Baja Bytes – February 23, 2021
Que Pasa Baja California
T-Mobile cell coverage Baja
Tijuana Bull Ring
Boats were finally able to make it out to fish today with the wind staying offshore throughout the morning. Kelp beds at the Bullring continued to be the best choice for sand bass and sculpin. Knocker/squid rigs and the plain old lead heads and squid combos have been producing the bites. The smaller 3″ to 4″ sardines are getting bit as well when fished on dropper loop rigs. …Fish Dope.
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
Boats were able to get down to fish the Islands, but the story is the same as it was before all the wind … SLOW. No yellows were spotted, and boats were checking around South Island as well as on the weather side of North Island and Pukey Point. Rock fishing remains productive at the Rockpile and around the islands proper with reds and lings coming up for the boats opting to target those instead of looking for yellowtail. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
It was just a great weekend in Ensenada fishing on the Reel Adventure for both rockfish and yellowtail. We were in by noon on both days. Great food! There is nothing like fresh fish! …Wes Price
West of Colonet / Bumps / 100 to 150 miles south of Point Loma
The boats that were online to give the bluefin a shot this weekend canceled, so there is no news on the bluefin. They will try again next weekend.
There have been a lot of bluefin in this zone for months. The commercial fleet wrapped the entire quota for the year by the middle of January and anglers on the long-range boats have been seeing good signs of the bluefish on their return from trips. …Fish Dope
San Quintin
2/22/21my friends Rick Jensen & Reed Whitney wanted to fish on their last day of there extended Baja trip, weather had been windy and cold, but today the weather settled and we had a very nice day out on the water, water was 56.7 so that makes it tough to fish for yellowtail, so we did what most hard core fisherman do, we went deep dropping for reds, lingcod was slow but the vermilions were nice, several other boats on the water, Captain Jaime Garcia Solorio was out as was Captain Tito of Tito’s Pangas, with Carl & Sue Rossetti were out for a day of fun,,,fishon-Juan Cook
Locals are primarily enjoying good calico as well as bottom fishing…Christian Catian
Gonzaga Bay
2/15/21 We took a short trip to Gonzaga Bay to make sure all was good … and it is. It’s still time to start fishing in the Bay in early March through late May. We spent the night at Rancho Grande Hotel (for room availability ask at the Rancho Grande Market). We stopped by Campo Papa Fernandez and had a chat with Gonio — the ramp is open and so is their restaurant, though it is take-out only.
We visited Campo la Poma. Sr. Luiz built a new restaurant for his wife Clementina. They are still working on it but are serving food already — Clementina’s way and it is yummy! Campo Punta Bufeo Hotel is open, a bit primitive but it works in a pinch. Bring your own lamp, but there is lots of hot water.
Got on our way the following day and just past beautiful Catavina, the fuel pump went out on my old suburban. (There is more on that later). We stayed at the Cabanas Hotel for $30$ per night with hot water and yes sir! internet connection! After repairs, we made it home the next day!…fishonnn&onnn…Captain Juan Cook
Cedros Island
Runway repairs have been made enough so that the government issued a 6 month permit so the runway is open. Other repairs need to be completed in order for the runway to stay open for good. I am heading down for a trip on March 22nd and return on the 26th. I will have a fresh report for you…Jeff Mariani, Cedros Kayak Fishing
Bahía Asunción
Someone caught a fish down there; I am sure! They were spread out a mile or more on the beach when I looked a little earlier. Now, with maybe three miles of sand between the rocks, they are shoulder to shoulder in 20 yards. As I was watching, another halibut came in. Nice… I took a cast-and-wind stroll with the dogs around 10- or 11-a.m. and struck out, but just after sunset was the time to do so today. ‘Halibut are like petted cats, one never knows when or where they’re gonna’ bite!…Daniel Powell
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
This little pup was found by a friend. She was most likely abandoned, so young and hiding under the car alone on a cold night when she normally would have been with mom and her littermates. After minor surgery, a 650-mile journey, and much love along the way, she eventually found her new forever family in Oceanside, California. Good things happen when people join to help, especially in these harsh times that can hamper cross-border rescues, adoptions, and donations.
