Baja Bytes – June 21, 2022
Que Pasa
More GRANDE ROOSTERFISH are Coming through. Roosterfish released on Pisces 66′ Friday Bank yesterday! Plus, some huge HUGE GROUPERS for exercise…Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
Tijuana Bull Ring
Calico Bass fishing is about as good as it gets this season as the bass are in spawning mode and very aggressive. They are found in the kelp and are biting both in the morning and the afternoon. Pretty good quality, appearing to be 50/50 legal sized to short. Anchovy is the ticket for fast bites. Once chummed up, they are biting the plastic crankbaits and the surface iron.
Guys are catching quite a few barracuda, although 90% of these are short.
Those yellowtail are still out in the flats. It seems like the high tide is when they pop up most often. They follow big spots of anchovy around and are stuffed full of them. Once in a while, one will get stupid and bite a slow-trolled sardine, mackerel, or mint-colored surface iron, but, these fish are very boat shy right now and too full to respond well to chum.
Stealth is everything! Boats must sneak up on them or forget it. Those that drive right up to the fish spook them and are not catching any.
As for the seabass, they are in the kelp line mixed in with the barracuda. A few mixed with barracuda have been caught off the bullring near the kelp over the past week. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
Yellowtail are being seen and caught more often. The yellows are found on the weather side of North Island, on the lee side of North Island near the Lobster Shack, at South Island at the Lighthouse Kelp, on both the lee and weather side. The Ridge running through the Middle Grounds is also worth a good look.
The Mission Belle scored 23 yesterday and reported to have 20-plus today at post time.
Barracuda are showing now along the weather side of North Island and the Middle Grounds.
Ribbon Kelp, Lighthouse Kelp, and South Kelp are seeing barracuda action.
Calico bass are also active in the Boiler Rocks in the Middle Islands area, Middle Grounds, Ribbon Kelp, Lighthouse Kelp, and South Kelp…Fishdope.com
475 Knuckle / Upper Finger Bank / Upper Hidden / West of Ensenada / Hidden Bank
The local Ensenada pangas are fishing the Upper Hidden Bank and 475 Knuckle area and finding the same deal – plenty of bluefin not very eager to bite anything with a hook.
Spreader bars and MadMacs continue to be what is working best for them.
The Mad Macs they are using are both the 200 and 240-size models; they must pull them fast! Eight knots is too slow. The guys are getting the best results dragging them at 10 to 12 knots – even as fast as 15 knots. Also, put them WAY BACK. One hundred yards is about right, well back out of the prop wash.
Boats today were reported that some kelps in the Upper Finger Bank area were holding a few 20 to 30-pound yellows, but those had lockjaw, too, just like the bluefin…Fishdope.com
Ensenada
Out of Punta Banda (Ensenada) with Capt. Josue of Mara’s Sportfishing Ensenada on the Fishing Syndicate 760 3XH/Makaira 30 combo.… Joe Sarmiento. …Mara’s Sportfishing 10-Day forecast
Bahia de los Angeles 6/16-17/22.
I have not posted since May when we were in Gonzaga Bay. I felt extremely tired to the point where I had not functioned well. My friend Rosarito Jimmy arrived for a three-day charter and being the fine friend Jimmy has always been to me and my family, he promptly canceled the charter and drove me back to Tijuana to see his Cardio doctor. Much to my surprise, it turned out that my ticker was in good shape! Lord knows how much damage I’ve done to it over the decades. Emphysema has messed me up a bit, so I’m in the process of quitting smoking and feeling much better. I have been fishing here in BOLA in June! The fishing has been outstanding with many wide-open days and lots of big yellowtail. The leopard grouper has been good to very good. My friend Denis Quesnel and company are fishing on a panga this season. On one day, they caught 84 fish, kept 12, and released the rest. To all you fishermen coming down to fish for leopard grouper: DONT FORGET TO RELEASE SOME OF YOUR CATCH OR BEWARE; WE WILL KILL THIS OUTSTANDING FISHERY. PLEASE DON’T KEEP THEM ALL. RELEASE SOME ESPECIALLY THE BIG BREEDER’S.
I fished for two days with Dr. Mike, his very talented son, and Dr. Carlo, with his hard-fishing son. We had a blast and caught a bunch of cabrilla on the first day. We kept 12 and put the rest back. We hooked all on jigs on the second day, as bait is hard to make. We found some outstanding yellowtail near town. It was fantastic fun and very hard fighting for these bigger fish! Okay, fishonnn & onnn! …Juan Cook.
Punta Chivato
1st Place winner Carson Hobson, with Captain Mark Fodor on the panga Mad Dog Won $2,000
2nd Place Dave Mallard Won $1,000
3rd Place Peter Ditullio. Won $500.
With a $9,025 purse $5,225 went to Calcutta winners.
The weather was nineteen gusts to twenty-two. So, the ride home was long for many boats.
Craig Cove Report Punta Chivato.
All fish caught were donated for the Award Night Dinner.
Loreto
We are all holding our breath for the golden dodos to show up! Actually, easy fishing continues out at one of the closest spots to town while some people might have a glimmer in their imagination of dorado.
