Baja Bytes – August 30, 2022
“I really needed this”.
I’ve been in a bit of a funk since my truck got stolen last month, right before I left for the BOLA tournament. I got a new truck, my Sentri Card and Passport replaced, and I got to San Quintin this past weekend for the next tournament.
I thank God that not only did I make it there and back “safe and sound,” but we even managed to tie for First with a 20.5-pound ling cod and a 16-pound yellowtail. The team we tied with weighed in before us, and that was the tiebreaker that put us in Second Place, but I was more than happy with that. Plus, the ling cod won us the bottom fish jackpot, giving us a total payout of $87,000 pesos (about $4,300 US). That paid for our whole trip, plus a little more. We even brought home some nice fish fillets.
The Copa Baja California was a great event, and I am thankful that my fishing buddy, Pat McDonell, made the trip with me. I talked Juan Cook into taking us out to fish the tournament, and it took so much stress off me to be able to fish with him since he has everything dialed in wherever he fishes. I needed this trip; I just needed to get over feeling violated by the theft of my truck and backpack in broad daylight. I’m very blessed! …Chris Wheaton
Bull Ring
Mostly short bass are biting a little in the afternoon hours. Some short barracuda and mackerel are mixed in. There are also some little bonito flashing through the kelp lines at times. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
The area has been very quiet as of late. Although we did not get any dope today, yesterday, we had a contact score, a pair of yellows fishing the north end of South Island, along with a bunch of calico bass and a couple of barracuda. All were caught on fly line sardines fished on 25-pound. .…Fishdope.com
Coronado Canyon / 226-302 / 230 / 371 / 425 / Upper Hidden / Above 32 00
Those who stayed down here found a good mixed bag fishing. Plenty of kelp paddy dorado, along with decent numbers of yellowfin and some bluefin.
A few yellowtail were mixed with the dorado on kelp, although not as many as there were.
Bluefin Tuna….
The tuna are getting more spread out throughout the entire zone. Tuna were focused on the Border west of North Island and below the 371 and the 425 to the Hidden Bank. These areas are still great choices, but now it seems you can run into YF almost anywhere in this huge zone.
The boats are getting yellowfin on trolling jig stops, sonar marks, off birds, and now some are also starting to hang on kelp.
These yellowfin appear to be in the 20 to 40-pound class, with some larger (and smaller) fish around. Nice quality. Not just yellowfin either, as some of these schools have bluefin mixed in, and there are some schools of straight bluefin! The bluefin are running from 20 to 50 pounds.
The best fishing for tuna happens in the afternoon hours.
Dorado….
Almost every boat that comes out here is scoring at least a few dorado, and some are even whacking the Mex limits. Kelp is scattered all over this entire zone. It is possible to find kelp loaded with dorado anywhere, although it appears they are in the same area as the tuna. …Fishdope.com
Below 32 00 / Hidden Bank / Upper 500
More of the same as up north, just farther south below 32 00.
Boats that make the run down here from Ensenada are finding good kelp paddy fishing for dorado along with decent shots at yellowfin and bluefin. …Fishdope.com
Ensenada
There are wide-open shots at dorado with a couple of nice yellowfin and yellowtail in the mix. It doesn’t get much better than this. …It’s 4 Reels Sportfishing
San Quintin
Extraordinary day limits by 10-am with yellows on the Surface iron and fly line. …Cristian Catian
See Lead Story-The Copa Baja California 3rd round.
Baja Sur
Ascension Bay
In preparation for my son’s upcoming visit in three weeks, I experimented with extra ballast in my boat’s pointy end to ensure it trims properly. …Ross Zoerhof
Loreto
The boat traffic in and out of the marina has tapered off this past week while the dodo fishing continues in the “hot” mode. Easy pickin’s on the peanuts to 20 pound fish with many of the limit boats back by 11am! Roosterfish have been mixing it up with the dorado close to the rocks at Punta Colorado. It’s “back to school week” locally and with the Labor Day holiday approaching I
Guess I can expect the low boat trip numbers to remain “slow season” low.
