Baja Bytes – October 26, 2021
Que Pasa
For the 20th time in the 41-year history of the BLACK and BLUE, a ONE MILLION DOLLAR check was presented to the tournament winner!
Team BRANIFF, a FIRST-TIME WINNER aboard a Pisces Fleet boat, the 58′ Dona Homa, with Captain Lupe at the wheel and angler Andres Pineda on the rod, caught what turned out to be the largest fish weighed in during the event – a 489-pound blue marlin earning the TEAM over $1,000,000.Read More
Tijuana Bull Ring
Small Craft Advisory today. The catch has been mostly whitefish with a fair amount of small mixed red and brown rockfish along with a fair number of sheephead in recent days especially this morning.
The rain/wind coming tomorrow is not going to help the already slow surface bite. Best bet will still be to focus on the deep-water rockfish.…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
Plenty of bonito around North Island but the rest of the Island chain is said to be slow. No yellowtail as of late.
Would not expect to find any shortly after this weather either. Good chance the bonito will be gone too especially if the water rolls over.
Best bet will likely be fishing for big quality reds, bocaccio and a few lingcod on the Lower 9. A few guys are fishing these with live mackerel and scoring some very impressive fish. They say the best depth is 450 to 650 feet.…Fish Dope
Ensenada
No Report
San Quintin
No Report
Cedros Island
6 of us from Indiana flew out and fished Cedros Island (Cedros Outdoor Adventures) from October 16-19.
YELLOWTAIL – there was a lot of yellowtail at the island, and everybody caught a lot. There were some really large models upwards of 50 lbs.+ being caught at the south end of the island (El Morro); no one from our group landed these larger models, but we did lose a few large models to the reef. However, even the school size fish were good size with many fish going between 20-25 lbs. We caught most of our fish on live bait (mackeral), but the fish did bite the iron during the morning… sullyatty
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/cedros-island-trip-report-oct-16-19.783056/
Bahía de la Ascensión
Photo
A new species for me this morning. Not totally ID’d yet. I’m calling it an Almaco Jack or a Lesser Amberjack but Almaco has the inside track.
Baja Sur-Que Pasa
Punta Chivato
Good morning, Gary the wind really put a damper on. The Boat fishing however between the windy days we got out and did ok Dorado ranged from8-pounds to Over 20. Some On trolled marlin jigs and got some in shallow water in as little as 20 ft in the bay. Also, some roosters at San Marcos on Cast Crocs. While snorkeling on the south cove near los lobos rock. The Coves
Loreto
It’s time to kick back in Baja and the best way to do that in Loreto would involve a small boat and a stretch of coastline near the airport.
Sierra are shredding up schools of sardina while small roosterfish are stirring up the whole mess!
From the arroyo south of town and continuing all the way south to Punta Coyote it has been slow trolling live sardina for sierra, 5 to 15 pound roosterfish with dorado mixed in to keep things exciting!
Dorado fishing is still very productive although many boats have split to chase yellowtail.
Almeja Reef has been kicking out fat reds and yellows to 15 pounds on both iron and sardina.
Mackerel are being jigged every morning a few miles east of the marina and these green snacks should pump up the yellowtail numbers.
Punta Lobo and the nearby rock piles are the best spots to soak mackerel. Big fish are intermixed with the big currents in this area makes pulling the bigger fish off the bottom a challenge.
Cooler mornings and no rain in sight for this part of Baja…Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing
Lopez Mateos (Magdalena Bay)
Twice over the past ten days or so I fished out of Lopez Mateos and had to settle for two straggler wahoos both times. Yesterday as the first storm of the season continued to move north up the coast I fished again for my first limit of the season in a good afternoon bite. I usually fish alone but as per current requirements in this time of disease I had along with me Captain Ruben Duran. Ruben is always good company and there is no denying that having a competent and personable capitan makes a long day on the water easier. We caught five wahoos, including a couple of double hook-ups, five small yellowfin and a nice dorado…Bill Erhardt
https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/mag-bay-report-aug-23-wahoo-show-up-late.754474/
This week we were in the mangroves most of the week due to wind. We did get outside one day and had good action for dorado. In the mangroves we had good action for small snook, grouper, and corvina all on fly. It’s currently blowing this morning with overcast skies. Looking at the forecast it looks like it will be settling down after tomorrow and we have a window of good weather and will be able to get outside. I heard there is good Marlin action twenty miles south of Tosco and another group of Marlin on the potato bank. Both those are to far for me to get to but hopefully we can find a few in this area once we are able to get outside. I will be sure to let you know how we do this week…Jeff DeBrown, Reel Baja
We fished the ridge on Sunday got nice size wahoo. Weather for this October has been very windy. Lots of bay fishing instead. With all the usual catch…Diana Hoyt MagBay Outfitters
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Oct. 10-16, 2021
East Cape
Water- 83-84. A couple of fishable north wind days midweek. Much clearer water this week. Temps down 5* from last week.
Air- Cooler fall weather, highs in the low 80’s, cool mornings. Nice weather!
An improved week of fishing. The past month all the storm and rain definitely hurt the fishing. This past week the bite has improved..
