Welcome to Baja Bytes, our weekly report highlighting fishing hotspots from the Coronado Islands to Land’s End at Cabo San Lucas. If we did not include an area, it is because we did not receive a report or because fishing was slow. If you have a location that isn’t listed, don’t hesitate to contact us. We welcome your input. Gary Graham – That Baja Guy
Imperial Beach (including the 9 Mile Bank)
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. If you want rockfish go to the Upper 9 although a windy southeast condition today made it a struggle. Lots of bocaccio, Mexicans, bank perch, green spots and more showing in 450-700 feet of water…Fish Dope
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
No word in over a week. There were some yellowtail caught along the weather side of North Island and the Middle Grounds last weekend. All were down deep. No surface signal. A few were hooked on sinker rig sardine and a few on yoyo iron Deep water yellows should be starting to show soon on the Flats and down near the rockpile in 150 to 250 feet of water.…Fish Dope
Ensenada
Excellent fishing today…Cocos Sportfishing
San Quintin
Yellowtail and some lingcod for dinner in November…Titos Pangas
Bahía de Los Angeles
Nov 26th lots of action on shore very good cabrillas…Luis Fernando Guillen Diaz
South (Baja Sur)
“La Misión de Magdalena” fishing Tournament in Puerto San Carlo results.
“Fishing in the Five 2024”
“La Mission of Magdalena” inaugural tournament series “Fishing in the Five 2023-2024” kicked off in Puerto San Carlos on November 25 and 26, 2023.
Favorable wind and wave conditions offered the anglers great expectations for an exciting day of fishing. The Fonmar-sponsored 2023-2024 edition of the series “Fishing in the Five” organized by the Torneo la Misión de Magdalena began with a purse of 500,000 pesos for the dorado and the marlin categories.
In attendance for the start was the mayor of Comondú, Iliana Talamantes, who noted that activities such as these are essential, as they bring awareness of these extraordinary species available in the Puerto San Carlos waters, underscoring the importance of the area to the sportfishing community.
The members of the 16 participating teams began to present their catches at the scale between 1:00 and 5:30 p.m. at Punta Palapas Beach.
Participating in the starting shot on the API pier were the members of the organizing committee: Leopoldo Torres González, Antonio Aripez Navarro, Abraham Torres Ruelas, and Enrique Soto Madrigal; the Port Captain, Lucio Valenzuela Ruiz; the Port API Director, Fernando Loeza Palomares; on behalf of FONMAR, the Coordinator of Inspection and Monitoring in Comondú, Fernando Romero Romero and the Sub-Coordinator of Tournaments, Erick Enrique De La Vega Meza; the Director of Municipal Tourism, Cristina Murillo Rodriguez; the President of the Cooperative Society “Progreso,” Jesús Salvador Verdugo Ojeda; and the local tourist service provider, Adolfo “Fito” Gonzalez.
Also attending the start and representing Martín Inzunza Tamayo, Director of FONMAR, the Coordinator of the Distribution of Fishing Permits, Cesar Alberto Angulo Hirales announced that the 2023-2024 Edition of the series “Fishing in the Five” will be concluding in September of 2024 in the community of La Bocana, municipality of Mulegé. The communities were all counting on the momentum of Gobierno del Estado de BCS to grow the upcoming event that is developing in this community and also to boost sport fishing in the North Township. The tournament promises to be one of the most exciting in the series, with the participation of prominent fishermen from different parts of Mexico and beyond.
From Puerto San Carlos, the award ceremony of the inaugural tournament of the series “Fishing in the Five 2023-2024” took place in an area with excellent fishing and developed without incident at the Public Plaza at 6:30 a.m.
Teams Totoy’s, Baja-Addict and Terrecell triumph in “Magdalena’s Mission”.
From Puerto San Carlos, the awarding of the winners in the inaugural tournament of the series “Fishing in the Five 2024” took place in an event with very good fishing and developed without incidents.
With a Dorado weighing 33.40 pounds, the first place went to Team Totoy’s who took home a prize of 200 thousand pesos, ($11,493.30).
Second place and prize of 125 thousand pesos, ($7,182.06) went to team Baja-Addict with a 28.80 pounds Dorado.
Third place and prize of 75 thousand pesos, ($4,310.50) went to Terrecell for his 24.10 pound Dorado.
As for our sport fishing tournament, “LA MISIÓN DE MAGDALENA,” it was an honor to be accompanied by FONMAR in our 5th Edition and to kick off the sport fishing series in Puerto San Carlos in the state of BCS, the “FISHING IN THE FIVE.” Our thanks to its director, Martin Insunza, and his entire team of collaborators for their great support and sponsorship that made this possible. We also thank all the authorities who intervened and supported the holding of the event, the sponsors, the community of Puerto San Carlos, the municipality of Comondu, and, of course, all the participating teams.
We hope to see many more local and visiting Teams participating in our 2024 edition!!
