Baja Fishing Report

BAJA FISHING REPORT: Season Sizzle Lots to choose from in Baja as the season gets going as weather warms BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff Writer Published: Jun 14, 2011

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Join WON in a Sept. 16-19 charter trip for up to 12 people. For details call Mike Flynn at (949) 366-0030 ext. 30 or e-mail: flynn@wonews.com CEDROS ISLAND — The Baja bite continued to improve overall this past week and there were some "good old days," when anglers had great opportunities to catch and release multiples of billfish and round out their catches with excellent table fare. The East Cape was up and down but had some nice tuna, Ensenada saw encouraging signs and the bite in La Paz held steady. But it is the return of the yellowtail around Cedros Island this writer choose to focus on this week, as we welcome back the season’s reports from Jose Angel Sanchez-Pacheco from Cedros OUTDOOR Adventures. He took one of his first groups of the season down to get in on the action. Here’s his report. “After gathering in San Diego Friday morning, our company bus took us to the Ensenada Airport, and after a 1.5-hour flight, we landed on Cedros Island,” Angel said. “All the way down from Ensenada we could see that the wind was blowing, but on arrival it was calm and warm. After preparing our gear we got our boats and started fishing, all of that before 2 p.m.” “Our first day was slow on the water north of town to Arroyo San Carlos and Palo Atravesado, but we were able to follow the birds and puddlers,” Angel said. “The yellowtail are all over the island but we couldn’t get them to bit. Our anglers worked boiler rocks and kelp lines instead for a healthy grade of 2- to 4-pound calico that day.” The next morning they started fishing at 6 a.m. and the pangas worked the north side of the island and gave Punta Norte a shot. “Again, the birds were present everywhere as well as sights of yellowtail on the surface,” Angel said. “We tried our best with surface, yo-yos, live bait (courtesy of the Intrepid) and plastics, but with no results for yellowtail, but good calico again.” “The yellowtail did not want to eat the jig that day either,” Angel said. “They were stuffed full of 4-inch lizardfish, we saw big schools of them leaping out of the water, being chased by yellows. We believe that is why they were not interested in biting that day, they were stuffed with lizardfish.” “The next day we tried Bajo Punta Prieta, south of the island and this is where our luck changed,” Angle said. “Following the birds again, we found scores of yellowtail biting on the surface and off the bottom on jigs in standard colors. For the next five hours it was non-stop action and then it stopped, just in time for a lunch break.” Angel said overall, the calicos were fat and big, ranging from 4 to 6 pounds, and the yellowtail weighed between 18 and 25 pounds with a few up to 30 pounds. “Larger models were seen crashing on bait, I predict a few 50-pound fish will be caught this year,” he said. “Some in our group went into town for Saturday’s party and drank some beers with some of the locals,” Angel said. “They made good friends there after discovering that some of the locals spoke English.” “The weather was excellent (as usual) with sunny days and calm winds,” Angel said. “The water is still cold (Saturday’s Terrafin reading showed 63 as the highest) but with lots of baitfish, we expect this season to be similar to last season, when the colder than normal water maintained lots of bait all over the island. It looks to be a great season coming up.” “The fish we brought back home were plentiful (about 200 pounds) and in perfect shape when we arrived back in San Diego Monday afternoon after a quick plane and bus ride from Cedros Island,” Angel said. Cedros OUTDOOR Adventures is one of the promoters of the Isla Cedros Yellowtail Fishing Tournament happening on July 29 and 30. The proceedings will be used to make improvements to the community. Look for more on this event here in WON as information becomes available.  