Que Paso
The Federal government has announced that 16 states have turned “Green” in the pandemic semaphore, or stoplight. Among those states is Baja California Sur, your favorite one.
Green indicates that we are SAFE, and most restrictions, if not all, can be lifted. The final decision on the restrictions will be made public Tuesday by the Health Committee that involves federal and state health authorities and the Los Cabos Coordinating Council, formed by most local business associations.
BAJA (Norte)
Tijuana Bull Ring
It remains all about sand bass and sculpin off the Bull Ring kelp bed to the south.
The best bets are anchovy, sardine on sliding egg sinker rigs, and whole squid on knocker rigs.
The halibut bite has slowed way down. No biters recently, unlike last weekend when several boats scored a few legal-sized fish near the Yukon Wreck.
Halibut were caught in the flats toward South Island in water as shallow as 25 feet to as deep as 140 feet. Drifting with live sardine or anchovy is the ticket. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
Still, there were no reports of yellowtail, nor were there reports of bonito either since the storm. There is decent calico bass fishing in the Middle Islands area and below South Island at South Kelp.
With this new weather system about to roll through, it will probably take a while to get going, and it will not necessarily be a good choice next weekend. It’s probably going to take a little longer than that. …Fishdope.com
Baja California Sport Fishing
Sportfishing in the “Five Islands”
The Municipality of San Felipe, heading to San Luis Gonzaga, has begun with a bang! It looks like it will be an excellent season.
Colonet
The fishing count for lingcod and reds/rockfish is still outstanding. That will likely continue. As for the yellowtail, heavy yoyo jigs (6x or 7x style) in blue/white, scrambled egg, and bird poop on 50lb. line continues to be the ticket when the yellowtail are on the high spot, and they are in a biting mood. You can use either mono or fluoro leader; it doesn’t matter as it’s a reaction bite. Many prefer a longer mono top-shot to provide stretch in the line. This helps prevent pulling the hook on the yellows. The anglers are locating the fish with sonar from 180 to 300 feet. 30.53.800 x 116.30.200 – Colonet High Spot. …Fishdope.com
San Quintin
Straight out of San Quintin, there are giant catches to be had…Captain Juan Cook.
I found what’s left of my friend Steve’s sailboat, the “Maria Elena.” Steve was a street performer in Santa Barbara – he and a buddy, Chikilin would spend their winters here in San Quintin getting away from the crowds, playing music, and hanging out. One season, they didn’t return. Their sailboats were in SQ bay. In time, a friend of theirs came down and told us, Steve had been in a traffic accident in Las Vegas and passed on, and Chikilin had passed while playing his piano on the street in Santa Barbara. Anyway, Steve’s boat broke its tether and drifted for 10 miles right out of SQ bay before traveling a few more miles due east and running aground on Santa Maria Bay, right next door to the Santa Maria Hotel. Crazy stuff! Kind of’ like the boat wanted to die after Steve was gone, and it killed itself right on the beach where Steve always wanted to be. RIP Maria Elena! …Captain Juan Cook
Baja Sur
Que Pasa
Out for a cold drive on the Santa Maria Beach, very stormy looking, but hardly anyone on the sand. So its was very nice, found a line of baby Pismo clams. Zillions of them stretching for miles, very nice light and lots to see, if you take you’re time and see what’s there…Captain Juan Cook
Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur.
WHALE MAGIC TOURS provide unique, intimate, educational whale watching experiences to Ojo de Liebre (Scammon’s Lagoon) near Guerrero Negro in Baja.
Another lovely, glassy day on Laguna Ojo de Liebre with whales spy-hopping, breaching, courting, and playing with us. …Shari Bondy
It looks like a good time. What’s the census say about the # of whales compared to previous years? … Ellen Utschig
There are about 1,000 here now, up from the last couple of years. … Shari Bondy
Shari Bondy, Gotta love that! I might have to raise a toast to that good news! (as if I needed an excuse for mas rituales!). …Ellen Utschig
Loreto
Our usual Baja winter winds have not diminished and peaked as hoped. So we have been stuck with the “peaked” version. Today, there were crazy winds out of the west, which were rare and disrupting.
While staying on the “spot” is tough with any stubborn wind, most of the fishing crowd averaged only one yellowtail; however, they averaged 20 pounds.
La Cholla has been the favored destination these past few days for the YT. Not only are they close to town and sporting many scattered rock piles, another plus for these rock piles, but they are also less than 200 feet deep!
The whale watching scene is hot, with blues and humpbacks spotted all around the islands. It has been a great year with a solid start and at least another five to six weeks before it’s time to say “adios” for another year!
Photos from earlier this week; yellowtail from the north side of Coronado, at a spot called “Candeleros.”…Rick Hill, Click Here
La Paz
On Sunday, May 1, a group of businesses (Baja Mark Fishing Tackle, Volkswagen, and Transmar) will sponsor the 1st Annual La Paz Charity Yellowtail Tournament. They stated: “The purpose of Empathy has been a topic of conversation for the last two years. We don’t want that emotional connection to be gone. Instead, we want to contribute, continuing to be aware of those who need it most.”