I know for many, it has been a tough year, and it’s not over yet. But please do not forget that this is an ongoing issue, and these dogs and puppies in Baja still need your help. There are many great organizations on both sides of the border, like ALMA in Vizcaino, Refugio San Simon near San Quintin, Baja Animal Sanctuary, Tijuana Dog Rescue, Baja Dog Rescue, and many more. If you can swing it, you can Google or search Facebook and find a favorite to help.
Yes, dogs make us smile, raise our spirits, and are there for us when we need their love. We can return the favor by showing a little love and making them smile, too! …Daniel Powell
Guerrero Negro
In over 40 years of playing with whales, today was by far the most exciting. We lost count of how many whales mugged us! Kissing, hugging, caressing! It was a love-in! …Shari Bondy Whale Magic Tours.
Punta Abreojos
A few of our past guests showing off their catches!…The Black Bass Lodge, Punta Abreojos, BCS.
In over 40 years of playing with whales, today was by far the most exciting. We lost count of how many whales mugged us! Kissing, hugging, caressing! It was a love-in! …Shari Bondy Whale Magic Tours.
Loreto
This past Saturday was our first awesome weather day of the year in Loreto.
Zero wind with full sun all the way to sunset.
I think every boat in town had been dusted off and launched! The streets surrounding the marina were packed with “tow vehicles” and their connected trailers in numbers I can’t recall ever seeing before!
A hot bite, no way! I think it has been a case of covid cabin fever that has been building for months.
All the licensed tour boats were divided between blue whales and the beach at Coronado.
Only a trickle of info about the fishing scene passed my way. Yellowtail and some pargo action was happening just around the corner from “el mangle”. The high spots north of Coronado are good for pintos and reds with only firecrackers being the extras added to the fish boxes.
We will have no clue about the hundred other go-to spots until the whale watchers are all replaced by the serious fishing crowd. If the serious fishing crowd remains in lockdown the mystery may continue.
Huge fish must be waiting at Pulpito, Lobo and on the back side of Carmen’s “perro”. Somebody should be volunteering to check it out, soon…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz
Relatively speaking the winds cut us some slack again this past week and we probably had the best week of fishing in the last 2 or so months. While the United States was largely wrapped in ice and snow, things were reversed in La Paz which is normally windy and generally quite windy this time of year making it difficult to fish.
With temps in the low 70’s, sunny skies and mostly moderate seas, anglers were able to get in on that hot yellowtail bite that’s been going on for the better part of two weeks. There aren’t many tourist anglers as this is off-season, but captains, their families and locals from La Paz and as far as Los Barriles (the East Cape) far to the south were jumping on boats to get on top of these fish.
It’s maybe one of the best yellowtail bite we’ve see in years with fish running 10-25 pounds and taking a variety of jigs including yo-yo and knife jigs plus sardines when around. Some reported larger fish are also being lost as these fish are generally in heavy structure and the waters are not especially deep. Therefore, if you can’t turn their heads, these bruising fish are busting anglers off in the rocks.
Hot spots included the areas around Bahia Muertos (Suenos) up to Punta Perrico and then to the areas just around the Las Arenas lighthouse at Castilla. Another spot that has been on fire is Los Pilis which up the backside of Cerralvo Island about 2/3 of the way up the island. One of our Tailhunter captains counted “at least” 40 boats there one day.
But, the travel has been worth it. Boats are landing limites or near limits of the feisty fork tails.
Additionally, there have been white bonito (tasty) plus jack crevalle, cabrilla, snapper, Sierra and pargo mixed in as well.
