Baja Fishing Report

Ensenada anglers are chomping at the bit BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jun 27, 2012

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ENSENADA — Strong winds prevented most from getting out but the water temperatures are good and anglers are chomping at the bit to get out and check things out. “We’ve had super windy weather but good water temperatures of about 64 degrees,” Mariana Hammann from the Coral Marina Store said. “But Saturday proved to be a good day for Mike Slater on the Game Fisher, catching a good mix of bottomfish including rockfish. Among their day's catch was also a beautiful yellowtail weighing 28 pounds. They were fishing around the island and using purple Megabaits.” “Otherwise, the fishing was quite as the wind made it very difficult to get out,” Hammann said. As a reminder, the dates of the WON/Yamaha Hotel Coral and Marina Saltwater Championship are July 27-28. There are two divisions for yellowtail and tuna and three optionals for each. Call Pat McDonell at (949) 366-0030 ext 33 for details or pat@wonews.com or CLICK HERE to signup. In other Baja fishing action:    — LA PAZ: It was like night and day in the difference between fishing early compared to later in the week here.   “For two months, I kept saying that all we needed was a little kick in water temperature and the tough fishing would improve,” Jonathan Roldan from Tailhunter International said. “Well, the water temperatures went up by 2 degrees this week into the low 80s.” “Early in the week, with waters still a bit chilly, our bite consisted of a very good roosterfish bite with fish between 20 and 60 pounds, it was great fun but not very good eating,” Roldan said. “We also had a pretty sweet bite for 20- to 40-pound yellowtail off the west end of Espiritu Santo Island that was good for a few days.” “But about mid-week waters started warming,” Roldan said. “We were seeing more marlin, we started seeing breezing schools of dorado and everyone was excited but there was just one problem, they wouldn’t eat.” “Then, about Thursday the water temperatures kicked up another notch, the dirty green cold water started to dissipate and the dorado started slamming,” Roldan said. “It was like someone threw a switch. Some of the dorado were very small fish, but others were in the 20- to 40-pound class and larger fish were lost. Marlin also started to jump into the act as well as sailfish and each day we hooked, lost, caught and released several.”   “I hope this is something we can finally count on, the bite has been a long time coming after a really slow spring bite,” Roldan said. ONE OF THE BEST! — Mike Harvey came all the way from Montana to try to get a roosterfish and picked a good week as the bite off Las Arenas near La Paz was one of the best of the year for 20- to 60-pound roosters. PHOTO COURTESY OF TAILHUNTER INTERNATIONAL — LORETO: The fishing has been good here but the wind and swells just won't go away. WON reader Tim Yarbrough recently relocated here from Gardena, CA to live out his dream and shared his story. “I used to own House of Stainless in Gardena and I sold out last year to move here to Loreto,” Yarbrough said. “I came here the first time when I was 13 and still have photos of that and many stories of this place. I'm in the process of opening a glass bottom boat business for tourism. I purchased the boat and should be up and running by October. In the meantime, I have been fishing.” “Today we got 13 yellowtail and 1 cabrilla and were back to the dock by 11. The fishing is awesome and all were caught on live mackerel,” Yarbrough said. “There’s hundreds of yellowtail and the dorado just started yesterday, I got a 50-pound bull. I also had a 200- to 300-pound thresher shark jump 6 feet out of the water right next to the boat; it was the first thresher I've seen. There have also been lot of marlin and I saw wahoo jumping two days ago.” LORETO ON A ROLL — Loreto is experiencing some of the best fishing the area has seen in years. With more flights in and out, affordable rooms and lots of fish, now it the time to visit the area. WON reader Tim Yarbrough likes it so much, he just moved here. PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM YARBROUGH — SAN FELIPE & NORTHERN SEA OF CORTEZ: Almost a year after the Erik sank with 27 northern California anglers onboard in bad weather, rough seas and in the dark of night the vessel has been found. WON’s own PAT McDonell wrote a detailed blog on the event and you can get caught up on events leading up to the recent find on his blog site at Wonews.com. This writer has also been working with the families of the anglers still yet to be accounted for; one is known to have died, 19 survived and 7 remain missing. The families continue to lobby both governments in order to get closure and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. “Shrimp trawlers were believed to have snagged the Erik back in February and Joe Jacinto, son of missing angler Al Mein just confirmed its location with the help of Capt. Wing Stock, based in Santa Cruz,” Mandi Lee Han said. She is the daughter of Don Lee, who is also still missing. “The footage they took was handed to the Mexican Government. When