Baja Bytes – July 20, 2021
Tijuana Bull Ring
Steady summertime fishing continues for excellent bass fishing here at the Bull Ring, as well as good surface action on the barracuda.
There’s no shortage of sandbass in Imperial Beach, with guys making good scores daily on legal-sized fish. Dead squid on a lead head has been the best bait, but the sand bass are biting on artificials too. The IB Kelp spot has been the best for these.
Anglers have caught a few yellowtail each week, but nothing steady. These fish have been popping up sporadically under birds for the last few weeks, but they haven’t been consistent. Still, it’s a good idea to keep a surface jig tied on, in case you see them pop under birds. Anglers have also caught yellowtail on sinker-rigged mackerel. …Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
Good fishing continues out here with good signs of smaller grade yellowtail in the 6- to 10-pound range. These fish are all over both sides of South Island. Guys are getting them on trolled Rapalas and slow-trolled/flylined sardine.
Then in the middle grounds, there is plenty of action on the barracuda and calico bass. Flylined bait and surface lures are getting these fish, and there has been good quality and quantity found with both species. …Fish Dope
9 Mile Bank / 439 / Coronado Canyon / 371 / 425 / 475 Knuckle / Upper Hidden Bank / Above 32 00
Some sport boats have moved back down into this zone, opting to fish paddies and chase yellowfin. They see good yellowtail paddy fishing with fish weighing from 8- to 20-pounds. A few are holding smaller-grade dorado as well.
There are scattered schools of yellowfin throughout this area, but it doesn’t sound like there is a considerable volume yet.
The 9 Mile Bank has been holding bluefin, but most of the volume is on the U.S. side of the border. We heard of some jumbo bluefin foaming up on the surface yesterday in the Coronado Canyon midday though some are still below the border. Much less boat traffic on it which might mean more bites. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
Mara’s Sportfishing Ensenada
San Quintin
Great week…Garcia’s Pangas Sportfishing
Bahía Asunción
Guess where the coldest water is in all of Central Baja?..Ross Zoerhof
Bahia de Los Angeles
Roads were great via Highway One. The last 15 miles into BoLA, you need to slow down to at least 45-mph as there are some killer potholes again. Thanks again, @Dogman619, for the heads up. My new trailer ran like a dream. Although the boat does slap in the chop as always, it performed beautifully. We managed a few 35mph runs. I wish my trailer swing arm were about three feet longer for that ramp on the choppy, windy days, but overall, there were NO problems on this trip. Looking forward to our next visit. …Wild Doggy
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/bola-july-14th-to-18th.776478/
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Punta Chivato
Striped marlin in the house! …Craig Cove
Loreto
We are having a good fishing season in Baja, and that is such an understatement! I haven’t seen dorado this big in six years, maybe even eight! They aren’t jumping in the boats, but the tried-and-true methods and locations put fish in most boats. Light line has been getting hit by the big boys. It gets better bites, but break-offs and spooling are happening every day. Sardina and feathers along the current lines, sargasso, and any floating trash can yield a gold mine (golden)!
Marlin are also in the mix. It’s not uncommon to have marlin strikes announced over the radio. Most boats are staying north of Coronado Island, where many parallel current lines run north to Pulpito. It’s a traditional summer in Loreto – blazing hot sun and all the assorted cold beverages to soothe the aching shoulders.
Roberta fished with captain Tony Davis and nailed her two fish limit two days this past week.
“Gali,” a face that all the regulars will recognize, nailed several large bull dorado at Almeja Bay. …Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
San Carlos
Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks.MagBay Lodge, Toby Larocque
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of July 11-17, 2021
East Cape
Van Warmer Dorado Shootout Results
Team Juampi and angler Daniel Diestro from La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico, take the 2021 Dorado Shoot Out with their 46.6-pound dorado. In addition, they won a 2021 Volkswagen 4×4 Amarok and all the Jackpots worth a grand total of $142,205.
Congratulations to all the anglers!
Second Place went to team El Regalo and angler Harry Rogers with their 40.3-pound dorado. Third Place went to Everardo De La Toba with their 39-pound dorado.
Donna Fisher won the Biggest Wahoo with her 20.4-pound wahoo.
