Baja Bytes – June 29, 2021
The annual Stars and Stripes Charity Tournament begins on Wednesday and lasts through Sunday. With its “ALL ABOUT THE KIDS” theme, each year it raises extraordinary sums of money to sustain a remarkable list of children’s charities, both in Baja and the United States.
Stars And stripes Gold sponsor golfers took to the links on Thursday at two epic courses. Many enjoyed the prestigious Chileno Bay golf club and all it’s miraculous amenities while others enjoyed the world renowned views at Quivira Golf Club.
Friday 128 golfers conquered Palmilla’s Ocean and Mountain courses while competing in a fun shamble format.
Saturday brought 100 golfers the opportunity to enjoy the brand new venue designed by Greg Norman, Rancho San Lucas, for a scramble competition. 30 mph wind gusts were not the only challenge at this course as golfers got the relief of cooler temperatures in Cabo.
Winning teams took home $1200 in G/Fore G/Money and a sculpted trophy by Dale Evers.
For more information on the charities, check out https://starsandstripestournament.com/.
To follow the Sportfishing Tournament go to https://ss21.catchstat.com/.
Tijuana Bull Ring
There has been hit-and-miss barracuda fishing in this area. When active, there are working spots of anchovy in the flats. Some days they are showing and other days not so much. When they are biting, they are jumping on surface iron, Colt Snipers, and fly-lined sardine and anchovy. However, their sharp teeth often win.
There are often squid in the outside Bull Ring kelp area. Twilight boats are seeing them in the deck lights while jigging them up for bait. The bait, in turn, is producing large numbers of sand bass. The squid is also working during the day on sand bass in the same area.
Calico bass are biting okay. They are best at the kelp line but there have been bass on the hard bottom spots, too. Try and get some anchovy for chum. Nothing works better to get the bass fired up
then fly line on light line or throwing plastics or crankbaits. …Fish Dope
Tijuana Bull Ring
Anglers were being tight-lipped this weekend due to the Yellowtail Shootout, but we have learned that some guys found pretty good yellowtail action all around South Island on slow-trolled sardine and surface iron.
Also showing and biting pretty good was legal size barracuda up to 8-pounds or so. These were being caught by accident by guys fishing in the Shootout. …Fish Dope
Border / Coronado Canyon / 226-302 / 230
Fewer boats were out today, but there were still roughly 100 or more in the zone. The area, in general, is between the 226-302 and the 439/Coronados and from the Border down to almost the 425. It is a big zone and there is massive biomass of bluefin in it.
Some say as much or more than they have ever seen before.
They are all mixed up as far as size goes.
Roughly 50% of the tuna are being found on sonar marks and those boats with side-scan sonar and lots of chum to throw continue to do best.
Recently there have been a lot of signs of tuna under the birds,
plus breezers, puddlers, jumpers, shiners, and a few random jig stops.
Some boats are hammering them and others not so much. Again, in general, it is the boats with side-scan sonar and huge bait capacity for chumming heavy and hard that are doing best.
Yellowfin are also in the picture now. Some 25- to 50-pounders are beginning to filter in. Not a lot yet, but the numbers appear to be on the increase. A dorado was hooked on Saturday.
On a side note, there are a few big bonito roaming around the area and some kelp paddy yellowtail but be advised that most of the kelp in this area have been hit many times already.
If you want to target those big 10 bonito, they are mostly concentrated on the east side of this zone in the Coronado Canyons west of the Islands. These fish are mostly biting on the troll with cedar plugs, daisy chains, and small feathers getting most of the bites. They will bite fly-lined bait, and colt snipers too if they are up on top and actively feeding too.
The big fish are getting caught on large knife jigs from 4- to 500- grams and flat falls to 350 grams. You need to be fishing heavy leader, ideally no less than 100-pounds for those at night. During the day, there are some hooked on the sinker rig but guys are having a tougher time getting bit on 80-pounds. For the last few days, the kites have done most of the damage during the day. Boats are mostly seeing meter marks (the wind has made spotting breezers and puddlers tough) and when they are on fish, they are sending out the frozen dead flyers and California flyers on the kite and helium balloons when the wind isn’t cooperating. …Fish Dope
Ensenada.
Inshore the action continues for a wide variety of tasty critters. ..Sammy Susarrey Sportfishing
San Quintin
Garcias Pangas Sportfishing San Quintin
Bahía Asunción
Three more seiners pulled in today and two from yesterday pulled out this morning and headed up the line. The fact that they are choosing not to loiter in this 59-degree water is a telltale! …Ross Zoerhof
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Weakening Tropical Storm Enrique heads for the Baja resort area.
By Associated Press
June 28, 2021 at 8:14 p.m. PDT
MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Enrique slowed into a tropical storm Monday as it pulled away from the coastal shoulder of southwestern Mexico, having passed by just offshore while sweeping the coast with heavy rains and winds.
Enrique moved past the Cabo Corrientes bulge during Sunday night and began weakening to a tropical storm as it headed toward a possible run at the resort area on the southern end of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula by mid-week.