Coronado has been the best go-to spot to put some fish on ice with cabrilla and yellowtail being the prime targets. Triggerfish are thick in the shallower spots and fall quickly to cut squid and small jigging spoons.
The water close to town continues to be green and upper 60’s / low 70’s so that keeps the summer fish out in the clear blue.
Cabrilla around the southeast point of Coronado are hitting sardina and trolled hardbaits. Some toad-types averaging ten pounds are mixed in with smaller versions.
Yellowtail are at the deeper marks and most fish hitting the ice are 10 to 15 pounds.
Bait, both mackerel and sardina are plentiful.
Gas is also plentiful and less expensive than the banditos are selling north of the border.
Any day now come the dodos…Rick Hill, Click Here
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of June 10-17, 2022
East Cape
The water temperature is still the same as last week – 79 to 82 degrees. Clear and flat early in the week with some wind yesterday.
It has been pleasant weather for late June. Cool mornings with daytime highs in the mid-80s.
It was a good week of fishing on the East Cape. The yellowfin are closer and biting consistently, lots of striped marlin on the inside drop-offs, and the roosterfish are abundant and good-sized. In addition, a few big bull dorado were taken, and as usual, it has been exceptional inshore fishing.
Large schools of yellowfin tuna are found under porpoise from 20 to 30 miles directly off the Lighthouse. There has been a consistent bite on mainly football tuna mixed with fish up to 40-pounds.
Trolled bright Hoochies, tuna feathers, and Rapalas all working.
The roosterfish bite has picked up! Rincon Bay and directly off La Capilla are the best spots, producing roosters to 60 pounds. Mackerel and caballitos are the best bait for these larger fish.
Almost all the fish released are stripers, big fish from 125-pounds to 200-pounds—many tailers from La Ribera south to Frailes, as usual, on the inside drop-offs from 2 to 8 miles offshore. Boats targeting them are enjoying multiple releases. The best bait is ballyhoo.
A couple of big bull dorado are mixed with the marlin and are taking the ballyhoo. There are numerous smaller fish taken also.
Inshore, anglers caught pompano, pargo, sierra, grouper, and amberjack…John Ireland, Rancho Leonero
Remember that nice cool weather when the sierra were biting? Israel’s guest caught one of the nicest of the year. (Captain’s Certificate)… Lyle Brunson
Puerto Los Cabos
With the summer season officially starting this week, we had moderate crowds of anglers arriving. However, they were greeted with more tropical and humid conditions. With Hurricane Blas passing to the southwest about 250 miles from Cabo San Lucas over the weekend, high ocean swells to over 10 feet arriving, a lot of cloud cover, only some scattered rain showers felt and not too strong of wind gusts either. Another tropical system has developed behind Blas, this one named Celia and is forecast to come close to the Southern Baja next weekend. So the tropical season has arrived! As usual, we will follow fall forecasts closely.
Throughout the week, good quantities of bait were available: caballito, anchoveta, sardina, and mullet. However, swells from the storm made bait more scattered over the weekend. Caballito was found mainly inside the Marina area. Most local sportfishing charters concentrated on the grounds from Red Hill, straight off San Jose del Cabo, and towards La Fortuna, Iman, and the San Luis Banks. The action was spread throughout, and a good variety of fish was found, though no particular species was overly abundant. A mix of inshore, surface and bottom fish was caught.
Offshore there was a scattering of striped marlin, sailfish, and dorado (just a few dorado), but sizes were impressive – close to 50 pounds. Yellowfin tuna were scarce, but a handful landed up to 40 pounds. Along the beach stretches, there was a mix of jack crevalle and roosterfish, though roosters were much more scarce than we should expect for this time of year, the changing currents and scattered schools of mullet being a factor.
Off the bottom rock piles was the best chance to load up on quality eating fillets; we saw bonito, pompano, island jack, triggerfish, red and yellow snappers, amberjack, leopard, gulf groupers, white fish, pargo colorado, dogtooth snapper, barred pargo and others. Anglers were using a mix of bait and yo-yo jigs. Also, we saw a few wahoo in the mix, and others were seen free-swimming on the same grounds where the bottom action was taking place.
These passing storm systems stir up the conditions, so we will be dealing with that for the rest of the summer. Bait along the beach stretches become more scattered as well. Offshore action should produce more pelagics, such as yellowfin tuna and black and blue marlin. …Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
More GRANDE ROOSTERFISH are Coming through. Roosterfish released on Pisces 66′ Friday Bank yesterday! Plus, some huge bottom critters for exercise…Rebecca Ehrenberg, Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
LOCATION: The best fishing locations have been the 95 Spot, 1150 Spot, Punta Gorda, Chileno, Cabeza de Ballena, and outside Santa Maria Bay.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: The sea temps have run from 78 to 81 degrees. The ocean has been calm, with two to four-foot swells and light winds. Air temps have been from 73 to 84 degrees with clear skies.
BEST LURES: The best bait has been live or dead caballito, mackerel, flying fish, sardina, ballyhoo, and large multi-colored, surface-style marlin lures, in addition to deep-running plugs, Rapalas, Marauders, feathers, and mirror lures.
That Baja Guy-Gary Graham
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