(That song reminds me a little of the “blame it on the full moon” medley I often hear!)
Lots of live sardina still hanging out in the marina and the “2022 Marina Upgrade” is almost complete.
Remember that old highway safety slogan,” share the road” ? It may be surprising to some but we have the same kind of deal on the beach near the Desert Inn Hotel.
Share / respect the beach because turtle eggs need peace and quiet. Every year there are turtles crawling up the beaches to make their nests and have been
doing so for thousands of years. The local wildlife protection and Marine Park people put up these protective enclosures whenever a mom is spotted digging in the sand! (and a peak at the marina extravaganza!)…Rick Hill, Click Here
Lopez Mateos
As we are always trying to give the best service to our clients, we are sure that this will be a success, just like every previous season, with excellent fishing, lots of fun and more…
We are happy to always welcome you, our friends and clients, who visit us yearly. In addition to new clients who are about to visit us, we are sure it will be a unique and unforgettable experience for you and us. Therefore, we are waiting to see you during the 2022 season. WE ARE READY! …García’s GT (García’s Tours)
La Paz
https://youtu.be/31kLJEYiipk
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Aug 18-24, 2022
East Cape
Fishing has been heating up in the East Cape. The Cruiser, El Regalo, and Thresh have had good days with wahoo and tuna! …Van Wormer Resorts
Puerto Los Cabos
It has been quiet this week in the Eastern Pacific. There haven’t been any storm systems impacting our area. There were fewer cloud covers than in previous weeks, and although the days were warm and humid, the winds were slight, mainly later in the day, and the ocean swells were moderate.
We are closely following a distant forecast of a developing low-pressure area off mainland Mexico that is rapidly gaining strength and will most likely impact Southern Baja in around 8 or 9 days. We will hope that path changes in the upcoming week.
Again, light crowds of anglers rely on sporadic supplies of sardina, squid, and ballyhoo for available bait sources. The center of fishing action has been from Cardon to the Iman Bank. Highlights were the finicky yellowfin tuna schooling on these grounds.
Some days the tuna would show as they come to the surface, enticed by chum, and on other days, they would not come up at all, though there were always chances of blind strikes. The best success was found on the strips of squid.
Most tuna at the scales ranged from 40 to 115-pounds, while larger fish were hooked and lost after extended battles. In addition, the tuna were too shy to strike leaders larger than 60 pounds, although some anglers were going down to 40-pound leaders to increase their chances; larger fish were also being lost due to leaders that were too light.
We saw more small dorado this past week, many very small and should have been released. Still, a handful of large bulls to 40-pounds were accounted for, just not like the epic action early in the month.
Wahoo were scarce, sluggish to bite in the warm 86-degree water. Nevertheless, every day we have seen a few elusive gamefish weighed in, most of these striking on Rapalas or ballyhoo with weights ranging from 15 to 35-pounds.
Early in the week, a couple of black marlin were brought in. Weights ranged from 300 to 350-pounds. We also saw sailfish and striped marlin, but in no significant numbers. More anglers have been spending most of their time targeting the yellowfin tuna, as lots of patience and persistence were needed.
Not much action was found off the bottom – more triggerfish and bonito than anything else, plus a few cabrilla, amberjack, and snapper…Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas
Cabo San Lucas
“Don’t let them shake their head in that last wave!! This is known as the “Guitar Grip”… (I totally just made that up.), but the looks on our faces show exactly how excited we were to have not lost this guy at the last minute in the surf.”...Cabosurfcaster
14-year-old Mathéo Costela who will participate in Bisbee 2022 and Eddie Castro together they released this beautiful dorado on August 18th on the Curandero V the sea bream is 62′ long and 65 pounds.
Fishing location front to the Publo Bonito Sunset…Photo and infor provided by Kim Jarvis
A 50-pound dorado, yellowfin tuna, and a released marlin … what more could you ask for? Pisces 31′ Rebecca got it done yesterday for angler Joe Starkey and friends from Texas! A big shoutout to Captain JR, who has been with Pisces for nearly 25 years! …Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
