Baja Bytes – August 31, 2021
Que Pasa
Tijuana Bull Ring
This week, fishing has been quiet, although calicos were spotted along the kelp line, and a few “sandies” were spotted in the flats. In addition, there have been some barries and bonito under bird schools here and there. …Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
Around the islands, it has been slowing just a little bit each day since a week ago when the bite went stupid. It is more hit and miss now. On the weather side of North Island, Middle Grounds, North end of South Island, and along the weather side of South Island, yellows have been seen and caught at Ribbon Kelp, Lighthouse Kelp, 5 Minute Kelp, and South Kelp Reef.
These spots below South Island have also seen some signs of small bluefin from time to time, although they are very hit and miss. So, you might see them, but you probably won’t.
Slow trolling sardines way back has been the best way to score a tuna as of late.
The yellows have been running mainly in the 10 to 15lb range, with a few going to 20lbs. The yellows are biting the fly line sardine fished on 25lb, and the surface and yoyo iron on 40lb. If you find or see any, the bluefin are running in the 10 to 25lb class. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
San Quintin
Yesterday, from a trip with friends. We stayed at the Mill; I had not been for probably six years and was very happy with the improvements made. There was still the same feel but with added comforts. With C-Bass catches over the past week, that was our focus for the two days we fished with Oscar on the ’23 Parker from KM Sportfishing. …TsTime.
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/sq-report-8-26-8-29.779680/
We returned Monday from two days in San Quintin.
On the first day, Saturday, the water was sheet glass with a swell – lots of yellowtail but a fickle bite. Irons worked best, yellow and green, blue tiger & scrambled egg. I caught one on a green Mega Bait.
The second day, Sunday was windy with a swell. Early morning reports came in that the white sea bass were off the beach! We charged back in and saw many hookups but many losses.
Our Panga with Capt. Chiba caught all three we hooked casting Green Crocodiles fly-lining Spanish Mackerels.
Great Trip. …Thumbless
Cedros Island
This past month has been highly productive for big yellowtail, calico bass, California sheepshead, and quality grade white seabass, along with an occasional black sea bass tipping the scales at between 30 and 80 pounds.
Despite the scorching temperatures that have descended upon central California and the western U.S. over the past few months, the weather on Isla Cedros remains blissfully mild. Here, the penetrating rays of the warm Baja sun are moderated by the blissfully pleasant breezes provided by the Pacific Ocean, which gently caress our Island. …Baja Tommy
Bahía Asunción
Beauty and the Beast. Mutt and Jeff. Tom and Jerry. Laurel and Hardy. On a morning where it was probably best not to fish, I managed a couple of yellowtail. One of them looked pretty nice until I caught the second one. The weather was sparking and grumbling with rain showers from the storm clouds in pretty much every direction. The clouds were such that this midwestern boy would not have been surprised if a funnel dipped out of one of them. We lost power in the pueblo quite early in the morning —around 6:30 or 7. And it just came back on about a half-hour ago — elevenish. So we experienced pretty much everything associated with local storm cells, except no rain in the village itself. That was not a surprise!
The largest of the fish was the biggest I’ve caught this season and was tricked into inhaling a minty Deadhead jig. It was taped out at 44 pounds on the boat and came in at 42.5 on the digital.
We were back at it again on Sunday, and the result was a Xerox copy of Saturday’s catch. The smaller fish was a bit larger, and the larger fish was a bit smaller – 39 pounds.…Ross Zoerhof
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Loreto
The dorado wars are continuing north of Coronado Island. Punta Colorado is as far north as most boats need to go to hit the two-fish limit. The traditional sprinkling of sardina on the local waters will put dorado on ice but trolled lures have been harvesting the larger dorado.
We were lazy this past Friday but had great luck pulling blue and white popper-style lures behind the boat. Blue and white is usually a winner for iron, and I discovered that it holds true for trolled lures. Purple and pink was our second place, big-fish producer. Too bad we didn’t also add a few sardina in the baitwell because it always seems that a bigger dorado is following the hooked fish! ( I’ll try to remember that next trip !) Roosterfish are doing their shallow-water dining on 6-inch needlefish in all the usual spots.