the admiral asked how he could help, Jacinto asked if they could watch the site and help maintain its integrity. He also asked the admiral to help secure a boat. The admiral agreed under the condition that his divers could be onboard to observe.” “The investigation, both criminal and cause are still open,” Han said. “Letters to the president have been written by Joelle Buetista, Russell Buetista’s wife, one of the missing fishermen and they tell us nothing but that the investigation remains open. We are preparing to launch another petition to urge the government to take the investigation more seriously and conclude their findings. I'm sure they are all delaying in the hopes that the statute of limitation to file expires and their delays only increases our rage.” “Our father's loved Mexico and they loved to fish,” Han said. “To hurt an economy and create bad press would not be their intention but they would want us to encourage stricter laws to help prevent this from happening again.” As soon as the new petition is created, you can be sure we’ll have the link added here, in an effort to assist the friends and families of those missing.    — SAN JOSE DEL CABO (LOS CABOS): Unfortunately, Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas had a family emergency come up and had to go stateside for a few weeks  but he said he would try as best he could to continue to keep anglers informed about the fishing as best he could. “I am in communication with our skippers and they say fishing has been tough, even though conditions seem okay,” Brictson said. “What a mess the G20 Summit was; our port was closed at the last moment, without any advance notice and caused a lot of frustration for some 20 anglers that we had scheduled to fish for the days of June 18 and 19. These people came to Baja to fish we were assured we would be able to fish on our normal fishing grounds to the north. There was no justifiable reason for closing the marina. I am going to write an official letter to top authorities about this situation, there should be some compensation involved. I will need some spare time in order to do this though, which I do not have right now.” — SANTA ROSALIA: The Punta Chivato Bulls Only Dorado Tournament had a rough on the water, but there were a lot of fish caught, even though most were on the small side.   “We had over 20 hookups on my boat but nothing that went over 12 pounds,” Local angler Jim Anderson said. “It is pretty exciting to see that many dorado though since they have been a little scarce the last few years, I can hardly wait till they grow up. The radio chatter went pretty much the same way and everyone reported getting really small fish. Every time we would hook up, you could look in the water and there would be another 20 fish following your fish to the boat.”   “Bait has been a real problem as the purse seiners have played havoc with the sardine and mackerel schools in our area,” Anderson said. “I talked to a couple of the boats and they tell me that the fish are all going to feed the bluefin in the tuna pens in Ensenada. They netted the sardines into oblivion on the other side of the peninsula from Todos Santos all the way to Ensenada and now it looks like they are working the same thing on the inside of the Sea of Cortez.”   Anderson said yellowtail fishing slowed way down this past week there have been some scattered reports of squid, but nothing that kept the fishermen going.   — SAN QUINTIN: Restaurant manager of Don Eddie's Hotel, Dana Stewart reported that fishing was hampered a bit by wind earlier in the week, but some good fish have been caught.   “Local angler Juan Garcia caught a nice 25-pound white seabass at the opening of the bay on Thursday and long-time visitors Norm and Kathy Woodruff braved the wind to nab several nice halibut during their stay,” Stewart said.   “The highlight of the week though, was the annual G-Bay surf-fishing tournament held Friday on the stretch of beach between Pabellon and Socorro,” Stewart said. “Nearly 30 entrants participated with some nice prizes being awarded by the sponsors, Carl Riccardi and Susan Duggan, well-known surf fishermen, surf-fishing teachers. Two custom built rods made by Riccardi as well as several tackle packs were awarded to winners and participants. The first place fish was a 2½-pound barred surf perch, with many others over 2 pounds and a fun barbeque ended the festivities.” Capt. Kelly Catian of K&M Offshore Sportfishing said fishing has been great, with lots of boats getting yellowtail and halibut as well as some white seabass. “Charlie Burris and his kids had 3 yellowtail weighing 12 and 13 pounds as well as 5 lingcod weighing between 10 and 15 pounds, lots of bass and rockfish aboard K&Ms Offshore IV,” he said. “And the Offshore III had 2 yellowtail and limits of big reds and lingcod. The yellows were caught on live sardines and mackerel as well as surface iron at the 6-Fathom and the 240.” Catian said bluefin and yellowfin tuna were also reported by the San Diego sportfisher Vagabond.   For more Mexico fishing reports visit: www.bajafisherman.com Readers: To have your reports included in the Baja report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com.