In other Baja fishing action:   — CABO SAN LUCAS: Although more boats caught marlin than tuna this past week, when boats came across tuna the catches yielded good numbers, with catches of 1 to 17 fish. Dorado catches dipped but there were plenty of other species around to fill up the coolers. “Pisces anglers caught a total of 50 striped marlin and 1 sailfish this past week, all released,” Tracy Ehrenberg said for her Pisces Fleet. “Striped marlin catches remained steady with the exception of one day, when boats saw lots of stripers but could not get them to bite. Nevertheless, 63 percent of our charters managed to catch between 1 and 6 marlin per day, with a good number also loading up on tuna as well.” “And while none of the tuna were unusually large, they ranged in weights from 15 to 25 pounds, just the size most anglers wanted to take on,” Ehrenberg said. “Fifty percent of the charters caught tuna and our total catch was of 122 fish. The tuna were found between the 95-Fathom spot and San Jaime on the Pacific, with the most effective lure being cedar plugs.” Ehrenberg said dorado catches dipped a bit but were still decent, with 20 percent of her charters catching one or two fish in the 15- to 30-pound class. “Inshore amberjack, jack crevalle and yellowtail were caught,” Ehrenberg said. “The area close to El Tule yielded roosterfish in the 10- to 30-pound class for those looking for gallos.” “High boat for the Fish Cabo Fleet was the Tuna Time, winding up their four-day fishing week with a total of 14 stripers released, 2 dorado, 1 wahoo and 30 yellowfin tuna from15 to 50 pounds,” Larry Edwards of Cortez Yacht Charters said.    “Fishing with a three angler group from Montana, the group released 6 stripers and kept a 40-pound wahoo for their day’s efforts, another half-dozen billfish got away.”  Overall combined fish counts for the Gaviota Sportfishing and Fish Cabo fleets 17 charters included 38 stripers, 1 wahoo, 5 dorado, 5 sierra and 85 yellowfin tuna.  “This sustained fish bite is exactly what Cabo needed and will allow anglers to start getting excited over the fishing again,” Edwards said. With mostly sunny, warm and clear days and temperatures ranging from 71 at night to 97 for daytime highs, the weather has also been just right. Early summer and near perfect sea conditions have been seen from Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific side and below it at the Jaime Bank with water temperatures were stable at 80 and 81 degrees. A gradual rise to 84 degrees extended from the 1000-Fathom curve and inshore, wrapping around Cabo and up into the Sea of Cortez. Outside the 1000-Fathom curve it dropped 6 degrees, down to 78 degrees. Just two to five miles outside Cabo San Lucas Bay and extending up into the Sea of Cortez by way of the 95-Fathom spot and the 1150-Fathom spot, was where anglers found numerous billfish opportunities. Live bait remained the best bet but the artificials and rigged ballyhoo were also working very well with plenty of strikes. And this past week was much improved in terms of the live bait supply for the caballito. — EAST CAPE: The week started out with some red hot fishing but cooled down by week’s end. The only consistent bite was for striped marlin, which were being found everywhere from the 88-Fathom spot east of Cerralvo down to Los Frailes. That’s not to say there were no big fish caught, or that everyone got skunked. Porpoise schools holding tuna became hard to find and the monster tuna at the 88 were putting on a show but didn’t want to bite. Seems there’s been a parking lot of boats out there, and all the noise from the boat traffic shut the bite down some. If you could hang around until the party boats went in though, the bite picked up some. “Tuesday it was red hot for big tuna on the 88 spot,” Mark Rayor of Jen Wren Sportfishing said. “The fish were still there and I had a day off and decided to go back and look around. Fishing with a bullet tuna for bait it didn't take long before I was on. After a 55-minute battle, Jen Wren’s deckhand Diego Romero sunk the gaff and ended the fight. My yellowfin tuna taped out at 190 pounds.” “The wahoo bite shut down and it was slim pickings for dorado,” Rayor said. “The inshore fishing became more difficult as well. The roosters being caught were dinks and pompano all but disappeared. All that being said, most boats still scratched out a few fish for a day’s fishing. One day we fished for tuna at the 88 spot and couldn't get them to go. But we did end up releasing 2 striped marlin; it’s hard to call 2 marlin a bad day.” We had our first hurricane warning of the season this past week, a category 4 that never made it close to land. But, it did seem a little early for the first one. “I would like to say the slower fishing was due to Hurricane Adrian but don't really believe that was the case,” Rayor said. “The East Cape saw no effects or weather from the storm. The water is warm and loaded with bait, so it shouldn't take long for fishing to improve. It just can't be ‘full on’ all the time.” John Ireland of Rancho Leonero reported good fishing one day, slow the next. “I still have to say I have never seen so much bait, both inside and outside,” Ireland said.  “Heading south from the hotel to the Lighthouse, I counted no less than 30 different schools of bait on the surface, all within two miles of the beach. Outside large schools of squid are abundant. All the bait has made for an on and off bite,” he said.  “Off Cerralvo Island in the 88 area, very large yellowfin were being taken, lots over a 100 pounds and a few over 200 pounds,” Ireland said. “The fish are picky biters, but the tuna have been coming to the surface for very short periods of time. Those anglers in the right spot are hanging some big fish.”  “The striped marlin bite was decent this past week, but it really picked up Friday and Saturday,” Ireland said. “Most boats released at least 2 stripers. The Dorado bite was sporadic, with some schooling fish south, and some big bulls taken off the buoys north of Pescadero.”  “This past week the tuna bite continued, with yellowfin coming in from as small as 20 pounds to just under 200 pounds,” Eddie Dalmau from the Van Wormer Resorts said. “Friday I weighed in a 57- and a 78-pound yellowfin. We also saw dorado up to 45 pounds although the average size coming in was 25 pounds.”  “Marlin seemed to be the fish of choice this week, with two tournament groups going after billfish,” Dalmau said. “A few boats landed 7 to 10 billfish in one day but most had with 1 to 3 billfish.” “Punta Colorada guest Bud Goodman landed a 110-pound tuna, 17 dorado, 14 amberjack, 2 pargo and 2 roosters in his three days of fishing,” Dalmau said. “Over at Playa Del Sol, the Dark of the Moon tournament had 10 anglers fish on 15 cruisers over four days and had 13 tuna, 22 marlin, 1 mako and 7 dorado.”  Reporting in from Awesome Sportfishing, Theresa Comber said Colorado residents and Los Barriles homeowners Woody and Jan Storey where fishing with their 23-year-old daughter, Jessica Wednesday when she caught her first sailfish. “Jessica still remembers the first time she fished the Sea of Cortez with her family as a little girl,” Comber said. “She's feeling quite proud now of her first billfish, caught with Capt. Adan Ruiz aboard the Too Awesome.” Team Awesome continued to look “good in gold” this past week, fishing their fifth year with client Chris Kugel from San Diego aboard the Awesome in Pete Gray’s 'Let's Talk Hook-Up' Tournament held out of Rancho Leonero Resort. “Last Sunday a well-placed, large piece of scrap wood was found floating in deep water about 15 miles north that resulted in another voracious dorado bite,” Comber said. “The next day Capt. Luis Duran went straight east 35 miles, winged the downriggers into place and caught 4 tuna and a marlin. Their last day's catch was 2 sailfish and a tuna. They had great fishing and took fourth place in the event.” — ENSENADA: The weather, water and fishing are all starting to warm up. Estero Beach, the bay, San Miguel Reef and Punta Banda all held limits of barracuda, some yellowtail and seabass. Look for the full report here in WON as we gear up for WON’s Saltwater Championship, returning this year on July 22 and 23 at the beautiful Hotel Coral. For more information on the event go online to wonews.com and look under Events, or here at http://www.wonews.com/c-87-ensenada-hotel-coral-tournament.aspx.    — LA PAZ: It was a good, solid week of fishing here in La Paz especially for dorado. With lines of sargasso weeds in the bay’s channel holding bait as well as small game, fish inside the bay and then the bulls waiting outside, there were plenty of options. Tailhunter International kept most of their folks who wanted to nail dorado and put fillets in their coolers with the Tailhunter La Paz fleet. “It was a no-brainer, there are sargasso weeds out in the channel and schools of sardines and flying fish,” Roldan said.   “We're also getting macks and caballito by the buoys in the bay as well as under the two trawlers anchored about 1/2 a mile in front of the city in the bay,” Roldan said. “Then when we’ve had enough, it’s out to the grounds where it can be explosive. I'd say that in the last two weeks we've already caught bigger dorado than all of last year.” Roldan explained the last year, a big dorado was 20 to 25 pounds. “It was very unusual for our area,” he said. “We had a lot of dorado, but just not many big ones. This year already, I've seen good numbers of 30-, 40- and even 50-pound bulls in our catches with some larger fish getting away.”  “There's also a lot of little small punk 5-pound fish too, and it's good to see so many of the anglers releasing the little guys,” Roldan said. “Most fish are in the 10-pound class with the big ones mixed in; it’s been a good variety.” But it’s not just the anglers enjoying all of the dodos, marlin and sailfish are out there feeding on the small dorado as are the schools of bonito and skipjack. “For our Las Arenas fleet, it was a little picker, but certainly not bad at all,” Roldan said. “We had flurries of huge tuna between 100 and 200 pounds throughout the week out at the 88-Fathom spot east of Cerralvo Island. But that is it's a long run in a panga and often, there was a lot of pressure out there and with so many boats on them and the fish would go down.”  “Then, the fish would pop up again a day later,” Roldan said. “We had so many stories of fish being lost and rods broken. Everyone wants a big tuna until they finally feel the power and are sweating under the strain and the Baja sun for 1, 2 or 3 hours. And then to lose the fish! You don't get many chances.” “The other thing is that if the fish are not biting, you're probably out too far past them by then and it’s pretty late to go after anything else except trolling around and crossing your fingers,” Roldan said. “So, it's a gamble, but like all gambles, you're a hero if it pays off.” Inshore, Las Arenas produced some nice dorado by the buoys and the roosterfish bite continued to prove this a banner year for big fish, with roosters in the 30- to 80-pound class not unusual. As well, there were both barred pargo and dogtooth pargo. — SAN FELIPE & NORTHERN SEA OF CORTEZ: Baja Sportfishing’s ERIK returned from a charter put together by Tom Ohmart from the Phoenix, AZ area. The boat picked up anglers in Puerto Penasco last Saturday and then they motored across to the Midriff Island area. “During their stay they fished Bahia Refugio, Isla Vibora, Punta Diablo, Isla Cardonoza, and Piedra San Bernabe,” Dana Kerby said, reporting for Baja Sportfishing.  “The weather was good for the trip and the temperatures were not too hot.”  The group of 26 anglers onboard the ERIK caught 176 yellowtail, 84 cabrilla, 43 giant squid, 11 pargo, 294 spotted bass, 84 miscellaneous smaller fish and returned to Puerto Penasco on Thursday. The boat Tony Reyes just returned from a six day trip led by Jim Mitchell from Dana Point. Tony Reyes Montes shared the following with Tom Ward of The Longfin, who pasted it on to WON. “We were fishing the main Islands and San Francisquito, The Enchanted Islands, and the Golden Reef,” Reyes said. “We caught bait a few nights, had great weather the whole trip, and water temperatures around 70 degrees.”   “Most the fish were caught on jigs but MirrOLures were working well also,” Reyes said.   “The 6X jrs. were chrome green and yellow and blue and white, and aluminum jigs were great for surface yellowtail. San Francisquito was where we caught most of our fish.” The Tony Reyes count included 150 yellowtail up to 25 pounds, 235 cabrilla to 19 pounds, 494 spotted bass to 7 pounds, 3 pargo, 3 sheepshead, 7 grouper up to 77 pounds, 4 white seabass and lots of released fish. — SAN JOSE DEL CABO (LOS CABOS): The tropical storm season is now officially here, even before summer has started. Some 500 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Hurricane Adrian quickly developed over warm waters and strengthening into a category 4 storm. But the system followed a more northwesterly course and kept its distance from land. “Anglers found a variety of options this past week, from heading offshore to look for striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna, to trolling over the ledges for the elusive wahoo,” Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas said. “Last weekend we saw more dorado in the counts with fish up to 40 pounds throughout the week,” Brictson said. “Variable currents scattered the dorado though and only an occasional fish or two were being found, but as conditions settle we expect to see more of these fish.” “Same deal for wahoo, everyday there are reports of a few fish landed and others lost,” Brictson said. “Wahoo to 68 pounds were weighed in this past week, many others up to 50 pounds. It’s encouraging to see such quality fish this early in the season.” “Yellowfin tuna are in the area, but have been difficult to entice on a daily basis and in any quantity,” Brictson said. “Although the quality was there and several yellowfin over 100 pounds were brought into the La Playita panga docking facility in recent days. These tuna were found moving with small pods of larger-sized dark porpoise, on the areas north of Punta Gorda to San Luis. There had been action for anglers on schooling-sized tuna up to 20 pounds off of the Chileno area, but this action came to a standstill