Ascensión Bay
Easy limits of big tuna..for here, Yellowtail of course & dorado too. Best season I have seen in 20 years! And we are empty at my Inn..Geese…Shari Bondy
Bahía Concepción
Fun Fishing today with Randy Champion. All fish caught on Long Milf Knife Jigs except 1. The Bull Dorado hit a Knife Jig and when it was time to gaff saw its partner swimming with him. Threw a Chrome Tady and Hook Up! Really fun day with better grade Yellowtail and a few lost to the rocks trying to pull them off the bottom.…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). …Rubio Sportfishing. …
López Mateos
This last 2 weeks has been very, very busy in Lopez Mateos / Mag Bay. Live bait (shrimp) fishing for Snook, Pargo and Grouper inside and outside the bay has produced some really nice surprises. 33 lb Snook and 25 lb Pargo. he Yellow Fin Tuna are still pretty thick about halfway out to the Banks, but at the Banks, there are 40 – 90 lb. Wahoo and 40 lb Yellow Fin. Both are still like anything pink….Cheri King
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Nov. 21-28, 2023
East Cape
In the East Cape, the dorado bite continues with good fish throughout the bay. There has been some decent action in the East Cape the last couple of days for Wahoo as well….The Reel Baja, Jeff DeBrown.
Gordo Banks
Big Bulls showing up!
With the passing of Thanksgiving, we are now marking the end of our busy season. It usually settles down for a couple of weeks and then we start to see new crowds arrive for Christmas break.
This week was very productive even though we had a few windy days at the beginning of the week. This made it difficult to reach the Vinorama bank to look for the smaller sized tuna. Our fleet focused mainly on Iman, Fortuna, Cardon, Punta Gorda, and both Inner and Outer Gordos. Some of our boats also continued fishing off Palmilla Point. Even though Palmilla Point has produced some decent wahoo and dorado action, the bigger wahoo are being caught off Iman and Fortuna.
Overall, the wahoo bite has been on and off this week, but they are definitely around. Most of the boats are targeting wahoo and dorado on the daily with different techniques. On average, it seems that you can count with 1-2 wahoo strikes per day if you cover enough ground and put in the time. The most productive plan has been trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo throughout the early morning and switching to slow trolling live bait/ballyhoo later in the day. The biggest wahoo weighed this week came in at 51 pounds.
Although we are mainly looking for the elusive wahoo, this type of fishing is producing good dorado action. For some reason, we are seeing some big bulls come in on the daily. On Thanksgiving Day, our fleet caught 6 bulls over 25 pounds, the biggest one weighing in at 40 pounds. We weighed a couple more at 33 and 38 pounds. We noticed that these dorado are large but thin. Some of these large sized dorado were caught with live sardines. The majority of them were caught while fast/slow trolling ballyhoo. A few sailfish were caught in the mix while slow trolling live/dead bait on the same grounds. We always encourage the safe release of smaller dorado (especially small females) and sailfish/striped marlin to support their growth and our livelihood as fishermen. These species are unique as they are great contributors to the beauty of Sportfishing.
The tuna bite at the Gordo has been on and off for the last week. Due to the consistent dorado bite, not many boats are targeting these nice sized tuna, even though they are definitely still there. This week, our fleet caught 3 nice sized yellowfins, with the biggest one weighing in at 93 pounds. All 3 were caught with strips of squid. On Saturday (yesterday), a few boats looked for these tuna in the afternoon; they were successful as most of them caught one or two 70+pound tuna.
We are now starting to fish off Punta Gorda, most specifically on days where the wind picks up later in the day. Punta Gorda has produced nice dorado action with an occasional wahoo in the mix. We have also seen a few Sierra while fishing this area.
We are also starting to target different reefs and rock structures at Fortuna, Cardon, and the inner Gordo. We are mainly using live/dead sardinas and strips of skipjack; there is also a good chance of hooking something on the jig. Some species caught have been yellow snapper, grouper, bared snapper, and dogtooth snapper. It seems that bottom action is more consistent throughout the early morning…Good Fishing, Brian
Los Cabos
Torneo de Pesca ORSAN
The final sportfishing tournament of the season in Los Cabos was held on November 27 and 28, with the fishing day on November 28. The “Orsan” Tournament was created with local fishermen in mind, guaranteeing big prizes with an accessible registration fee of 4,509 pesos.
A purse of 600,000 pesos was distributed in this 10th tournament this year, with a first-place prize of 300,000, 200,000 for second place, and 100,000 for third place. The categories are dorado and wahoo.
Only two dorado could be weighed per team, as long as each exceeded 15 pounds. The wahoo did not have a minimum weight, the heaviest won.
Clicerio Mercado, Tournament Advisor, explained that this local tournament is expected to donate 10,000,000 pesos to the economy of Los Cabos, in addition to being an event with a social cause, and it is planned to donate 60 Wheelchairs to the Municipal DIF and 10 to the Rotary Club.
Congratulations to the winners of this 10th Anniversary ORSAN FISHING TOURNAMENT 2023!
1st Place Team “Will 2 Win 2” takes victory in the 10th edition of the Torneo de Pesca ORSAN
2nd Place: #14 VILLAGOMEZ | 36.20 LB $300,000
3rd Place: #75 LOS MAYA | 33.60 LB $200,000
Jackpots Wahoo: #87 LET´S GO | 47.20 LB $1,086,000
$3,000 & $10,000 & $20,000 Jackpots of Gold: #98 RANCHO PARAISO | 30.00 LB $1,509,000
$30,000 Golden Jackpots: #119 THE DEVIL | 24.10 LB $600,000
$500 & $5,000 Gold Jackpots: #53 LOS CHAVO RUCOS | 29.50 LB $431,500
$1,000 & $2,000 Gold Jackpots: #43 DUCKS FISHING | 30.90 LB $284,000
Golden Release Prize: #101 Lolo ́s Team $25,000
Golden Release Prize: #97 Stroller $25,000
Need a México Fishing License? https://app.sportfishingbcs.gob.mx/