Bajabytes SportFishing Weekly Update 03.06.24
We invite you and your family to join us March 7 to 10 at the OC Fair and Event Center for the 14th Annual Pacific Coast Sportfishing Tackle, Boat, Travel, and Outdoors Show. Over 500 booths of the best in fishing, boats, travel, and the outdoors with tons of family activities, free kids’ trout pond, live bands, and great food!!!
The following report focuses on many fishing updates, photos, and news from various locations up and down the East and West Coasts of the entire Baja Peninsula. It provides valuable information for fishing enthusiasts, contributed by local and visiting fishermen.
Need a Mexican Fishing License?
https://app.sportfishingbcs.gob.mx/
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Best bet in this area is the Imperial Beach Pipe.
Guys are catching sand bass and sculpin with the knocker rig and squid right on the pipe. Guys drifting sardines along the edge of the Pipe are catching some halibut.…Fish Dope
——— Mexican Waters ————
Mexican Permits AVAILABLE here:
https://www.californiasportfishing.org
FMM link here: https://www.gob.mx/inm/acciones-y-programas/sport-fishing-and-nautical-tourism
If you have trouble with FMM, here is an email for assistance: bc_pescadeportiva@inami.gob.mx When bringing fish back to the US from Mexico, make sure to have your Declaration Forms filled out for everyone on the boat. Forms Here
Lower 9 Mile Bank
No report since this latest round of wind and rain.
Then the rockfish action was quite good in 450 to 700 feet for a mix of bocaccio, reds, Mexicans, and other assorted red rockfish.
Some were also scoring a few lingcod on live mackerel. …Fish Dope
No report today but before this wind there were yellowtail showing down at the Rockpile.
There was great surface signs under bird schools and the surface iron was hot. Mint, bird poo, and scrambled egg colors were working well. Some also were caught on the yoyos when dropping on sonar schools.
These yellows have been in the 15 to 30-pound class and are showing best between 120 and 180feet. …Fish Dope
**** ATTENTION ****
You must stay at least 250 meters (820 feet) away from tuna pens. If you don’t, you risk losing your boat and landing in a Mexican jail.
Click here for more details on this subject.
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Weather permitting there has been good yellowtail fishing. Local pangas continue finding yellows in the 18-25lb class at Todo Santos, Punta Banda and down the coast to Santo Tomas / Isolete. Some surface fish under birds and deep fish on yoyo iron at rockpiles.
Some big bonito up to 10lbs continue to show too.
And of course there is excellent fishing for all kinds of red rockfish and lingcod at Punta Santo Tomas.
If you don’t want to travel so far there is pretty good rockfish action at San Miguel Reef too. Lots of red rockfish being caught there..…Fish Dope
Colonet
Over the weekend boats picked off a fair amount of 15-20lb yellowtail off the High Spot. 95% of those on yoyo iron with a sample on dropper loop sardines. The boats also scored a few very large bonito.
Also worth mentioning the High Spot is over run with big green mackerel in the 1-2lb class. They are being a pain in the a$$ for people wanting to fish the sardine for yellowtail.
They also scored easy limits of reds and other quality red rockfish along with good numbers of lingcod.
Then some wandered out to the west and scored bluefin.
See the offshore section for more on that.! …fish dope
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Grumpy weather keeps many onshore.
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Still quiet…..
Are you getting ready yet?
June 15th Fishing Expo & Registration.
June 16th Fishing and Awards Day.
Guaranteed bag 1 million pesos mx.
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Awesome !!!! Let these monsters come out at more than 1200 feet!!!!
Caught with Pro Hunter nerve rod, Sword lure 350 gr Pro Hunter…Chema Medina
Grumpy weather quiets the yellowtail bite down.
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Does anybody fish in this area????
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…Nathan Burbey.
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Two days of fishing. Only took 2 1/2 hour to get 15 on day one and 18 on day two….Mike Dunkleberger
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Welcome to windy Lopez Mateos.
Still good, lots of fun fishing around here with the live bait shrimp in the Mangroves.
Pete from Ft. Lauderdale (white hair) and Donnie from Alaska plus John, Ardith, Mike and Gwen from Alaska all here this last week.
Caught a little of everything: Grouper, Pargo, Cochi, Halibut, Corvina, Croaker, and I am sure I am missing something…Cheri King – Lopez Mateos Sportfishing.
