Baja Bytes – June 15, 2021
According to the locals, for the first time in several years, the “Dorado Season” that has drawn anglers from around the world has returned. While some are holding their breath, others are praying! Stay tuned…
Tijuana Bull Ring
Once again, it’s nice weather out there. Up to 15-knot wind is projected to come up tomorrow, but it’ll settle back down by Tuesday the 16th. Fishing remains unchanged over the last few days with the focus being fish that are working under bird schools. The barracuda are biting both bait and surface irons when boats can get on them, and they are mainly on the just-barely-legal-size with a few bigger and a few smaller in the mix.
Schools of nice-sized bonito have been roaming around three miles out and beyond to South Island. These fish have been pushing 10-pounds. Yellowtail popped up under birds earlier in the week and it wouldn’t be surprising to hear of them doing so again under more birds soon.
Calico bass remains a consistent bite in the Bull Ring area. Small plastics and anchovies on the lite line have been the best bait, but the sardines are getting bit as well. They are biting straight through the day into the twilight hours. Some days the afternoon bite has been best, on other days, mornings are best. …Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
We heard from one contact that there were good signs of yellowtail in the form of sonar marks coming from the weather side of North Island today, but it didn’t sound like they were getting many bites. The conditions were good with a nice uphill current running along the island at the time of the report.
We continue to hear of a good number of barracuda scattered around the islands. The best way to locate them is by searching under birds or slow-trolling sardines. They are also biting surface jigs.
We heard South Island was full of dirty green water earlier in the week, but it was full of life with good calico bass fishing and signs of 10- to 12-pound yellowtail in tight to the Island on the south side of it. …Fish Dope
Coronado Canyon / 226-302 / 230 / 371 / 425 / 475, Knuckle / Above 32 00
PHOTO
There were ample signs of fish around, however, from the sounds of the reports, it was difficult to get any reaction from them. Most of the fleet is working in the area between the 371 and the Upper
Hidden Bank and are picking away at a mix of fish in the 20- to over 40-pound range and from 100- to 180-pound range.
Lots of the bigger fish are coming at night on the jigs before the sun comes up and during the day, fly-lined bait and sinker rigs have been accounting for the damage. It is not wide-open fishing but there are plenty of fish around this zone which is standard for bluefin fishing.
Northeast of the fleet, we had one contact report finding bluefin popping up between the 101 and the 425 along the chloroform break in the area. It was reported that there were lots of sonar schools on the meter and they were able to get bites on the dead flyer/kite combo with the fish ranging from 40- to 100-pounds. There were a few kelp holding yellowtail to 15 pounds in the same area.
Because there is a wide range in size of fish, it would be wise to bring 25 to 30, 40, and 80- to 100-pound setups and determine which to use based on the size of the fish you are stopping on.
Fish the heavy gear at night when the fish aren’t line shy, and only use the light stuff if they aren’t biting. Use 40-pound and up though, as there are big ones in the area, and you won’t stand a chance on 25- to 30-pounds if one of those bites your bait.
There are some kelp holding yellowtail up to 20-pounds in the area but a good majority of the kelp have been empty. It’s still worth a “stop and check.” Schools of big bonito have been cruising this same zone as well, especially up inside the 302 area. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
Doing what I like the most at tuna time! …Mara’s Sportfishing
San Quintin
Awesome day with Jon Joseph, Taco meat for days…Thanks for fishing with @bajafishingfamily
Bahía Asunción
Fishing with Gary Leyva today down the beach. Worked hard for the bites, but we got bit a bit. Cold water but “catching in the surf season” is just starting here in paradise. Yup. Moved a couple of blocks whilst I look for another rental or lot to build upon, but my seagull clean-up crew followed along. …Daniel Powell
Bahia de Los Angeles
6/13-14-15/21 Out fishing with my friend Mr. Richard Castaneda, L. Cass from Cass Tours, Mr. J. Borcimo, and Mr. Mike Chavira. The weather was great and the fish were on the byte! On the first day, we went fishing for leopard grouper – we caught 56 fish and released 50; many of these fish were heavily pregnant and it’s a very good idea to release as many as possible so we can enjoy these fish in the future.
The second day, we went looking for yellowtail and found wide-open fish at Barnaby Reef. We caught limits of ‘tails from 15- to 20-pounds.
