, bocaccio, and triggerfish – plenty of good action! Many thanks to Rockodilejohn, my friend, Mr. Larry “Handsome” Hansen, and Mr. Jim Phelps.
Also many thanks to my friends, Bob and Diane Hoyt of Magbay Outfitters for all their help and friendship….fishonnn&onnn…Juan Cook
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Nov. 3-10, 2020
East Cape
Photos
I have to say that it surprised me how steep the learning curve would be down here, but things are finally coming together. The local (Los Barriles) bite has been on and off, so we decided to take the run north to Cerralvo today. After over 10 hours of trolling for “nada,” we decided to run outside Cerralvo, and finally found some nice dorado off the shark buoys about 10 miles east of the island…Tecateando
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/isla-cerrevalo-outside.760333/
Water has been 85 degrees, clear and flat in the mornings, with a light afternoon SE wind.
Nice fall weather with highs in the 80s; cool mornings in the 60s. A couple of windy days mid-week.
A good week of fishing for yellowfin, dorado, and billfish … all were biting consistently throughout the week.
Plenty of bait has been available, both sardina and caballito. There’s lots of bait throughout Palmas Bay holding the gamefish in the area. Both the tuna and dorado were bigger this week and the marlin and sailfish were biting more aggressively. The 85-degree water and the availability of bait are making for good fishing.
The dorado from 5- to 30-pounds are around, very spread out, and close to shore. Trolled hoochies and sardina are both working. Most boats are scoring.
Yellowfin are being taken under porpoise, but most are caught inside from Rincon to Los Frailes. Chumming sardina and drift fishing are producing nice fish with 30-pounders common, though some are up to 75-pounds.
There has been a strong consistent bite on sailfish, blue, and striped marlin, and they are not as picky as they were last week, and they are taking trolled lures and loving the ballyhoo! They are a little farther offshore this week, from 7- to 15-miles directly off La Ribera.
Sierra are around close to shore – plus the marina entrance is producing a lot. They are taking hoochies and live sardina.
There are skipjack everywhere with pargo and almaco jacks mixed with pompano all taken on sardina, squid, and chunk skipjack. There were also more roosterfish this week, with a couple of nice ones taken from the beach.
Puerto Los Cabos
Weather patterns remain warmer than usual, but slowly we are feeling fall conditions settle in. Ocean water temperature now averaging about 82 degrees. The overall fishing action has not been up to normal standards for the past month, but we do anticipate that we will have a good late-season as conditions begin to shape up. The most common catch has been dorado, though most of them are under 10 pounds. It has been hard to find any over 20-pounds – sardina, ballyhoo, and some caballito have been the main bait source, as well as some slabs of squid.
Local fleets have been finding better chances for the yellowfin tuna on the fishing grounds from the Iman Bank to Vinorama, often seeing fish come up and then just as quickly vanishing, finding it tough to entice any strikes. We have seen a handful of quality grade 40- to 70-pound yellowfin caught. Also, there have been some schools of football-sized tuna showing as well, with more of these found from Palmilla to Santa Maria.
Dorado have been found in all directions, though more numerous on the Pacific. Again, most are smaller in size, striking on lures and rigged baits, such as ballyhoo. Wahoo were spread out as well with no particular hot spot and it was hard to find one over 30 pounds. In the recent tournament, there were only three over 30 pounds weighed in.
Not much going on with billfish now; we saw more sailfish on local grounds than anything else. A mix of bottom species, with the highlight being a few dogtooth snapper weighing up to 40 pounds. Again, there were more triggerfish than anything else….Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Giant Tuna Landed in Los Cabos from Skiff!
Author: Rebecca Ehrenberg
Date Published: November 10, 2020
We just saw the culmination of the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot with 150 teams of anglers participating for over 1 Million dollars in Cash prizes. This year was a tough year for everyone, but also for fishing tournaments. Still, organizers made it happen and successfully — and unlike the Bisbees Black and Blue where no qualifying fish were caught the Tuna Jackpot had quite a few Yellowfin Tuna weighed, but only three just over 200 lbs. The largest, winning the tournament, was a 210 lbs fish caught aboard Ole Ole with Captain Ernie Cosio, which took anglers 5 hours to fight. It was a great tournament, but when all was said and done, crew and anglers agreed it had been a tough one this year.
So what would happen in 2020 of course? A 310 lbs yellowfin Tuna landed only 3 days after the Tournament. Captain was Francisco Javier Castillo, known locally as “Gachi” and the catch was aboard his Super panga “Regina 2”, a 26 footer. Captain Gachi was born and raised near San Jose, in a little ranch called “El Zacaton” near Zacatitos area. He has been fishing professionally for 25 years now and come from a long line of well-respected fishermen in the area. Angler Mike Witoshynsky is from Florida, he landed the fish on the Outer Gordo Banks close to San Jose del Cabo.