Much better Dorado fishing with 10-15# fish common. The Striped Marlin bite has improved as well with multiple releases daily. A few quality Yellowfin coming in daily. The Tuna Shootout winner yesterday was a 51# er.
The water inside has cleaned up and the fishing is definitely improving! Lots of big Sardine available..
Dorado- Nice sized fish in good numbers are biting Sardine and small lures, South from the Lighthouse to Frailles. About half on lures the rest on Sardine. 10-15# fish common.
Billfish- Striped Marlin mixed with a few Sails. As the week progressed the bite improved, multiple releases for boats targeting billfish. By far the best fishing on the drop off directly in front of La Ribera. Trolled lures, Ballyhoo the best bait.
Yellowfin- Some nice fish in the 30-50# class being taken off RinCon along the Pulmo Park border. Almost all on Sardine.
Skipjack- Limitless Skipjack spread across the bay. As many as anglers want to pull on. Some big ones to 10# ‘s common. A lot of fun for all especially on the fly.
Bottom- Lots of Pompano and Pargo off the lighthouse, Punta Colorado and the drop offs off La Ribera.. Live Sardine, chunked skipjack working best…John Ireland, Rancho Leonero
I need a bigger workspace. Chip Shapley’s 487-pound,11
foot 9-inch, Pacific Blue Marlin. It was caught aboard “Thresher”, Captain Julio Cota’s 33 Blackfin for a second-place finish in the Bisbee East Cape Offshore August 4 2021.
Puerto Los Cabos Photo
This past week the world’s richest tournament was held, Bisbee’s Blank & Blue, some 200 teams battling for a record purse of close to 10 million dollars. Only two qualifying marlin of over 300 lb. were recorded for three days of fishing. It appears the heavy pressure is taking its toll on the local fishery, having these back-to-back to back events with close to 200 teams in each participating and then most of all these same teams also pre-fishing during the weeks prior to the events, all on the same well known grounds. The fish seem to be getting wiser of the danger related to all of the boat traffic.
A week off now and then the first week of November is the big WON Tuna Jackpot event. Surprisingly there are still schools of sardina being found and so far supplies of squid have remained fairly steady, teams will be hoarding now, so who knows how long supplies will last. An ongoing problem every year at this time and these events are becoming more popular, larger each season. We are definitely noticing a decline in the fishery, surely this is a combination of factors.
For local charters, most were concentrated on the San Luis Bank this past week, where tuna up to 170 lb. were accounted for, most of the yellowfin landed were more in the 50 to 120 lb. range, a few smaller football sized fish showing as well. This action is really the best option going on now, so this has meant heavy pressure on this one spot. It seems that some tuna are hooked up early every morning and then after that they become extremely weary and disappear. There is some bottom action going on on these same grounds, but more triggerfish than anything else. A few amberjack, cabrilla and pargo. The dogtooth snapper bite is fading out this past week.
Wahoo and dorado were scarce as well, more dorado being found than wahoo, scattered through the zone, most of these under ten pounds. Wahoo action certainly should improve as ocean temps drop a few more degrees in coming weeks.
A few smaller roosterfish being found along the shore, as well as the beginning of sierra season. Bill fishing is slow, a few sailfish and smaller sized striped marlin being found…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Bisbee Black and Blue awards its 20th OVER A MILLION DOLLAR CHECK
For the 20th time in the 41-year history of the BLACK and BLUE, a ONE MILLION DOLLAR check was presented to the tournament winner!
Team BRANIFF, a FIRST-TIME WINNER aboard a Pisces Fleet boat, the 58′ Dona Homa, with Captain Lupe Gomez at the wheel and angler Andres Pineda on the rod, caught what turned out to be the largest fish weighed in during the event – a 489-pound blue marlin earning the TEAM over $1,134,350.
And it’s a wrap! Another successful Bisbee year is over and we received 7,515 lbs of fish over five days and it is all distributed to many different ministries who help those in need! (Many pictured in this post). Hundreds of marlin were caught and released and only 20 lost their lives and brought to the scale. Winner was 577 lbs! Thankfully thousands will be fed from those 20 marlin, our calculations are 22,545 meals! Thank you to our team of volunteers who helped process, package and deliver the fish to those in need!
Gordy and Chris T. White, Zac Childress, Pablo Lopez Geraldo Burgoin, Dinah Briggs Rev. David G. Larsen and Bruce Rohman.
Hope for Los Cabos would like to give a BIG thank you to Wayne Bisbee and Tricia Bisbee for giving us the honor of spreading out all the tournament fish to many in our city in need! Everyone has been so grateful to receive the fish!!
Bisbee’s Black & Blue Carey Bisbee Bisbee’s Marlin World Magazine Gary C Graham
LOCATION: The best fishing locations have been Migrino, Poso Coto, 30 miles at 140 degrees, 40 miles at 140 degrees.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps have been from 77 to 84 degrees, clear and calm with three to five-foot swells, and winds SE from 3- to 5-mph in the afternoons. The air temps have been 70- to 84-degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait has been alive or dead caballito, mackerel, ballyhoo, sardina, and cedar plugs. Trolled blue and white pushers, green and black, green with yellow, lures red and black, cedar plugs, plastic squid, and Rapala-style lures. …Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