Enrique’s maximum sustained winds were down to 60 mph (95 kph) by late Monday, per the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Additional weakening was forecast over the next few days, and “the center of Enrique is expected to move near or over portions of the southern Baja California Peninsula” late Tuesday or early Wednesday, according to the center.
Late Monday, the storm’s core was about 205 miles (325 kilometers) southeast of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja and moving northwest at 6 mph (9 kph).
Enrique was the first hurricane of the eastern Pacific season.
Loreto
If anyone has fly fishing all day long for roosterfish on their bucket list they might want to get their butt down to Baja ASAP! Reports are pointing toward Danzante Island for this possibility.
The snorkel-trip boat captains are raving about the battles between the medium-sized roosterfish and the acres of sardina that have been going on for the past ten days. The west side from Honeymoon Cove south to the submarine rock has been foaming with action. Dorado have not gotten into the action yet, but this is a prime spot to see the dorado boats in the coming weeks.
The offshore battles continue with bull dorado and small billfish north of Carmen’s Punta Lobo. This is the same spot that was hot a few weeks ago. It isn’t exactly “hot” right now but most boats are landing dorado to 30 pounds as well as short sailfish in this area. There have been a few patches of sargasso to aid in the search, and trolling both lures and sardina has been productive. Light line, 4/0 hooks, and good techniques have out-produced medium and heavy gear. Bonito are whacking trolled feathers making the summer party guest list complete. Looks like a great summer fishing scene in Baja. …Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz\Muertos Bay
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of June 16-23, 2021
East Cape
Air temperatures have been a touch humid in the high 80s with light breezes, while water stayed in the low 80s, followed by marlin and margaritas. Porpoises were doing their Marineland show demonstrations where ever you looked; with marlin on all points of the compass and the bite just getting hotter and hotter.
If you choose to fish from the beach, you can drive your ATV from the beach at Los Barriles to La Ribera and find lots of fly fishers casting for roosterfish, jack crevalle, and other smaller species. It is easy to find plenty of baitfish, including sardina, caballito, mackerel, and ladyfish, with warm water all along the shoreline.
Offshore fishing at the 18- to the 35-mile range has paid off with healthy limits of yellowfin tuna along with boatloads of happy anglers. Double and triple hookups have been common. Fish have nailed trolled lures, live bait, and everything in sight…
Puerto Los Cabos
After water settled, clarity and water temperatures rebounded. We saw the yellowfin tuna bite pick up, with an early bite on the grounds near Vinorama, within a couple of miles of shore, for yellowfin in the 10- to 40-pound class striking on sardina early in the mornings, then as the sun rose higher, the action would stop. Some charters reported up to ten tuna. We heard of some other tuna action also associated with porpoise, being found over 25 miles offshore, being more of a private boat deal. This tuna action was probably the highlight of the weekend, and it was important to get an early start.
No wahoo to speak of, though we were seeing a scattering of dorado, mixed sizes, including bulls up to 30 pounds, just a couple of fish here and there. Some charters ran into schools of baby-sized dorado, all catch, and release. Billfish action was also scattered, more small-sized striped marlin, we are talking very tiny, as small as 40 up to 70 -pounds, a few sailfish in the mix as well.
The shallow water structure offers a great variety of fish, triggerfish, pompano, island jack, surgeonfish, red, yellow, and rose snapper, barred pargo, bonito, amberjack, leopard grouper, and more. One very impressive amberjack of 90 -pounds was weighed in. Along the shore, there were more jack crevalle than roosterfish, though we are now seeing more roosterfish show up. The few sierra that are still hanging around have big monsters, for the most part, a few pushing the 13 to 15-pound mark…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
The Stars and Stripes Charity Tournament that had to cancel last years’ event due to Covid-19 protocol, returned to Cabo San Lucas last week for their 24th time in the past 25 years.
The gala featuring Melissa Etheridge was kicked off in the breathtaking canyon setting on Wednesday evening attended by 320 Gold Team members and their guests #itsallaboutthekids. Friday and Saturday featured a Golf or Sportfishing Tournament beneath the bright blue Cabo sky. Saturday evening, after a fantastic dinner which was followed by a lively auction, participants and attendees were entertained by the “one and only” Ziggy Marley and his entourage.
Fifty-four teams competed in the charity sportfishing competition for cash and prizes in the two-day event.
A remarkable 158 billfish were released during the event in addition to dorado, yellowfin tuna, and a wahoo that were caught.
An amazing event in Baja in the pandemic raising some RECORD-BREAKING dollars to help kids in need. #itsallaboutthekids #feelgoodtournament https://ss21.catchstat.com/
The best fishing locations in the Los Cabos area have been Arriba de la Herradura, the 95 Spot, 1150 Spot, Chileno, and Cerro Colorado
The sea temps have been from 76- to 80-degrees, clear and calm, with 2- to 3-foot swells and with light winds in the afternoon. The afternoon air temps have been 91-degrees.
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
