Baja Bytes – April 27, 2021
May Day is the official day that we celebrate the end of the NORTH WIND season! And it never arrives soon enough!
Que Pasa
We fished for three days: one on the Pacific side, one in San Jose, and one in between the two. It was a mixed bag of fish this time. The water was mixed and some places very emerald, green, while others were light blue, and others very dark blue – and some places were cloudy! The bait was good – mackerela, caballito, and nice-size sardina on the San Jose side. We did catch snapper, grouper, a dorado, along with blue trevally and an assortment of other fish. Oh, and we got a thresher! The weather was great most of the day! It was 72 to 75 degrees with mild winds
Tijuana Bull Ring
The kelp line is seeing a fair pick on bass and short barracuda IF you have anchovy for bait. The fish are too stuffed to bother with a sardine. Just grab a scoop of anchovy, break out the light gear, small hooks, and a few split shot.
There are some yellowtail around, but again, they are stuffed and not eager to come out and play. There have been a few caught this past week slow trolling live mackerel, but they are pretty much a long shot.…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
Yellowtail fishing has been slow as of late. There are plenty of YT around but they are not very interested in biting anything with a hook in it! The Islands are jugged with bait, there is a tonnage of anchovy, sardine, red crab and even some squid.
They are being found in the Middle Grounds, Ribbon Kelp, north end of South Island, and down the weather side.
The fish that have been getting caught lately have been mainly coming off the fly-lined bait and surface iron. We have also heard of a few guys getting the odd blind strike on trolled Rapalas and smaller DTX Minnows. Yoyo iron is still working but less than before when they accounted for 95% of the catch.
Rockfish remains good at all the typical areas like the Middle Grounds, SKR, and the Rockpile and it’s a good way to load up on meat if the yellowtail aren’t cooperating. Good reds, some lings, as well as whitefish and bocaccio, are being caught…Fish Dope
Ensenada
Rockfish and lingcod were biting on San Miguel Reef…Sammy Susarrey Amador
San Quintin
Fun day fishing, nice lingcod! …Cristian Catian
Bahía Tortugas, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
There were 21 and 18.5 inches…Daniel Powell
Ascension
The golden hour!— at La Bufadora Inn...Shari Bondy
Gonzaga Bay
I’ve been chartering my Parker here in Gonzaga Bay. It’s been good fishing for leopard grouper, gulfys, tails, corvina, pargo, and sierra.
I’ll be here till mid-May. Some of you may want to give this area a try, as there are beautiful fish, my friends. Fishonnn. …–Captain Juan Cook
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
San Bruno
Captain Antonio Ruiz, known as El Pelonchis in San Bruno, BCS, with excellent catches! Pure light and artificial equipment. …Gordon Ecv West
Loreto
It looks like it’s time to dig out and dust off the surface iron! Spring has progressed enough to have large numbers of ravenous yellowtail attacking patches of sardina. Surface action in shallow water is for me the beginning of the “season”!
So far, the only issue for the sportfishing boats is that when the action is wide open on hungry fish the action is also wide open for siesta!
Boiling yellowtail around midafternoon is the story from the beach boats. The beach bunny crowd usually returns from Coronado Island around 2:30 Most sportfishing captains have been up since 4:00am and by noon are drooping and thinking about pulling the plug for the day.
The sportfishing that is the “norm” has been unchanged with the usual high spots kicking out a few yellowtail per boat along with the assorted pinto bass and snapper.
The coast trollers are picking away at cabrilla and a handful of pargo using the usual assortment of hardbaits.
No big fish and no impressive number this week. The only big number this week came from a north wind that beat up one day with 30 mph winds…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Marina Puerto Escondido
Meanwhile there is the Marina Puerto Escondido Tournament scheduled mid-May 14-16.
More info https://www.mpefishingtournament.com/
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of April 5 13—19, 2021.