The biggest surprise was that a few respectable tuna have mixed in and some wahoo and dorado also showed up this week. These are normally warmer water fish and we don’t see these until later in the year unless these are hold-over fish from last season.
At the time of this writing, winds were already starting to ramp up again so hopefully the return of the winds doesn’t knock the bite back down. We know the fish are surely there!…Jonathan Roldan, Tailhunter International
East Cape
The buzz this week has been yellowtail. A few fish popped up at Cerro Verde just north of Los Barriles. Farther north on the east side of Cerralvo Island, the mossbacks have been in large numbers and were very cooperative. On most days, anglers have been scoring limits of quality-sized fish.
No new dope on broadbill this week. With few anglers in town, I haven’t been able to get the info that anybody went outside hunting.
Near the beach, pelagic birds continue to work spots of bait. One morning I saw a school of Mobulas Manta Rays more than a mile long…Masked Angler
Puerto Los Cabos
This month is living up to its reputation for being unpredictable; this whole season we have seen more relentless North Winds than usual, and it is hard to find a reliable forecast. The normal patterns have not followed the standard this year. As we still deal with exceptionally light tourism, staying optimistic that soon the situation will improve has been difficult. We felt another cool trend this week — of course nothing even comparable as they felt in Texas! We did have mostly sunny skies, high temperatures averaging 75 degrees, and the morning lows in the mid-50s. The ocean temperature was again cooler, down into the 67-to-70-degree range. The bait was a bit scarcer; netters were working harder to find the scattered schools of sardina and the few caballito.
The week began with difficulty due to windy conditions, however, over the weekend, winds laid down, and the ocean was very comfortable, though quite cool for this area. Charters were searching the grounds from Chileno, Palmilla, Gordo Banks, and north towards San Luis. The most consistent action was found while working the bottom structure. With the cold water, there was not much surface activity found, as dorado, tuna, wahoo, and marlin seem to have been hiding out, waiting for warmer currents to move back in. This will be a transition period coming up, as the days progressively become longer and warmer once again.
The bonito were by far the most numerous species found, striking mainly on yo-yo style jigs, averaging 3 to 5 pounds, a little smaller than they often run, but these fish are feisty fighters and good eating, prepared just as you would the yellowfin tuna. Despite not seeing any significant numbers of other spaces, we did see a wide variety of structure species show up on the fillet tables. We saw yellowtail, amberjack, red snapper, yellow snapper, grouper, sheepshead, bluefin trevally (rare in local waters), Pacific tilefish, triggerfish, roosterfish, sierra, black skipjack, spotted rose snapper, and even a couple of wahoo and dorado earlier in the week that were out of place in the cold water.
Besides the one bluefin trevally we saw, there was also a 50-pound class roosterfish landed and released from a super panga trolling near the marina jetty area, and the California sheepshead was also an unusual catch. Pelagic red crab are starting to appear on the local high spots; when conditions are exactly right these small crustaceans will drift to the surface and they can be scooped up and used for snapper bait. The commercial fleets go wild when they see these, as they see big dollar signs and they can make great profits when it all comes together.
Still, plenty of whales are around to keep sightseers happy, as well as some turtles, sea lions, and manta rays…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Some drone photos at Ellias Calle. …Photo Credit, Paul Dubeau
Pisces 38’ C Rod finding them yesterday – 18 Yellowfin Tuna landed! Pisces 32’ Bill Collector with a few too. Nice sunny day in Cabo
LOCATION: Potato Bank, Golden Gate, Chileno, Margarita, the Lighthouse, and Rancho Migrino.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear seas with moderate 3- to 5-foot waves. It was mostly sunny, with temps in the 59- to 72-degree range, and winds in the afternoon SSE at 10- to 15-mph.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: Sea temps from 64 to 68 degrees.
BEST BAIT AND LURES: Live or dead mackerel, sardina, feathers, and Rapalas.
BEST LURES: Live mackerel and caballito, plus hoochis.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham