Baja Bytes update October 9, 2024.
According to Fish Dope and Baja Belk, it has been another busy week beginning at the Rockpile, aka the “Hot Zone!” Many sports and private boats were mixed while fishing the yellowtail. Lately, the bite has been excellent. Even some long-range boats are fishing here.
K&M Fishing at San Quintin and Joel Sportfishing at BOLA checked in with favorable reports for yellowtail and lingcod with excellent fishing and good weather.
In Baja Sur, Shari Bondy added ‘yellowtail’ to her area at Bahía Asunción. After a long road trip, Nathan Burbey is back home at Conception Bay, reporting catches of both yellowtail and grouper.
Jesse Isaacson, a recent visitor to Loreto, showcased an impressive collection of photos, highlighting the diverse range of species available in the area. His photos underscored his excitement of catching the different species.
Over at Magdalena Bay, Cheri King confirmed the large 60-pound tuna they were catching outside and offshore. However, wahoo seemed to be among the missing.
At La Paz, Jonathan Roldan commented that, for once, fishing seems pretty solid – and dorado light it up! This optimistic outlook on the fishing conditions will make anglers eager to plan their next fishing trip to La Paz. That Baja Guy thatbajaguy@gmail.com
Mexican Fishing License?
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Coronado Islands / Rockpile
It has been excellent fishing for the 12 to 25-pound yellowtail, and plenty of bluefin are still around, although they don’t always show themselves.
Bluefin: The tuna is still holding in the general area around SKR. They have been here for over a month now with little to no signs that they are leaving. Watch for birds and foamers. Some are scoring by slow-trolling sardine. Some are just drifting while chumming hard.
Hands down, the best way to get a bite from the bluefin is with a hot sardine, a 20-pound fluorocarbon, and a 4# circle hook while throwing a lot of chum.
Yellowtail: Lately, the bite has been excellent. Hands down, the “Hot Zone” is the Rockpile! Many sports and private boats are all mixed while fishing these yellows. Even some long-range boats are fishing here at times.
It is all sonar and yoyo iron fishing. The yellows are running along in the lower third of the water column, which is the typical pattern for this time of year, so keep a 40 to 50-pound yoyo stick ready to go. …Fish Dope
Lower 9 Mile Bank
We are getting reports of excellent fishing for big Boccaccio, huge quality reds, Floridas, Mexicans, chilies, and some lingcod in 450 to 700 feet of water. Live sardine are working well. The lings only want live mackerel.
Report from Baja Belk:
It was foggy and windy all day today. Good marks were noted precisely on the Rockpile proper, but there was only one little bite during the 11:30 am to 1:00 pm window, right at slack tide.
The Sports Boats, San Diego, Apollo, and Voyager were there. The San Diego took off just before the slack tide bite time, and we are uncertain where they went. It was scrambled egg and bird-dropping green yoyo iron for us. We also dumped a couple of dropper loop sardine and big 7 to 9″ dine at Mission Bay. We caught three — all over 20 pounds, with the biggest around 25 or 26 pounds.. …Fish Dope
Rockcod, yellowtail, white Seabass, halibut, and lingcod are in significant numbers. Bluefin Tuna trips are also still available.…Maras Sportfishing
Enjoy some excellent fishing with us. …K&M SPORT FISHING
no report:…Tony Reyes Fishing Report
photo…Jen Farnsworth Jessop
Joel Sportfishing, located in Los Angeles Bay, BC, MX
Finally, the yellowtail arrived. …Shari Bondy — at La Bufadora Inn.
Punta Chivato
No Report
Bahía Concepción
Had a few great trips this time! We will be back again. … Jesse Isaacson
Tuna, Tuna Everywhere!
Wahoo and Dorado Nowhere!
Water at Thetis yesterday was 70.0 degrees, and at the 23, it was 71.6 degrees.
That is pretty cool for this early (or late) in the season.
Everyone and their brother are out looking and hoping for the famed wahoo and dorado bite, but it is still elusive.
“The pros that be” figure there are just too many yellowfin tuna (and large ones, at that. From 40 to 60 pounds), and the wahoo just don’t have a chance. But the wahoo are there. Definitely!
The tuna are biting on anything you can throw at them – jigs, feathers, plugs, hoppers, Rapalas of any color.
Finally, at the 23 yesterday at about 10 am, a commercial fishing panga held up a wahoo they had ‘hand-lined’ into the boat with a 6″ piece of PVC for a lure (which is what the locals use often, and we even use sometimes).
And there is to be a Tournament on Nov. 9 and 10 for wahoo.
Anyway, Fish Onnnn! Suerte! Cheri King – Lopez Mateos Sportfishing and on YouTube…Cheri King, Lopez Mateos Sportfishing +52 613 114 8044, <sannichick@gmail.com>
We trolled wahoo lures for about four hours outside Lopez Mateos while fishing with Ruben Duran this morning. We caught no wahoo, just yellowfin, and we headed back at 10:30 am with limits in the box after passing off a couple of smaller ones to pangeros who were handlining. The 50-pounder Ruben is holding below was one of the larger ones. The ten probably averaged around 40 pounds. Ironically, the only wahoo I saw all day was when we handed off the tuna to the pangeros (handliner’s). They showed us one they had just caught on a lure that consisted of a piece of 1″ PVC about 6″ long with a hook inside. …Bill Erhardt
MEXICAN MINUTE LA PAZ FISHING REPORT from Tailhunter Sportfishing for Week of Sept.14-21, 2024
The wahoo bite overshadows the big yellowfin and Dorado, and there are still more giant tuna in the area. Even though there are some pretty good schools of Dorado, a lot of the Dorado are small to medium, providing good action. There are some sailfish caught as well. There is still sardina available for bait at the Marina
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
We are excited to introduce our biggest blessing, Erica Lee Brictson, named after her late grandpa, Eric Lee Brictson. She was born this Wednesday, October 2nd in San Jose del Cabo. She has brought such joy to our family during our time of grief. We know Grandpa Eric is smiling down on us.
The main highlight this week continues to be the yellowfin bite at the Cabeza de Ballena, towards the Cabo San Lucas end. These yellowfin are small, averaging 3 to 5 pounds, and fun to catch on light tackle. We are using live and dead sardina. The bait guys continue to net sardina at the Palmilla shoreline. Most boats can catch their yellowfin tuna limit (5 per license) in a couple of hours. After they had completed their limit, many boat troll lures were rigged with Ballyhoo on their way back to the Marina. There is a good chance of landing a few nice dorado on the way back in. Many of the bites are coming closer to Cerro Colorado and Palmilla. A handful of wahoo have also been caught this way.
We have a full schedule starting next week. We hope to have more updates as many boats scout the different areas. …Good Fishing, Brian
Week 41 Pisces Report September 27- October 3, 2024
“LA CORONITA” 40ft Cabo Express MANUEL SR/JR
2 Wahoo 43-49LBS CURRY SAN JAIME caught by Jeff Paulen from Georgia
The week began with cookie-cutter weather that the fleet enjoyed. An additional bonus was the variety of areas holding fish, which allowed the fleet to spread out and avoid the crowd of boats. Yellowfin tuna dominated the catch most of the week in quantity and size, ranging from single-digit to triple-digit in weight, and they often preferred bait presented by kite. The Dorado combined much smaller fish and a few bulls in the 15 to 30-pound range. Another plus were the wahoo, which ranged in size from 10 to 30 pounds. In the Billfish category, there was a mix of Sailfish, Striped Marlin, and Blue Marlin, with only a few larger than the 300-pound minimum required for most Marlin tournaments here in Cabo, which begins in October.
September 27 to October 3, 2024. Catch success rate 98.28 %
All species combined comprise 98.28% Billfish, 63.79% Dorado 57.76%, Tuna 58.62%, and Other 13.79%
Friday, September 27, 2024
Skies: Clear
Seas: Calm
Wave Ht.: 2-5 FT
Water Temp: 81-86 F
Air Temp: 80-87 F
WIND 6-24
That Baja Guy