On the third day, we looked for bigger fish and found them. All the fish were on jigs, we caught 15 fish from 18- to 30-pounds, and we were done fishing by 10:30 a.m. on a foggy day.
It’s always a great pleasure fishing with Cass and his outstanding
friend. …fishonnn&onnn.
To my friends: I have not been posting. I was just taking a little time off fishing on Gonzaga Bay was a bit difficult and somewhat tiring, but I’ve been fishing here in BOLA since late May, and it’s been very good fishing indeed! Thank you a lot. …Captain Juan Cook
How to Catch Yellowtail while paddleboard fishing (How to Catch Big Fish on the Paddleboard). Fishing in Bahia de Los Angeles aka BOLA or Bay of LA on the paddleboard – yoyo fishing and surface iron fishing yellowtail, spotted bay bass, grouper, cabrilla, barracuda, and bonito.
Setup
Okuma 7’11” Guide Select
Lexa 400 70-pound braid, 40-pound top shot
Caivo Bad Man Bait Fall-Scrambled Egg: Reel as fast as you can!
11′ Inflatable Paddle Board. …McQuade Outdoors
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/massive-yellow-on-a-paddle-board.773511/
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Loreto
It is looking like this will be a great year for roosterfish and we have good catches of dorado happening, too! The dorado action has been happening north of Punta Lobo along the current line. Lots of peanut-sized dorado are being caught and released. Large bulls are also in the mix.
Sardina has been the name of the game, but Captain Tony has a hankering to try mackerel for the bigger bulls.
No reports on trolling results with tuna feathers or marlin rigs. Most boats head to the “spot” and look for birds or sargasso patches.
Yellowtail and baqueta are being caught down at the southern high spots near Danzante and the “Six-Mile.”
The biggest surprise has been the number of roosterfish being spotted and caught. Normally the roosters enter the fish count in late July and August. Springtime, summer, and fall roosters can be found around Loreto. I wonder what they are up to in the winter months.
Mysteries and surprises!
The divers are reporting better water temperatures where they hang out. I want to hear about the 78-degree surface temperature, not the thickness of the best wetsuits for the day…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Baja Fly Fishing report covering East Cape, Magdalena Bay, and Cabo San Lucas Baja Mexico.
Magdalena Bay continues to fish well in the mangroves with good catches of grouper, snapper, covina, and pargo. I will be heading over to Mag Bay later this week to host a group and I am looking forward to that!
East Cape – This week, we had some up and down days. Early in the week was calm and flat but in the middle of the week, we had a system move through giving us cloudy skies and some heavy winds. With these winds, the water clarity along the beaches and inshore was slightly off. We still have clouds as of this report but the winds have dropped and the sun is forecast to return tomorrow. This should improve beach and inshore conditions. Before this system, we were seeing some action for quality roosters, but they were very picky following flies to the very last second before refusing. Even without the hook-up, it always gets your heart racing with anticipation of the grab. We did find that the jacks we encountered were more willing to play. We had fun with them.
Off the boat, we continue to see excellent action for tuna and marlin. Plus, there continues to be some big dorado mixed in as well. The bite continues to be around the porpoise. There are schools to the North as well as to the South. The schools have been anywhere between 12 and 30 miles from town. At times we were able to cast to feeding tuna with success. When the fish were down, a trolled fly proved successful.
We are on the water each day this week. Please check here for the update on how the week has gone. …Reel Baja, Jeff DeBrown
La Paz\Muertos Bay
I guess you could say we had a good day today! …Gary Bulla’s Flyfishing Adventures
East Cape
We have been so busy catching fish that we haven’t even had a chance to tell everybody about the EPIC Yellowfin Tuna bite!!! We have had daily limits and we are leaving them biting! Come get some! …Scorpion Sportfishing
Water has been clear, flat, and consistently 80-degrees with exceptionally light winds all week.
The air has been warming, with highs in the low 90s. Cool mornings and blue skies.
The fishing these past two weeks has been off the charts! Incredible fishing for most species!! All anglers targeting yellowfin were limiting with nice fish. Lots of billfish, and big bull dorado were coming in daily. Believe it or not, we’re taking big yellowtail in this warm water.
Lots of pods of porpoise are spread out from 12- to 50-miles offshore producing limits of 10- to 50-pound yellowfin tuna for all anglers throughout the day. They have been hitting bright Hoochies almost exclusively, with a few on Cedar Plugs. Exceptionally good tuna fishing!!