Coronado Island’s “Matate Beach” was typical, with 15-pound class roosters ushering the finger food schoolies around while the bigger bait (aka “lisas”) kept their distance.
The big roosters, 40-plus pounds, will fall for a lisa when presented just outside the sand boundary. Lisas are easy to catch, and to the big roosters, a lisa is like a creme-filled sponge cake torpedo that will slide down their throats with little hesitation!
Summertime is also roosterfish time when some of the local roosters hit 100-plus pounds.…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ VIDEO FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing Aug. 10-17, 2021
East Cape
Water- Clear flat, 87-88*
There have been clear skies, and warmer this week, with highs in the 90s.
It has been a good week of fishing. A very consistent bite on the yellowfin, quality fish from 20- to 60# are coming in daily. As usual, lots of striped marlin mixed with sails and a few blues are released daily. The bottom fishing has been extraordinary, with BIG amberjack, good-sized pargo, and lots of pompano coming to the cleaning table every day. Big roosters to 80 #’s are released. As usual, lots of good bait – “big Sardine” – are available. We are waiting on Hurricane Nora, which is expected to arrive later today. As the storm is hugging the mainland coast, we hope to get a lot of rain and some wind with any luck…John Ireland, Rancho Leonero
At times our sea seemed too hot for fish to stick around. The air temps were in the mid-90s, and water temps were in the mid-80s. Fortunately, we were blessed with a bit of rain in the area, and water temps cooled a bit.
We are back on track with tuna, dorado, marlin, and wahoo, while our roosterfish stayed on the hot bite throughout. As for bottom fishing, there have been great catches in the last few days.
Ballyhoo and sardine have been great bait for tuna and billfish, along with squid for chumming. Near El Rincon, several tuna were landed using squid. While at La Ribera Banks, marlin were consistently biting very well. Roosterfish are being spotted and landed along the coastline from right in front of Hotel Buenavista to the lighthouse…Axel Valdez,
Puerto Los Cabos
All week local interests were following the development of Hurricane Nora and its projected path. Mid-week, Cabo San Lucas and surrounding areas were looking to receive a direct landfall strike; by Saturday, though, the situation changed. Nora veered east and went in the direction of the Gulf of California, sweeping through Mazatlan, Culiacan, and locations to the north. Los Cabos only had cloud cover, a very slight breeze, and little rain showers reported. So things went from preparation mode for emergencies to a false alarm. Everything is okay.
Light tourists at this time. For the few anglers in town, the fishing action showed signs of improvement for larger fish. At least a couple of black marlin up to 450 lb. were taken from near the Gordo Banks. From the tuna grounds to the north, there were several yellowfin caught up to 100 lb. Other nice-grade of 30 to 70-lb. average-sized tuna were seen. Anglers were using various available bait, sardina, caballito, chihuil, and strips of squid. Overall, anglers were doing well to land one or two of these tuna, though some landed as many as three or four.
Very few dorado were seen, though a few scattered bull dorado up close to 30 lbs. were found. No wahoo to speak of, as water temperatures were still hovering in the upper 80s.
Off the high spots, a handful of dogtooth snapper and grouper were landed, and at times sea lions and sharks made this style of fishing impossible.
Open water trolling produced a mix of striped marlin, sailfish, and dorado. We heard of some blue marlin hooked towards Cabo San Lucas; it is that time now with lots of small skipjack and yellowfin tuna being their favored food source.
Not much of anything is reported near shore as it is the time of year that the inshore action scatters. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Fishing days aboard Pisces 46′ La Chingona: Big bull mahi-mahi and blue marlin released, too…Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing Fleet.
LOCATION: The best fishing locations have been 36 miles to 130 degrees, 40 miles south, 30 miles 150, 32 miles to 130, outside Horseshoe.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps have been from 81 to 86 degrees, clear and calm with two to three-foot swells and light breezes in the afternoons. The air temps have been from 74 to 86 degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait or lures were alive or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, and a variety of large pushers in various colors, along with cedar plugs, plastic squid, and Rapala-style lures.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
