Bajabytes Sport Fishing Update 11.22.23
Whatta’ week! The fish are biting almost everywhere in Baja Sur. There are marlin, dorado, tuna, and wahoo limits for nearly everyone. Plus, there is excellent bottom fishing in Baja Norte! In addition, it’s Thanksgiving this week. Then, on Friday, I get to hop on a Volaris flight to La Paz, where a couple of my Fonmar buddies will pick me up, and we are driving up to Puerto San Carlos for the first of the “Fonmar Five in Five Series” to be held on Sunday. (Read about it at the top of the Baja Sur Section). I hope to meet some of you there!
And yes! Gary Graham, That Baja Guy, has much to be thankful for—one major thing is our wedding anniversary on the 25th of November. Yvonne and I will have been married 44 years on that day. Our celebration begins on Thanksgiving and continues when I return to Lake Elsinore.
Imperial Beach (including the 9 Mile Bank)
The best bet to find excellent fishing for various red-type rockfish has been on the 9 Mile Bank in 450 to over 700 feet of water. Down in IB, there is a slow pick on sand bass and sculpin for those who don’t want to fish deep. Guys fishing the knocker rig with fresh dead squid are scoring some nice-sized bass. There is very good, consistent rockfish action found in 400 to 450 feet of water on the South 9, and guys are also scoring bocaccio, Mexicans, bank perch, reds, etc., along with a chance for a lingcod.
The sardines are working well. .…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
There has been a small volume of yellowtail running the ridge on the weather side of North Island, with some running through the Middle Grounds. However, there haven’t been any signs of them on the surface. It was all sonar fishing, but boats caught a few on yoyo iron and sinker rig sardine.
Down at the Rockpile, there is good fishing for rockfish and whitefish, along with a sample of lingcod. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
Fill the freezer in time for the holidays! …Cocos Sportfishing
San Quintin
No Report
Bahía de Los Angeles
No Report
South (Baja Sur)
Participate in the “La Misión de Magdalena” fishing tournament in Puerto San Carlos. Join me! I’ll see you there … Gary Graham, That Baja Guy!
Offering $500,000 in pesos in prizes for Dorado and Marlin.
The State Government, through the Fund for the Protection of Marine Resources (FONMAR), invites sports fishing fans to participate in the high seas tournament “La Misión de Magdalena,” which is the inaugural date of the series “Fishing in the Five – 2023-2024” this coming November 25 and 26 in Puerto San Carlos, with a guaranteed purse of 500,000 pesos for Dorado and Marlin species.
Registration will take place on Saturday in the public square of Puerto San Carlos from 12 to 7 pm with a registration cost of 6,000 thousand pesos per team of up to four fishermen. The Gastronomic Expo, where local merchants offer a wide variety of regional dishes, will take place simultaneously.
The prizes for the best dorado catches will be 200 thousand pesos for first place, 125 thousand pesos for second and 75 thousand for third place. For the marlin species, there will be prizes of 50 thousand pesos for first place, 30 thousand for second, and 20 thousand for third place.
Likewise, competitors can participate in the betting pool or “jackpots” of one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, five thousand, and ten thousand pesos for Dorado, Wahoo, and Marlin species.
The tournament encourages respect for the reproductive cycle of marine species, so the presentation on the scale is restricted to a minimum weight of 15 pounds for Dorado and Wahoo and 100 pounds for Marlin. If any participating teams fail to comply with this rule, they will generate a penalty equivalent to the missing difference for the minimum weight in the other species presented on the scale.
The starting shot will occur on Sunday at 7 am at the API dock in Puerto San Carlos, with weigh-in hours from 1 pm to 5 pm at “Punta Palapa” Beach. The awards ceremony will be at the API facilities at 6 pm.
Ascensión Bay
November is on fire here in Bahia Asunción with a wide open yellowfin tuna bite, dorado & yellowtail! Easy limits & the fish ate close to shore & beautiful weather...Shari Bondy
Bahía Concepción
I only got out one day this week because of the wind. The dorado are still around in large numbers. I don’t think I have ever seen dorado fishing so plentiful this late in the year outside of Mulege! Those who know me know that I prefer jogging over trolling.