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MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Feb.16 -Mar. 1, 2024
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As March begins, we are currently experiencing good fishing on both sides of the peninsula. We have seen good weather on the Sea of Cortez side giving boats a chance to fish for the decent numbers of dorado and marlin we are currently experiencing. Depending on how you look at it these fish are arriving early or have stayed late. In either case they are here, and anglers continue to have good success.
The dorado have been very nice size with the average fish being about twelve to fifteen pounds with a few even larger. The marlin have been active as well giving most boats at least one hookup if not multiple each day. we also have a few yellowtail in the area. Most of them have been caught on light line conventional tackle with jigs. Most of them have been on average about fifteen pounds. We have been finding them off the banks in La Ribera as well as to our North in the waters around the island….Jeff DeBrown
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 2nd, 2024
Springtime is just around the corner – and a favorite time of year for locals and young ‘spring breakers’ in Los Cabos. This was a beautiful week with perfect temperatures and slight winds. As unusual as it is for this time of year, we did see a good number of anglers and charters this week as the fishing continues to be hot! We are seeing many clients come from La Paz and Los Barriles as we continue to catch good numbers of nice-sized yellowfin.
Yellowfin tuna was the main target species this week, the best action still coming from the Iman Bank. The fact that we continue to get good amounts of sardina in the morning, which has allowed us to efficiently target these tuna. A main point to highlight is that we did upgrade in size this week. The average tuna was closer to 30 pounds, though we did see many fish over 45 pounds. The biggest tuna weighed this week came in at 88 pounds. Many boats reported bigger fish breaking 40 and 50# test after long battles. Most of this activity came from live sardina, though we did hear of a few bigger tuna hooked on strips of squid.
While fishing for tuna, we have seen large numbers of white bonito, almost not allowing us to fish for tuna on some days. Many boats reported releasing double digits of white bonito. White bonito is good eating, so we also saw limits at the fillet station. Within the same area, we are still catching dorado, though the numbers and sizes haven’t been as good as previous weeks. We are seeing more of the smaller females and not many of the larger bulls. The marlin bite also slowed down significantly as compared to last week.
We continue to see wahoo at the fillet station almost daily. Most of these wahoo have been caught while fishing live sardina for tuna. A few bigger wahoo were also hooked on strips of squid and skipjack. A few nicer ones were also hooked on Rapala earlier in the morning. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 52 pounds.
In terms of bottom fishing, we are seeing a good variety of snapper (barred, yellow, and red), triggerfish, amberjack, and grouper. Most of the snapper and grouper are caught on sardina while fishing the bottom or strips of skipjack. We did see a few big amberjack this week, the biggest one weighing 71 pounds. Towards the end of this week, many boats within the fleet were hooking big amberjack with live white bonito. Unfortunately, most of these hookups ended breaking up in the rock structures. We are excited to see how this bottom action progresses throughout March.
Towards the end of this week, a few boats started scouting San Luis Bank as Iman was overcrowded by larger boats. San Luis is also showing good numbers of nice-sized yellowfin. We will keep monitoring this bite throughout next week….Good Fishing, Brian Brictson
Cabo San Lucas
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Pisces Fish Report February 23-29,2024
Overall Catch Success Rate, All Species Combined 96.47%.
Billfish Catch Success Rate 91.59%, Billfish, 61.18%, Dorado 61.18%, Tuna 20.00%, Other Species 29.41%.
Captain Pepe, and Mates Ulises and Hamo headed back out to the San Cristóbal, which has been one of the recent hot spots for billfish and dorado on the “CHASIN TAIL, a 62’ Viking.
Adam Manatt, Chad Their, Charlie Rhode, Griffin Hahn, Jim Capehart, Joey Biasatti, and Klint Kirk could hardly contain their excitement as the boat sped toward San Cristóbal.
Heading toward one of the bird schools, they put out a mix of dead ballyhoo and caballito on the flatlines and marlin lures from the riggers, and it didn’t take long for the dorado to appear in the wake behind one of the flatline baits. That got them started and pandemonium reigned!
By the time they pointed toward Los Cabos harbor, they had eight striped marlin estimated to weigh from 100 to 130 pounds caught and released on cocinero and macarela bait, plus eight dorado from 12 to 20 pounds caught on Ballyhoo.
If you and your friends have fished somewhere in Baja and would like to share the results of your trips, our staff and followers would appreciate your info and tips, and we would be happy to include your observations, the locations, and the fishing conditions your groups encountered.