as the waters became off colored in that area.” “The striped marlin action, which has been off the charts for almost a month now, tapered off this past week,” Brictson said. “Further offshore, once again in cleaner waters, charters reported as many as five releases, others had one or two. The stripers were hitting trolled lures and dropped back live baits, mullet, caballito or jurelito, and some larger stripers to 160 pounds were landed.” The grounds from La Fortuna to Iman Bank were attracting schools of red snapper (huachinango); perhaps the small jellyfish bloom in the same region has brought these fish here. “At times the ocean surface would turn red as the snapper came up to feed,” Brictson said. “Anglers were landing easy limits of five fish per person that ranged from 5 to 10 pounds. They were readily striking yo-yo style jigs throughout the water column. A handful of yellowtail to 30 pounds were also landed and there were increasing numbers of amberjack, including quality specimens of fish weighing 60 or 80 pounds. These fish were hitting on both yo-yo jigs and drifted baits.” “You can also take a look off the rock piles for snapper, amberjack or grouper,” Brictson said. “Or there is the option of slow trolling live baits over the inshore rocky outcroppings for a chance battle with a bruiser of a dogtooth. In recent days there has been a great variety of fish encountered, though none of these species, with the exception of huachinango (red snapper) were found in great number.” The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos sent out 104 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of 5 sailfish, 29 striped marlin, 42 dorado, 20 yellowfin tuna, 36 amberjack, 9 yellowtail, 6 dogtooth snapper, 566 red snapper, 15 wahoo, 62 roosterfish, 24 jack crevalle, 16 cabrilla, 7 pompano, 28 bonito and 8 sierra. — SANTA ROSALIA: If you are looking for yellowtail, you’ll need to check the Terrafin SST and look for significant temperature breaks. “Last week it was about seven miles straight out of Punta Chivato, but the best break was two miles east of Tortuga Island and it was loaded with big fish,” local angler Jim Anderson said. “I am not a big fan of jigging because live bait is so much more effective,” Anderson went on to say. “But you can catch yellowtail on the north end of San Marcos with jigs. You’ll spend about twice to three times the amount of time getting bit with jigs though. Right now they are not very active so they are a little slow on the live bait, which means they will be even slower on jigs.  They will still eat them but it is certainly not my preferred method of catching yellowtail.”  “Yellowtail are almost always right on the bottom this time of the year,” Anderson said.  “If the baitfish are thick, higher in the water column, we do get them higher, but most are taken deep down.”  As for dorado, Anderson said they eat everything put in front of them so if you find them, they will eat almost anything.  — SAN QUINTIN: It was a windy week here, not strong but steady. Even so, Pedro’s Pangas 22-foot pangas made it out and found lots of bottomfish and 1 8-pound sheepshead. “The yellows should show as soon as the seas cam down,” Pedro Hillis said for the fleet. With improving conditions, Capt. Juan Cook has also been finding improving bottomfishing. “We are hitting the high spots and returning with easy limits,” he said. Readers: To have your reports included in the Baja report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com. FINALLY TIME TO LIGHT THE SMOKER! — Don’t let the jacket fool you, things are heating up. Jay Johnson and Beto took the Vonny-I out in the middle of the bay where the cargo ships are anchored and took 8 yellowtail from 16 to 26 pounds and barracuda as well. PHOTO COURTESY OF VONNY’S FLEET   QUALITY AS WELL AND QUANTITY — Quality amberjack are being taken off the rock piles off San Jose, like this 80-pound amberjack with skipper Chame Pino that will be providing quantities of meat for his family. PHOTO COURTESY OF GORDO BANKS PANGAS   NOT WIDE OPEN BUT NOT BAD!! — Earlier in the week large tuna like this 190 pounder Mark Rayor of Jen Wren Sportfishing caught, where found at the 88 Fathom spot. Once the word got out and all the boats showed up, they were tougher to get. PHOTO COURTESY OF JEN WREN SPORTFISHING   YELLOWTAIL RETURN TO CEDROS ISLAND — Anglers John Bosworth, left, and Travis Bellow from San Diego hold some of the day's catch, all they had to do was find hungry fish. Bait is once again plentiful here. Skipper Jorge on the 25-foot panga is in the background. PHOTO COURTESY OF CEDROS OUTDOOR ADVENTURES