I headed out to a deep high spot at about 320 ft. Jigging a 250g knife jig (MILF), I got rocked twice on big fish with 40 pounds of drag, so I am guessing big AJs still around. I secured a few yellowtail and Fortune Jack (Madrigal). Many pinto bass in the mix. I ended the day with a short dive and saw big class cabrilla in the shallows eating on seargent major (yellow and blue fish, you see snorkeling). I shot one yellow snapper and headed home to feast. Until next week … Nathan Burbey with Casa Concepcion and MILF. Man, I Love Fishing! …Nathan Burbey
Loreto
It was an epic day on the water with three pangas. Limits in dorado (with 32 pounds being the biggest!) We had limits in yellowtail (using live mackerel/ working in Puerto Almeja)! There were astonishing black sea bass (35 pounds was the biggest) and dorado (mahi-mahi). …RubiLópez Mateos
Lopez Mateos
No Report.
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for the Week of October 31 – November 11, 2023
East Cape
Dorado week !!… Anibal Miranda, Van Wormer Resort
Gordo Banks
Wahoo is the main target, but big tuna are still around!!! Nov. 19th, 2023
The main target species has changed this week. We have focused more on wahoo and dorado, specifically wahoo. We have seen quite a few caught this week; however, the best action so far was on Saturday; one boat came in with four excellent 25 to 30-pound wahoo while losing a couple more. Most of these are nice-sized, with a few 40-plus pounders in the mix. One of our charters caught a 57-pound wahoo on Saturday. This has been the biggest wahoo seen this year in our panga area.
Most of these wahoo have been caught with various deep-diving Rapalas earlier in the morning. Spending a couple of hours early in the morning fast-trolling Rapalas and ballyhoo has been beneficial. We are shifting to live/dead bait later in the day. The bigger wahoo have been hooked on live chiwili. The main hot areas for wahoo have been Palmilla, Iman, Fortuna, and Vinorama. Many of the boats have been focusing on looking for big wahoo, as we have a local wahoo tournament today. The boats have been catching chiwili at the inner Gordo and spreading out to Palmilla or Iman to cover as much ground as possible. Most of the bigger wahoo have been spotted at Iman.
Using the same technique, many boats have been catching their limit for dorado, with some nicer ones in the mix. A few sailfish and striped marlin have also been hooked while slow-trolling live bait; it has also been productive to cast flashy jigs on the surface while slow-trolling. Some nice sierra and wahoo have been caught with this technique as well.
There are still huge Tuna at the Gordos, and there is a good chance of hooking a nice yellowfin while drifting squid strips or slow-trolling some chiwili or small skipjack that you can catch on the same grounds. The biggest tuna weighed in this week was 103 pounds, caught on a live chiwili. We had another yellowfin estimated at 110 pounds that we were not able to weigh as the anglers arrived later in the evening.
There is a good chance of hooking a few dogtooth snapper and bared pargo with a strip of skipjack at the inner Gordo.
Some smaller tuna (20 to 40 pounds) were spotted at Iman and Vinorama Banks. A few boats were able to catch a couple with some live and dead sardina. This bait is mainly around early in the morning and dies off at around 9 am. The sardina supply has remained consistent over the last few weeks, though they are not the best size – they are too small even for the smallest hooks we use.
We are excited to see what the biggest wahoo will be throughout our local wahoo tournament today. Many of our captains will be participating in this tournament, and we hope to see some big fish at the scale. …Good Fishing, Brian
Los Cabos
Pisces Sportfishing Fleet is in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
todrSonsepbuu9hm5 vir2fM630ma ee6oN7t80f8 A14g1 h1c1mf:5727c ·
WAIT FOR IT… Yesterday at our front door in Cabo 
Pisces anglers had a blast with more Dorado than they can count and 9 Striped Marlin releases to boot!
Now’s the time! Get out here 
Book at www.piscessportfishing.com
What an incredible day out on the water this week, chasing these yellowfin on topwater lures with spinning gear. It’s always fun to change it up from the surf and chase something different! ...Cabo Surfcaster.
