Baja Bytes – May 4, 2021
Roosterfish on fire at East Cape and Muertos Bay for both Fly and Conventional tackle. May is the month!
Tijuana Bull Ring
It’s hit and miss fishing right now in this zone.
Calico and sand bass are trying to get active, but even with the streaky red tide, there are still massive amounts of bait. When the water is clean, the bass will get going on anchovy in the afternoon hours – probably they are going to catch some shorts, the 15″ to 22″ barracuda and mackerel.
If you want sand bass or halibut, try drifting in the flats between the coast and South Island. …Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
A few scattered yellowtail that are willing to bite are showing in the Middle Grounds, Gun Site, north end of South Island, Ribbon Kelp, and the weather side of South Island, but for most anglers, it is slow fishing.
The yellowtail are stuffed full of anchovy and are not in a feeding mood. It seems like getting any interest at all from these yellows takes an abundance of anchovy chum plus a lot of luck. A few guys are getting bit on the sardine or a reaction strike on surface iron, but in general, it’s tough!
A few have been getting hits on slow-trolled mackerel as well as sardines, but the numbers can be few and far between.
No bonito or barracuda yet, although it is getting more and more likely barracuda will be showing up soon. Because of this, all of the full-day fleets are now fishing offshore. The only boats currently coming to the Islands are private boaters. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
Some yellowtail, big bonito, and quite a few legal-sized barracuda are showing in the lee of Todos Santos where the local panga fleet is catching these fish trolling Mag Rapalas.
Inshore tight to the Island, we got word that the calico bass bite has turned on with anglers catching big bass in the 3- to 6-pound class on plastics fished in the white water around boiler rocks.…Fish Dope
San Quintin
“Lings and things” always welcomed! …Garcia’s Pangas
Cedros Island
After airport closure and COVID-19 kept everyone away, we went on a recon trip to Cedros Island which was a huge success! We stayed with Jeff Mariani at his custom-built house with Cedros Island Fishing Charters. It was a little early for the season, so our expectations were just to shake out the gear.
Even with water temps from 56- to 60-degrees, it turned out the giant calicos wanted to play! They were hitting on mostly 5 and 6 MC swim-baits. We were using solid white and browns with red bellies, as well as any grunion or anchovy color. Katie caught the biggest bass of the trip with a 7-pounder on the 8-inch MC weedless bait.
We also fished along all the beaches on the lee side of the island. We found lots of halibut biting on the plastic bait. The water conditions were nice on the Island, and there were tons of signs of life! We also fished Chester’s Rocks and it was even better bass fishing. We had almost 300 bass for the 2 days of fishing. We didn’t see any yellowtail but is only a matter of time. I imagine it will be an exceptionally good season there.
Jeff’s operation there is top-notch; his house is completely Americanized with filtered water from every faucet, a private room for each person, (limited to 6 guests). He offers the option to fish from a panga, a kayak, or both.
Ascension
The predicted Santa Ana winds were late in their arrival today, so I spent a very pleasant couple of hours on the beach with Flash. For the ‘slow’ season, the bite was pretty good, although the fish were not committing much and I had several short bites. I caught one 22″ fatty hog that was obviously a survivor until it ran into me. I wonder what took a chunk out of it, and how it survived the attack. A couple of other fish at 17″ and 18″ rounded out the take for the morning…Daniel Powell
Gonzaga Bay
The wind was bad every day. But I did great on corvina. I caught my largest cabrilla — 24-pounds at least out fishing with Mr. Alan Beltain, Mr. Bob Franzy, and Gonzaga Bay Walt. Most of our fish were caught at the Golden Reef…fishonnn&onnn…-Captain Juan Cook
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Loreto
The boats are rumored to all be heading north to Almeja and Pulpito tomorrow.
Out at the north tip of Carmen Island, the action turned from “so-so” to just a little slower in the past few days. Punto Lobo and the “50 Spot” have been worked over most of the week with yellowtail from 15- t0 30-pounds being landed. The current spoiled many attempts to be in the right zone for “catching” along with the unpredictable dinner bell.
No limits yet some boats got skunked.
Assorted yellowtail from the Punto Lobo area and Captain Tony with his handful of triggerfish for some afternoon ceviche!
Knowing the “right spot and fighting the current to keep working it,” was the trick for the payoff. That was the story I got, along with the fact that the workout lasted all morning and the hookups didn’t happen until 11 a.m.! Triggers, snappers, and all the rest of the local finned crowd were in the mix this past week.
