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)
Rockfish at the 9 Mile Bank is producing the most action right now. Guys dropping in 400 to 700 feet of water catch many bocaccio, Mexicans, bank perch, green spots, and more.
The sand bass bite at the IB Pipe is probably your best bet for catching bass. You might also get a few sculpins or a halibut if you are lucky. …Fish Dope
Coronado Islands/Rockpile
The latest dope came last weekend when a handful of yellows were caught on the ridge running along the weather side of North Island on sonar marks along with yoyo iron and sinker-rig sardine. All were down deep, around 150 to 200 feet, with no surface signs.
Soon, watch for yellows to start showing deep on the Flats east of South Island down to the Rockpile in 150 to 250 feet of water. They have been showing here in winter for the past 8 to 10 years running. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
NO REPORT
San Quintin
NO REPORT
Bahia de los Angeles
NO REPORT
BAJA SUR
Ascension Bay
The tuna bite is wide open, and the yellowtail are biting also and getting larger. There are also some dorado and wahoo. …Shari Bondy
Mulege/Conception Bay
Loreto
No Report
López Mateos
Fishing is still great inside and outside at Mag Bay. The mornings are fresh, from 44 to 53 degrees, but foggy. The Boca Soledad is tough with a big surge. Still, there are nice pargo, grouper, and snook inside the bay with live shrimp bait. But the big fish, everyday rush is gone. Now, just the regular diehards are around here. …Cheri King
La Paz
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from
Tailhunter Sportfishing for the Week of June 19-26, 2023
East Cape
Gordo Banks
Cabo San Lucas
December 3rd, 2023
Lighter crowds are now in Los Cabos after the passing of Thanksgiving. We expect that tourist activity will increase within the next few weeks as many families will arrive for the Holidays. Great weather is expected to continue to greet the crowd as we enjoy sunny days with high temperatures in the mid-80s and cool mornings in the low-60s. We did have patterns of north winds through much of the weekend, and we expected it to extend through mid-week next week, but anglers are doing well fishing closer to shore in the more protected calmer waters.
Good fishing action was consistent throughout the week. The main target species continue to be wahoo and dorado, specifically the elusive wahoo. Punta Gorda, Cardon, Fortuna, and Iman Bank are the most popular and productive fishing grounds. The fleet usually starts at Iman or Fortuna and returns to Punta Gorda. Most boats begin their early mornings by trolling a combination of Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. The goal is to cover as much ground as possible within the first hour or two of their day in hopes that they can hook a couple of quality fish. After fast trolling in the early morning, they switch to slow trolling live caballitos, chiwili, and dead ballyhoo. Caballitos can be purchased at the marina and have been a reliable bait source that can be counted on most mornings.
The bigger wahoo seem to be more interested in the chiwili. Some boats have been going straight to the inner Gordo to catch the chiwili, then head straight back to the wahoo grounds. These chiwili can be finicky. Some days, you might only be able to catch a couple. For some anglers, this might not be the best plan as it can lead to a big waste of your day if you cannot catch enough to run back to look for wahoo. However, if you are lucky to catch a few, they have shown their worth, as we have seen some big wahoo caught on them this week. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 78.8 pounds on a live chiwili, while the same boat lost another one of similar size. We also had another big wahoo at 57 pounds and many in the 40-pound range.
Within these same grounds, anglers have been finding good numbers of nice-sized dorado. We did continue to see big dorado this week, and a few were in the 30-pound range. Many of the boats were able to catch their two dorado per license limit. Remember that it is important to release the smaller females, especially if you have already met your license limit. The goal is to continue to see nicer-sized dorado, as they are the fastest-growing fish in the ocean. We just need to give them a chance. Dorado can grow to an estimated 0.5 to 1.0 inch in length per week while gaining two to three pounds per month.
The tuna bite is still on at the Gordo, though the numbers are not great. On average, around 20 boats are fishing in this area per day, and we can only see from 3 to 5 fish hooked on some days. These fish continue to be of quality size, however. Our fleet’s biggest yellowfin this week came in at 102 pounds. We saw one of the personal boats catch a 185-pounder, so there are definitely some cows still around!
The boats targeting tuna use various bait, from live chiwili and sardina to squid strips and dead sardina. It seems that the favorite choices this week were sardina and live chiwili.
Bottom action was slow this week as we only saw a handful of small grouper and snapper caught while drifting for tuna at the inner Gordo. …Good Fishing, Brian
Los Cabos
Weekend fishing report Wahoo,Dorado,Tuna haven’t left! Nice 40 lbs Dorado caught Friday, with most fish for the fleet around 10-15 lbs. category as well!
Tuna bite picking up again now too! Pisces 62’ Chasin Tail Top Tuna boat this week, landing some bigger ones, although mostly 15-25 pound fish caught for the fleet as a whole. Book your trip at www.piscessportfishing.com