The biggest tuna went to Mike Kneeskern with his 29.9-pound yellowfin tuna.
This past week was a little bit of everything. On the fly fishing front, the marlin and tuna continued to be the species giving us the best action. The bill fishing has been excellent, with us having multiple shots per day and getting at least one fish on the fly per day. Gradually, the school is moving to the south, and the best action has been three to four miles out from shore in front of Cabo Pulmo to Frailes. The tuna have been with the scattered schools of porpoise and, on average, are about fifteen miles out. During the dorado Shootout, participants caught some nice dorado. But as for the fly anglers, we have not had any opportunities to cast flies recently. Closer in and on the beach, it has been hit and miss. We had a little wind making it difficult for a couple of days. When conditions have been decent, the fish were scarce. However, anglers have been seeing a few more over the past couple of days. …Jeff DeBrown Reel Baja
Puerto Los Cabos
Ocean conditions varied, with lots of wind on the Pacific, and often the south wind would sweep into the Sea of Cortez later in the day. Water temperatures averaged 80 degrees or higher, with clarity fluctuating daily as hefty currents are sweeping through. However, bait supplies remained steady for sardina, mullet, and caballito.
Local fleets were fishing the grounds from Red Hill, Chileno, Gordo Banks, Cardon, Iman, San Luis to Vinorama. The action has been spread out with no specific hot spot now. Offshore action was slow, though the smaller-sized striped marlin appeared along with a few sailfish. There were no stories of big black or blue marlin yet. Dorado and wahoo have been very scarce, though there were a few free swimming hoo’s spotted by boats drift fishing over high spots.
The most consistent action has been for various shallow to medium-depth structure species, most common being triggerfish, spotted rose snapper, yellow snapper, barred pargo, Almaco jacks, pompano, cabrilla, and bonito. All of these fish are excellent table fare. A few of the Almaco jacks reached over 40 pounds, and a couple of cabrilla (grouper) weighed 30-pounds. The average catch was about a dozen fish per boat in combination.
The best chance for yellowfin tuna was near Vinorama, close to shore. Although these fish were finicky, anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these 20 to 50-pound fish drift-fishing sardina on lighter leaders.
Closer to the shoreline, there was scattered action found for roosterfish while trolling live bait. Some of these fish were trophy-sized, over 50-pounds, though there were also many smaller juvenile-sized roosters around, a bit strange for this time of year, as we usually see a higher percentage of the full-sized adult fish.
We usually find dogtooth snapper during July and August close to shore near rocky outcroppings, though that has not happened in recent years. I believe between ongoing gillnetting and high concentrations of spear divers, this once world-class snapper fishery is all but done; these fish should be protected and not be legal to keep at this stage. They have almost been decimated in our region. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Tuna! Tuna!! Tuna!!! Anglers are loading up these days with fun Yellowfin Tuna action of double, triple, and quadruple hookups on fish averaging from 20 to 50-pounds, with a few over 100-pounds also. The fleet caught a staggering 435 yellowfin tuna this week! They remember always to respect the size and catch limits!
Lots of mahi have begun to show up now too! The Pisces 31′ La Brisa and 31′ Ruthless are shown here with some nice catches from the past week.
A nice-sized roosterfish was Released by Ann Anderson, one of our favorite women anglers! She decided to go out for an hour or so and try to land her “bucket-list” roosterfish yesterday evening, and of course, Captain Pepe and crew aboard Pisces 45′ Viking Chasin Tail came through.
Blue marlin Released yesterday aboard Pisces 35′ Bill Collector 2! More of these blues are starting to show up, along with a good number of striped marlin and some sailfish as well. How much do you estimate this blue marlin would weigh? …Pisces Sportfishing
The best fishing locations in the Los Cabos area have been: The 95 Spot, anywhere from 15 -25 miles south; the 11:50; the Herradura; the 34 miles 210 degrees.
The sea temps have been from 77- to 81-degrees, clear and calm, with 2- to 3-foot swells and light winds in the afternoon. The afternoon air temps have been 100-degrees.
The best bait or lures were live or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, a large variety of brightly colored pushers, Rapala-style lures, as well as Hoochies.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