The water is still green and cold with surface temperatures just under 70 degrees. …Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Marina Puerto Escondido
La Paz
MEXICAN MI
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of April 21-28, 2021
East Cape
Clear, flat water all week.
The water has been warming, as well as clear, flat, and clean. Only one windy day mid-week.
The mornings were cool, warming mid-day to the low 80s, with clear skies — beautiful spring weather.
The fishing has improved. The first two wahoo of the season were caught. The roosterfish bite has really picked up with some 50+ pounders taken from the beach. The striped marlin fishing is wide open. Two or three yellowfin in the 40- to 70-pound class are coming to the cleaning table daily. The bottom fishing has been exceptionally good; Almaco jack, pargo, and pompano are biting aggressively, and lots of good bait are available — big sardina!
The roosterfish bite is on. Three Rancho anglers from Arizona took ATVs down to the Lighthouse where all three scored gallo’s from 25- to 50- pounders cast from the beach using Orca surface poppers. Lots of big roosters have been seen cruising the East Cape beaches.
The striped marlin have been picky biters one day, and wide-open biters the next. The last couple of days, boats have been releasing up to five close to the hotel; the last couple of days, they have been being caught a couple of miles right off the front. The anglers are really going for the ballyhoo.
Big solitary yellowfin tuna from 30- to 70-pounds have been taken drift fishing sardine off the Lighthouse as well as Rincon and Los Frailes. Two or three a day are coming in.
Bottom fishing has produced nice Almaco jack to 35-pounds, some quality pargo to 15-pounds, and as many African pompano as anglers want to bring home off the Lighthouse and Rincon. It has been incredibly good bottom fishing! …John Ireland-Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
Now to a new month: weather patterns continue to be slightly cooler than during the past years; the transition periods are taking longer than we have expected. It has been a slow process, waiting for water conditions to warm and clean up, as well as for winds to become less of a factor. At this time, the ocean water temperature has ranged from 72 to 74 degrees.
Clarity has fluctuated. It seems just when we see blue water moving in, there is a setback as currents push off-colored currents in again. Conditions can change very quickly at this time of year, so as days become progressively warmer, we expect to see offshore surface action pick up accordingly.
The main offshore species now has been the striped marlin, these billfish are striking on trolled lures and cast or dropped back baits, mainly caballito at this time. The marlin are being found scattered throughout the zone, at times as close as a few miles from shore. They became a bit more finicky during the recent full moon, as well as with fluctuating conditions, though most charters are having at least a chance or two while targeting these fish, with some accounting for multiple catches. Not many dorado were seen in recent days compared to last week when we did see a few of them.
Only an occasional yellowfin tuna were being found, these tuna were taken while drift fishing with bait on grounds from Iman to Vinorama, the fish we did see ranged to over 80-pounds. So, they are still in the area, just need the conditions to improve a bit more to their liking. Also, a handful of wahoo were seen in the same area, but they were very shy to striking any offerings.
The most common catches have been various species found off the rock structure, such as bonito, cabrilla, red snapper, fortune jack, almaco jacks, yellowtail, triggerfish, and others. Anglers reported mixed success depending on which area they are targeting and how favorable the conditions were on a given day.
Along the shore the best action we saw was reported from areas to the south of Puerto Los Cabos, nice-sized sierra were accounted for, some as large as 13 pounds; also there was a mix of jacks, and of course, more triggerfish…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Back to back to back AMAZING days on Pisces 37’ Viking BBII! striped marlin picking way up with up to 10 marlin released per boat recently.
After a slow week, the striped marlin fishing turned back on for the few boats that were fishing. Pisces 46’ La Chingona released 11 marlin during the week! 6 striped and 1 dorado were hooked by anglers aboard on their best day.
BBII had 5 nice stripeys released plus 2 dorado with the largest … a 30-pound bull. The day prior they had a 4-hour trip with 6 striped marlin released. Captain Osiel commented, “We’ve seen about 20 tailers today with 6 of 7 released by 10:30 a.m.”
Plus inshore, a few with skipjack (kawakawa), small roosterfish, along with ladyfish, and the seemingly ever-present needlefish.
LOCATION: The best locations have been out 25-miles, 110 degrees; the 1150 Spot; the 45 Spot; Fuera del 95; 3 miles outside of Cabeza de Ballena; outside Chileno 6 miles; and Cerro Colorado.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, calm with 2- to 3-foot swells and sea with 17 mph winds in the afternoon. Air temps to 85-degrees and sea temps around 70- to 72-degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait or lures were live or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, Petrolero, and hoochies.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
Photojournalist
Cellular (760) 522 3710
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MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of April 21-28, 2021
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Rooster fish are great