Mike fought the fish standup, for an hour and half, even through very tough conditions. Captain Gachi said the wind was howling and it was rough, but Mike was not giving up.
But Mike hadn’t been targeting tuna actually. This was his third day fishing with Captain Gachi, and they hadn’t had much luck. Mike was looking to land a big Black Marlin, but day one only brought him a Dorado and day two a Wahoo that they lost. Day three they headed out early to the outer bank and caught a Dorado once again. They also caught a few skipjacks for bait. A small one got rigged up, live and slow trolled. After about an hour of working the spot, the reel screamed; the line tearing off the reel.
Captain Gachi knew that it was a Tuna as soon as it hit. He never saw the fish until they had it at the boat, but the way it took out line and by the fight it put up; he knew. Mike fought the fish standup, for an hour and half, even through very tough conditions. Captain Gachi said the wind was howling and it was rough, but Mike was not giving up. He reeled hard, using a Shimano Talica with 80# Line and 100# Flurocarbon leader.
“I never thought the fish was going to be that big. It’s the biggest tuna I’ve ever caught in my life”, the Captain said. I asked him how he felt when they got the Yellowfin in the boat. “I felt accomplished”, he said.
What did they do with all that fish? “I gave a piece to everyone that was on the dock, the fillet guys, kids, friends; I took some over to family members houses to share. And of course, we ate some last night. We made machaca and tuna burritos.”
Captain Gonzalo Castillo, Gachi’s nephew, who also fishes out of San Jose told me that he believed he had seen this same fish feeding out at the banks the days prior, and even during the tournament, but although they tried hard, they hadn’t gotten it to bite.
“We knew that whoever landed that fish would take the tournament. But it never happened.” Gonzalo said, “It was amazing to see, when the fish came up to eat it would leave a huge footprint in the water”. When I told Gachi this he said, “Yes, I heard a lot of the guys say that.”
“Do you think it was the same fish?”, I asked. ” I think there’s more!”
In any case, just two days after Gonzalo saw the monster fish, patience paid off… for his uncle. And Mike, the angler, is yet to catch his Black Marlin, so he’ll be out there tomorrow, once again
We just saw the culmination of the Los Cabos Tuna Jackpot with 149 teams of anglers participating for over $1 Million in Cash prizes. This year was a tough year for everyone, but especially for fishing tournaments. Still, organizers made it happen, and successfully — and unlike the Bisbee’s Black and Blue where no qualifying fish were caught, the Tuna Jackpot had quite a few yellowfin tuna weighed, but only three just over 200 pounds. The largest, winning the tournament, was a 210-pound fish caught aboard Olé Olé with Captain Ernie Cosio, which took anglers five hours to fight. It was a great tournament, but when all was said and done, crew and anglers agreed it had been a tough one this year.
So what would happen in 2020 of course? A 310-pound yellowfin tuna was landed only three days after the Tournament. The Captain was Francisco Castillo, known locally as “Gachi” and the catch was aboard his Super panga “Regina 2,” a 26-footer. Angler Mike Witoshynsky landed the fish on the outer Gordo Banks close to San Jose del Cabo.
Captain Gonzalo Castillo, Gachi’s nephew, who also fishes out of San Jose told me that they had seen this fish feeding out at the banks a day or two prior but hadn’t gotten it to bite … patience paid off! …Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing.
Marlin fishing has been “just okay,” this week. They just haven’t made the move down from Mag Bay. There is a cold front coming in next week, which should make the marlin come down. We have caught four stripers this week on my boat and one sailfish.
Dorado is still the story in Cabo which is just unbelievable! There are all you want, from 12-pounds to 20-pounds, and they seem to be everywhere – they are biting anything you put in the water.
There have been a few charters finding a few schools of football-sized dorado on the inside Jaime Banks, caught on cedar plugs and king busters.
Wahoo are starting to make a show, with lots of boats reporting wahoo taken on lures and Rapalas from the Lighthouse to Rancho Migrino, most of the fish were from 20- to 30-pounds, with a few 40-pounds plus.
Inshore
The pangas have been catching dorado from Solmar to Hard Rock and the Lighthouse, hitting whatever is put in the water; also a few small roosterfish have been caught on live bait in front of the Pedregal.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Photojournalist
http://www.thatbajaguy.com/
Cellular (760) 522 3710