May 19, 2023 … the BAJA’S NEWEST, FINEST FISHING TOURNAMENT begins!
The Marina Puerto Escondido (MPE) Fishing Tournament began in the spring of 2019 – Baja’s newest, most exciting fishing tournament. After taking a COVID break in 2020, the event hit the ground running again in 2021, more than doubling in teams and winnings. Following suit in 2022, they generated the highest number of participants and winnings in their history. The MPE is back this year, offering participants world-class fishing in what Jacques Cousteau famously coined “The Aquarium of the World!”
Follow the daily action on both days on Catchstat.
South (Baja Sur)
Ladies, are you ready for the challenge?
SEPESCA has for you in this 2023 the first big event for Women, “QUEENS OF THE SEA” Women’s Sport Fishing Tournament. We will soon have more information for you. If you want additional details, you can WhatsApp 646 289 5605. More information about prizes, registrations, rules, modalities, and surprises will be coming soon.
Lopez Mateos
Several days this week are looking good enough to start sticking our noses outside the Boca Soledad. Finally And the next great fishing to show up: Sierra and coral grouper. Ray Diaz and his buddy, David, are coming over from Loreto this week, so we should have an outstanding report next week! …Cheri King
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for the Week of May 3-10, 2023
Puerto Los Cabos
Time is passing fast, and we are already halfway through May.
Despite ideal weather conditions and a variety of fish species
returning to local grounds, we have only seen a limited number of anglers visiting. However, this time of year, there is an increase in the southern ocean swells, and surfers are more numerous this week, which makes us very happy. Also, water temperatures are now in the 74 to 76-degree range. Anglers could find caballito, jurelito, ballyhoo, and slabs of squid, and on some days, sardina were also located near the channel entrance of the local marina. As a result, limited numbers of charters are now leaving the Puerto Los Cabos Marina. Most are concentrating their efforts on the grounds from Iman, San Luis, and as far north as Vinorama
The few yellowfin tuna that were found came off the grounds from San Luis to Vinorama, drift fishing or slow trolling bait. The largest we saw this week was a 130-pound tuna caught Tuesday. The others were at least that big or larger and were briefly seen breezing on the surface, but the yellowfin tuna proved scarce overall.
Only a few dorado averaging 10 to 20 pounds were accounted for and spread throughout – in no particular area. We saw a few more striped marlin in the mix this week, taken from the same grounds where the bottom fish were taken, and tuna action was targeted. The striped marlin were nicer sized, up to 130 pounds.
Some quality-sized amberjack were being hooked off the various rocky high spots towards the north. Drift fishing with live bait, using the same method as for the tuna, which was the best bet, we saw amberjack up to 60 pounds. A few nice red snapper (huachinango), bonito, yellow snapper, barred pargo, dogtooth snapper, and various grouper off the same bottom high spots.
Closer to shore along the stretches of beach, there were larger roosterfish, 40 pounds or more, showing up and mixed in with some hog-sized jack crevalle and late-season sierra.
Other sightings included sea turtle, porpoise, sea lion, whale shark, and now out of season, humpback whale with calves, lagging along late into May, as the rest of these mammals are now well into their migration back to their northern summer feeding grounds. …Good Fishing, Eric–
Cabo San Lucas
Mid-May fishing met its expectations regardless of the visiting angler’s anticipations. For the big game addicts, there were striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, and nice-sized dorado, all offshore.
For those choosing to remain closer to shore, near the surface, there were roosterfish, jack crevalle, and ladyfish to make for a fun day of sport fishing.
The bottom fishing anglers’ variety was incredible! Nice-sized yellowtail lived up to their reputation for being tough fighters that didn’t come easily to the surface. Other species caught from the bottom included grouper, cabrilla, pargo, red snapper, and a few colorful sheepshead. All are great candidates for dinner when prepared back at your hotel. …Based on the catches of Pisces Sportfishing Fleet.
SPECIES: Striped marlin, skipjack, yellowfin tuna, dorado, grouper, ladyfish, sheepshead, jack crevalle, roosterfish, and yellowtail.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear with calm seas and waves from 2 to 3 feet. The conditions are clear, with little or no wind.
WATER TEMP: 69 – 73 degrees F.
BEST LURES: Palos lures, live and dead caballito, ballyhoo, lisa,
and hoochies.
BEST LOCATIONS: The 1150 Spot, Santa Maria, Chileno, Palmilla, and Destialderas/Medanos.…Pisces Sportfishing Fleet
Baja Norte (North)
Bull Ring
The barracuda watch is on here as well. Time for the skinnies to show up, and it is time to get those jig sticks out and sling some surface iron.
Barracuda are starting to pop at the Coronados. So it is only a matter of time before they jump on the anchovy bait balls in the IB area, followed shortly in the La Jolla area.
Water temps are up into the low 60s now, and the red tide is disappearing. It’s only a matter of time…
Sand bass are starting to bite down in IB. They are on the Pipe and biting fresh dead squid on the knocker rig.
Most, though, are focused on rockfish at the 9 Mile Bank, where guys are scoring some nice quality reds and lingcod and some Mexican rockfish, chilies, bocaccio, barber poles, etc. …Fishdope.com.
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
It is generally slow here.
There is nice, clean, warm 62-degree water at North Island, with 61 to 62-degree water on the Middle Grounds.