The organizers chose the Oleadas de Luz charity organization “to donate the proceeds to them, after absorbing the organization expenses, so that they can continue their work of assisting adults and children with cancer.” To sign up and obtain more information, call +52 (612) 140 3394 or email Kit McNear sportfishingkit@cox.net
It was a kinder-gentler week from winter winds this past week. Most days were fishable, much to the concern of the windsurfers and kiteboarders, but they were much better for fishing.
Given it’s still technically “winter,” the signs have been encouraging. Daytime temps touched the high 80s, and nighttime temps were in the comfortable high 60s. When the winds aren’t blowing, the days have been relatively calm for this time of year and good enough to get some folks on the water. Of course, there are not many folks out fishing as this is off-season, but most folks this time of year want a day of fishing or so and are in town on vacation, unlike the anglers who show up later specifically to fish for multiple days. “Catching” hasn’t been too bad either. Often, there’s a big difference between “fishing” and “catching,” but the catching lately has produced a nice variety of fish. In addition to the usual cabrilla (seabass), sierra, pargo, jacks, tasty white bonito, and the numerous bonito that are coming from the inshore areas, some toad-sized yellowtail in the 20 to 30-pound class are coming off the high spots and rocky areas. In addition, some free-swimming dorado in the 10 to 15-pound size are starting to show up earlier than usual in the season. It was exciting to hear that at the north end of Cerralvo Island, some big 60 to 80-pound yellowfin tuna were blowing up in the chum lines, although there were no biters. I was told that they came up just aft of a big school of feeding yellowtail. …Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter Sportfishing
East Cape
Wind again!
Puerto Los Cabos
We have seen light crowds of tourists recently. Despite some chilly early morning conditions in the lower 50s, the weather has been pleasant, with sunny skies warming up into the 70s. Winds have been on and off, predominately from the north. Swells have been slight, and overall, anglers found good conditions on the ocean. Fleets were fishing in all directions. Currents switched around and brought back cleaner blue water right off the San Jose del Cabo area, which improved the action for striped marlin, dorado, and even some wahoo. Ocean water temperature was in the 69 to 73-degree range.
Bait supplies remained the same, mainly caballito, ballyhoo, and mackerel. In addition, we heard reports that sardina were schooling farther to the north. Still, since business is limited, the local bait netters have not been motivated to scout out these options for the number of charters they need to supply, and they are doing well selling the bait found right in the marina area.
Striped marlin is the most active bite at present, especially on the Pacific Golden Gate Banks, where some boats were catching double digits of these billfish. Though recently, the action busted wide open around the Gordo Banks, with good numbers of marlin in the 70 to 100-pound range. Dorado were found in limited numbers, spread out on the same marlin grounds and in the mix. They were primarily solitary fish, in small groups and closer to shore. We saw a few impressive-sized bulls over 30 pounds.
The big surprise was the wahoo going back on the bite. February is not the usual season for these pelagic gamefish. They were found closer to shore off various points, such as Punta Gorda, Palmilla, and Santa Maria. These were smaller-sized fish in the 6 to 15-pound range, though they were still wahoo, striking best on bait and cast and retrieved jigs. Although many of the wahoo were hooked and lost, they could spit out the hooks or cut the lines because of their bony mouths. However, some charters reported up to five of them.
Not many bottom fish – more bonito than anything else, though a few amberjack up to 20 pounds were landed, and a handful of leopard grouper. We did see a few California sheepshead, Pacific tilefish, triggerfish, and yellow snapper. Commercial pangeros used the red crab they spotted for red snapper action.
Closer to shore, mainly small-sized roosterfish bit while trolling bait. There were not many sierra; we are missing having the smaller-sized sardina for this inshore winter-time action, and we are hoping something will happen with the bait moving into closer range for our local fleets. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
Fishing Report Pictures from some of our catches Thursday and Friday this week with up to eight marlin released per boat and one or two dorado for a few lucky ones.
Some also headed inshore for sierra mackerel and jack crevalle. A couple of boats tried to catch the tail end of our bite at the Finger Bank, but with water temperatures changing, the fish have moved out, and we will have to wait for another epic fishing season there next year!
Yesterday at Golden Gate was more challenging than the previous days, with marlin slowing and water temp averaging 73 degrees F. Marlin will be moving much quicker through different areas in the upcoming months. With that said, more snapper, grouper, yellowtail, and roosterfish will begin to show up very soon. …Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
WATER: Water temp: 75 degrees F., 2 to 3-foot seas, with the wind picking up in the afternoon (from the Sea of Cortez side). Overall good fishing conditions!!
LOCATION: The best fishing locations have been the Finger Bank, Golden Gate Bank, Gasparino, and Cabo Falso.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps have run from 72 to 73 degrees, with clear skies. The ocean has been calm with 3 to 5-foot swells and 4 to 5-knot winds. Air temps have been from 68 to 72-degrees.
BEST LURES: The best bait has been alive or dead mackerel, kites, Rapala, blue and white marlin lures, sardina, and ballyhoo.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
