Bajabytes Sport Fishing Update April 5, 2023
Baja (Norte)
Bull Ring Pier
The Del Mar Rockfish area, 32,270 in the La Jolla area, and the Whistler and Buoy #3 areas of Point Loma are seeing the usual assortment of rockfish.
A few tried the 9 Mile Bank and did well on reds in 400 to 500+ feet of water. The shallowest rocks are like 400 feet, so plan on using heavy weights. …Fishdope.com
Coronado Islands / Rockpile/NE of the Coronados / Lower 9 Mile Bank / Upper Finger Bank
As of Saturday, some yellowtail were around, but not many. Most were racing around near the bottom in 125 to 200 feet of water along the weather side of North Island.
For the most part, it was all show and no go!
There were plenty of whitefish and some reds near the border and NE of North Island. At the Rockpile, reds, whitefish, sheepshead, and the odd lingcod are biting. However, there are no bonito,
or no barracuda. …Fishdope.com
Rosarito Pier
No Report
Ensenada
Between weather events, the local panga fleet is catching a yellowtail or two fishing yoyo iron along the weather side of Todos Santos and at Punta Banda. However, they are NOT a sure thing.
There has also been some jumbo bonito between Punta Banda and the Banda Bank. Almost all of them are over 10-pound fish.
There is not a lot of volume, but they are there. The locals get a few by dragging feathers around while looking for bird schools.
Most of the local panga fleet hammered nice reds and lings down the beach at Santo Tomas and Soledad. …Fishdope.com
Colonet
There are yellowtail in this region, but we continue to hear that they are not concentrated on the High Spot but somewhat south in the Camalu area. The bite for boats this weekend was much slower than it was last weekend.
This is straight yoyo iron fishing – no surface signs. Most yellows are found on scanning sonar in roughly 150 to 300 feet of water. The ticket is to use full-sized yoyo iron fished on 50 to 60 pounds.
Excellent fishing for reds and other mixed red rockfish along a decent number of lings thrown in.…Fishdope.com
Gonzaga Bay
Photos
We fished with Adam Solorio, Mike, and Bart on the Golden Reef. It was an excellent start to the day. We caught a nice-sized gulfy, a couple of cabrilla, 3 yellows, and then nothing. The bite shut off. We saw lots of fish on the meter but no bites. It was crazy. On Sunday, we headed south looking for leopard grouper. We cast my favorite spots for very little. We kept heading south and looked in deeper water. We finally found a location loaded with gold-spot cabrilla and other fish when it went wide open! We got several starry grouper, mezuza, and cabrilla. It was excellent fishing!…fishonnnn.
South (Baja Sur)
Concepción Bay
Photo
Yellowtail has been on the move. The Mine and Slide area south of Mulege has slowed down, with fewer yellowtail in the shallows. Cabrilla are in close and are being caught best in the early morning. With slower yellowtail fishing in the shallows, we did some deep drops and caught a Pacific hake at 700 feet. Reports of yellowtail fishing 260 ft. at “Wilbur’s Hole.” Still, there are reports of lots of yellowtail boiling on the north side of Isla San Marcos. Isla Tortuga also produced yellowtail, cabrilla, and baqueta. …Nathan Burbey
Loreto
Photo
My fishing buddy whacked some good-sized pargo and yellowtail out at Lobo.
Joey said they ran out of bait before the bite slowed down and ended up with pargo, yellowtail and a lonely cabrilla. Live mackerel and iron did the damage in deeper water while the pargo were attacking for the shallower water on the east side of the point…Rick
( Notice what lame weather the spring winds bring to Baja !)
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Lopez Mateos
This week’s photos: 6 sardineros just outside the Boca Soledad last Tuesday, catching sardines and mackerel. And fresh fish tacos at El Pechocho Sunday night…
Inside fishing is tough. No live shrimp, plus the sardines are elusive.
No snook or corvina lately. And getting outside recently has been hampered by the wind! …Cheri King
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for the Week of Mar. 17-24, 2023
East Cape
Scorpion Sportfishing East Cape Report: Another week and the epic yellowtail bite continues on the Sea of Cortez. Although a long run from Los Barriles, the bite has been amazing for large yellowtail, cabrilla, and white bonito. In addition, marlin, dorado, sierra, and pompano have begun to show in greater numbers as the transition to warmer water and weather has begun. The 2023 season on the East Cape is going to be a great one! Visit www.scorpionsportfishing.com to book your preferred dates.
Los Cabos Port
Anglers have found a mix of bait available … sardina, caballito, squid slabs, and ballyhoo, the most common. Trying to jig up some chihuil was another hit-or-miss option off the Gordo Banks. Most local fleets are now fishing areas from Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna, and Iman Bank. All around, the action was scattered, and no particular species was found in more significant numbers, except for perhaps the Mexican white bonito.
The week’s highlight was the wahoo that anglers hooked into while trolling closer to Punta Gorda or Cardon. Not the typical season for these highly prized pelagics, but it proves that you can never really know what might happen. These fish prefer warmer waters, but the bite was sporadic daily, and slow trolling live bait was the best bet, particularly the elusive chihuil. We saw one monster 79-pound wahoo landed and several others over 50 pounds, so of the handful brought in, they were of impressive size.
A few dorado up to 15 pounds were also accounted for, and a few scattered striped marlin were released. However, offshore surface action was limited unless you were lucky enough to be in the right spot when one of these wahoo was ready to strike. So yellowfin tuna action was pretty much dead this past week.
Off the bottom, there was a mix of pargo, snapper, grouper, and amberjack, but by far, the most prevalent were bonito, sizes averaging 3 to 8 pounds, striking on yoyo jigs over the high rocky spots.
Much of this action was found inshore along the local hotel zones, where good action was found while using live sardina for bait for sierra and smaller-sized roosterfish. …Good Fishing, Eric
Cabo San Lucas
Mixed Bag and Billfish as March Exits
Overall Catch Success Rate, All Species Combined 74%
Billfish Catch Success Rate 22%, Tuna 13%, Dorado 18%, Other Species 47%
Pisces 28 ft Uniflite “Andrea,” with Captain Fernando Noyola at the helm, caught 1 marlin plus 15 Sierra on cuchi bait at Migrino. Ben and Kendra Gorab, Larry Gorab, and William Gorab from Colorado Springs, Colorado, were the anglers.
According to our veteran captain, Roberto Sandez, early in the last week of March, “The wind was the thing!” However, Captain Sandez knows a thing or two about dealing with the wind. He has been with Pisces for 37 years and fishes over 300 days a year. Even more importantly, he is aware that billfish are “closet surfers” that take advantage of big swells to tail down swell for a few miles before turning up swell, only to do it all over again.
Robert and Shari Klutz from Tampa, Florida, who fished with him last week, were the beneficiaries of Captain Sandez’s local knowledge. Catching and releasing 3 striped marlin on “caballito muerto” (dead caballito) at the 1150 Spot earned “Valerie” high boat that day.
LOS CABOS RELEASE INAUGURAL TOURNAMENT
JULY 8TH 2023…Link