Little signs of yellowtail, although they are not biting yet. A few legal-size barracuda are now showing on spots near and below South Island.
There are plenty of rockfish, whitefish, and a sampling of lingcod at the Pile.
**** ATTENTION ****
You must stay at least 250 meters (820 feet) away from any of the tuna pens. If you don’t, you risk losing your boat and landing in a Mexican jail. …Fishdope.com
Ensenada
TUNA TIME ABOARD SCORPION SPORTFISHING, ENSENADA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO. TEXT TO RESERVE 619-646-2106 WhatsApp any questions. We are located at the Port of Ensenada.
Yesterday’s – May 13, 2023, Saturday… Michael Arend
Gonzaga Bay
Geoff and Scott from Alfonsonas fished with me on Saturday. It was good fishing at the reef for the first hour or so, and then it shut off, and nothing would bite for us. We hit the inside, and it was off there also….having nothing to do on Sunday, I took my friend Javier Ruvalcaba and Alexandro Fernandez for a morning session. It was very good fishing nearby – yellowtail, sierra, cabrilla, and we lost a good-sized gulfy due to an open hook. … fishonnn&onnn…Captain Juan Cook
Bahia de Los Angeles
Went to BOLA on May 5 with several work friends and a brother with the Big Bad Donkey in tow.
The drive down was uneventful, but everything is much greener than I recall in the past due to all the rain this spring. We pulled into Villa Vitta Hotel at about 4:45 and got our rooms organized. The hotel has a large parking area which makes it easy to spin the boat around and park along the fenced wall overlooking the bay. I went to see Brisa at her vacuum packing shop and got coordinated for the following day. Brisa launches for us for $5 a day, helps get our biosphere bracelets, and cleans our fish at the end of the day; that lady can hustle! They also have a roadside stand, and her husband Marco can COOK. They are two of the nicest people I have ever met! And Brisa is always smiling.
Day 1, Saturday, the wind showed flat all day, so after making about 30 horse mackerel, we headed north to look for seabass and snapper, hoping Valle De Guadalupe would be gentle with us. She still had a two-foot chop and stiff breeze for us, but the crossing was relatively painless. We started dropping flutter jigs on the rocks and humps between 75 to 200 feet as we worked our way north, looking for the right stuff.
The gold spotted sandbass were chewing, but they were not what we were chasing; that being said, some of them were pushing 5 pounds; however, we kept a couple of the larger models so we had something in the box. At 35 miles from the Lighthouse, just past La Gringa, we found a hump holding some fish in 130 feet of water and dropped the jigs down on them. The boys wrangled up a 30-pound black seabass and a 25-pound snowy grouper in about 15 minutes, and then the triggerfish moved in on us. After a 30-minute dry spell, we continued our trek northward in search of bigger and better. At about the 40-mile mark, the water temp started to tick up, and by the 50-mile mark, we had gone from 62 F to 64 F with clean green water. Then, as we passed over a rock formation in 80 feet of water, the fish finder lit up with long, red marks stacked up from 40 to 60 feet, and it was GAME ON!!!
We rigged up with the mackerel and dropped them down. It didn’t take long before one of the reels started hissing. The fish made a long run and then pulled a Crazy Ivan, and I was pretty sure we had what we were looking for. After another short run, the fish rolled up next to the boat. I stuck the gaff in our first white seabass for the day!
From that point on, it was steady action for the next two hours, and just before the tide changed, we had 3 fish hanging at once, with 2 on the floor and 8 in the bag. EPIC fishing!
At 2:30-pm we had to pull the plug to make the run back to the ramp, and, fortunately, we had flat seas and a following tide, and we made it back for our scheduled rendezvous with Brisa. What a fantastic day!
On day 2, we decided to head south to look for leopard groupers, aka sardinera. The farther south we ran, the colder the water became, and the area we usually fished was only 58 F. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t quite like the first day. We found a lot of small grouper hanging in 60 – 80 feet of water, and we caught a bunch of them, but only one fish out of about 40 was worthy of the box. At least the stock is looking healthy!
The day was salvaged by the occasional sheepshead, and we managed to get enough fish for dinner with a few for the freezer. Not a bad day of fishing at all, but I was happy that we had scored on the first day.
On day 3, we headed back north. We picked up 2 more white seabass in the same area we had fished on the first day, but then a horde of triggerfish moved in, and we could not keep a mackerel down for more than a few minutes before it was mutilated. We put a couple of the cochitos in the box for ceviche and then ran across to La Guarda to try to get more sardinera. We had a steady pick of small sardinera, vieja, and jawfish but only a couple vieja that were picture worthy.
I arranged to keep the boat at Brisa’s for a few weeks, and we headed for the border the following morning. It took us about 6 hours with rest stops and fuel to make it back to Mexicali II, and it took us about an hour to get across – WAY better than crossing at San Ysidro.
On a side note: I brought down a 10 cubic foot chest freezer to put our fish in during the trip, which worked out GREAT. We kept it in one of the rooms during our stay, loaded it into the back of the truck, and hooked it up to a Honda generator for the trip home. When we got home, all the fish were still frozen SOLID.
Heading back down for our annual Memorial Day trip at the end of the month. The leopard grouper should be on like a chicken bone!… Fisharmzsportfishing