Some big Almaco jacks were taken in the 80- to 90-pound range. Gaff tail and African pompano are abundant and loads of roosterfish are working all the beaches.
Lots of stripers mixed with a few sails on the inside banks 2- to 6- miles off La Ribera. There have been multiple releases for anglers targeting them. Loving the ballyhoo!
Drift fishing sardina with light weights, inside, halfway between La Ribera and Punta Colorado where we found big almaco jacks! Three in the past week were approaching 100 pounds. Big yellowtail in the 20- to 40-pound range were being taken in good numbers daily! This is way late in the year, especially with 80-degree water!! Nice-sized pompano are abundant as well.
Not many dorado, but some big bulls are coming in daily mixed with the tuna and marlin. Coming in on Hoochies and ballyhoo.
There are lots of roosterfish, as usual, this time of year, all along the beaches and there’s not much pressure with all the outside action. …John Ireland. Rancho Leonero
Puerto Los Cabos
Marina bait vendors have found good supplies of healthy-sized sardina, as well as some caballito and mullet, with other options being slabs of squid and ballyhoo. Offshore fishing has been centered near the 95 and 1150 Spots mainly for striped marlin, but also a few dorado and yellowfin tuna as well.
Most of the inshore and bottom action has been in the direction of La Fortuna, Cardon, Iman, San Luis, and Vinorama. On the San Luis grounds, tuna was being hooked every day. The fish were finicky — some days more so than others, and anglers were fortunate to land one or two, although some had four or five.
Also, more sea lions and sharks were making a presence. Most of the yellowfin we saw ranged in the 20- to 60-pound range. There was one 234-pound tuna that was landed Friday off these same grounds. The best bet was to drift fish with sardina, squid, or slow-trolled caballito or bolito if you happen to jig one of those candy baits up.
Still seeing very few dorado. We have begun to see more dorado, however, the wahoo are starting to show up in the fish counts with sizes up to 30 pounds … most of them are being hooked into while drift fishing for tuna with sardina, others also hit on Rapala- type trolling lures. At least there are a few wahoo.
With surface action still a bit spotty, many are concentrating their efforts closer to shore over the rocky high spots or trolling right along the beach stretches. Roosterfish action has been slow to get going, considering this is now peak season and will be for the next month. Everything has been a bit different, slow to get going this season. We did see some roosterfish that were close to 50 pounds.
There were more jack crevalle than anything else close to shore, though there were quite a few sierra hanging out in the warmer waters.
Off the bottom, in depths ranging from 60 to 200 feet, we saw a wide variety of species. We even had a 20-pound California sheepshead, as well as yellowtail, amberjack, fortune jack, bonito, black skipjack, pompano, island jack, surgeonfish, yellow snapper, red snapper, spotted rose snapper, barred pargo, leopard grouper, broomtail, and pinto cabrilla, and of course, triggerfish, a couple of which were monsters. Most charters were coming in with an average of a dozen fish. Many of the smaller cabrilla and snapper are being released, which is a good thing, that we strongly recommend. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Marlin fishing has been good this week from 8 to 10 miles out, at the 1150, the la Herradura, and in front of the Pedregal on lures and live bait.
A little more dorado action this week with a few nice-sized bulls on lures.
The first big Cabo tournament of the year, the Triple Crown Of Fishing was hosted by Pelagic. They had 50 teams consisting of 213 anglers that caught and released 140 billfish, 11 dorado, seven yellowfin tuna, and three wahoo.
Hands down, the most impressive gamefish to hit the scales at the event was a huge 234-pound yellowfin caught by “Team Let’s Go,” earning them $31,000 USD which was the first cow tuna of the year to be brought to the scale.
Closer to shore, dorado, roosterfish, jack crevalle, along with a few kawa-kawa (white bonito) showed in the count. For those looking for some fresh fish for dinner, pargo, cabrilla, and snapper that were caught bottom fishing were perfect…Pisces Sportfishing.
LOCATION: The best locations have been Arriba de la Herradura, the 1150 Spot, Chileno and Abajo Punta Gordo.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps have been from 79- to 81-degrees, clear and calm, with 3- to 5-foot swells and with light winds in the afternoon. The afternoon air temps have been 72- to 84-degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait or lures were alive or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, and a variety of large, brightly-colored pushers, and Rapala-style lures, as well as Hoochies.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