East Cape
Pleasant spring weather. No North Wind. Cool mornings in the 60s warming to the low 80s. Clear skies. 75 degrees throughout Palmas Bay.
There is lots of good bait available. Sardina and caballito are plentiful which helps the fishing. There is more bait available than I can recall. The striped marlin have moved farther outside, from 15 to 20 miles off Punta Colorado– picky biters one day, wide open the next. Big yellowfin to 70-pounds are being taken off the lighthouse and Rincon on the park boundary.
A wide-open African pompano bite, nice size fish, literally as many as an angler wants to take, and as usual limitless white skipjack are spread throughout the Bay…John Ireland-Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
The spring season continues to be unpredictable, with conditions changing daily. The overall climate is great, with highs in the low 80s. The crowds of tourists remain light, and the slowly transitioning ocean has anglers scattering in all directions searching for productive action. Water temperature has ranged from 70 to 73 degrees, depending on where you are. The warmest currents are being found from the Gordo Banks towards Los Frailes. Ocean clarity is improving, though on and off north winds continued to slow this process. Swells increased some this week, coinciding with the full moon cycle.
Local bait supplies remained steady for caballito, also a mix of sardina is being found, along with slabs of squid and ballyhoo being other options. Most of the limited numbers of charters going out have found the most consistent action working the bottom structures near La Fortuna, Iman, and San Luis Banks. Drift fishing over these high spots while using yo-yo jigs and a mix of bait produced a variety of species. The most common catch was the Mexican bonito, although there were some quality red snapper, cabrilla (leopard grouper), and almaco jack being caught, average catches per boat was in the 8 to 15 fish range, so overall the bite has improved.
There were more yellowfin tuna seen this week, with sizes ranging from 15 to 90 pounds; the tuna hit on strips of squid, also some were taken on the yo-yo style jigs. So, this is encouraging news, even though numbers were not great, one boat did have four tuna in one morning. We are seeing more than we have recently and this action should only improve as conditions continue to warm, winds settle, and the water clears.
There have been reports of decent billfish action being found offshore near the 1150 Spot, as well as a few nice dorado being found in the area as well, where water has been blue and warmer. With the weather still a bit hit or miss and with only small numbers of anglers in town, we have not had many boats going farther offshore, most opting to fish closer in where numbers and variety were decent.
Inshore action was limited to mainly an on and off sierra bite, depending on where the fish happen to be on a given day. Also, there have been a few nice-sized jack crevalle and an occasional pompano or pargo colorado…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
We fished for three days: one on the Pacific side, one in San Jose, and one in between the two. It was a mixed bag of fish this time. The water was mixed and some places very emerald, green, while others were light blue, and others very dark blue – and some places were cloudy! The bait was good – mackerela, caballito, and nice-size sardina on the San Jose side. We did catch snapper, grouper, a dorado, along with blue trevally and an assortment of other fish. Oh, and we got a thresher! The weather was great most of the day! It was 72 to 75 degrees with mild winds! … Sammy Velvet
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/back-from-3-days-fishing-in-cabo-san-lucas.765153/
There were a fair number of striped marlin between 100- and 130-pounds caught this week. They have been coming up and biting lures and pitching live bait all week. We have been fishing at the 95 and 1150 Spot.
Few sierra, roosterfish, white bonito, along with a few grouper, and snapper caught this week at the Lighthouse, Gray Rock, Chileno, and Santa Maria…Pisces Sportfishing.
LOCATION: The best locations have been out 25-miles, 110 degrees – the 1150 Spot, the 95 Spot, the Migrino, and the Gaspareno.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Temperatures from 69 to 78-degree range with overall calm seas, and sunny skies with afternoon breezes up to 14-knots.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: The water temp has been from 69- to 72-degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait or lures were alive or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, Petrolero, and hoochies.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
https://wp-files.bdoutdoors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/21112822/That-Baja-Guy-Black-high-res-300×200.png
Thank You Gary Graham.