BAJA UPDATE

BAJA REPORT: Mag Bay one of few areas spared winds BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Mar 01, 2010

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ROBIN WADEBAJA WEEKLY REPORT Tsunami watch a non-event in Cabo; Marlin bite off at Cape, yellowtail a diversion off the point MAGDALENA BAY - When the cold northern winds lash out on the East Cape shutting fishing down, a diehard fisherman from there can still find action by hitting the road in search of a good bite in calmer waters. This past week local fly fishing guide Lance Peterson took fellow East Cape angler Brad Ellis over to the Pacific side, to Bahia Magdalena with the hopes of getting into a bit of mangrove action in wind protected waters. “After swapping a few e-mails with our friends Bob and Diana Hoyt of Mag Bay Outfitters we had our lodging set up at Puerto Lopez Mateos. Our good buddy Capt. Sergio Garcia had a panga available and his son Roddy was ready to explore the bay with us,” Peterson said. “We've been fishing with them for years so the excitement was high as we raced north on Mex 1 with visions of a hot bite in the mangroves fueling our fires,” he said. Upon arrival though, Capt. Sergio admitted that no one had fished the bay in quite some time as almost every boat in town was currently dedicated to whale watching. “Nevertheless, he said he was confident there were some fish to be caught and with his son Roddy at the tiller, we had every reason to feel confident we would see some action.” The first day of their two-day excursion inshore dawned cold and foggy without a hint of a breeze blowing across the bay. “As the fog slowly lifted, we rigged our gear; each of us armed with a 10 wt fly rod and spinning tackle. No sooner were we rigged and ready, than we reached our first spot, a deep channel pegged against the mangroves with a strong flowing current. With Ellis working the fly, I took up the spinning rod and started fishing a wild-eye shad Storm to see which method would be the top producer. Our first casts yielded strikes and it wasn't long before we got the skunk off the boat with a couple of nice corvina,” he said. After the first few drifts the fly had out-fished the jig by a number of fish. So not being one to pass on a good fly bite, Peterson was quick to pick up his fly rod to get in on the action. MANGROVE MADNESS-Local fly fishing guide Lance Peterson and fellow East Cape angler Brad Ellis, pictured, drove over to Bahia Magdalena with the hopes of getting into some mangrove action in wind protected waters. Find it they did, no wind and a variety of species including corvina, pargo, halibut, sierra, bass, grouper, and of course snook. PHOTO COURTESY OF FLY FISHING GUIDE LANCE PETERSON. “We moved from spot to spot across the estuary at Garcia's suggestion and every stop provided action. Garcia’s boat handling was perfect as he set up our drifts along the mangrove lined shores of the bay. With his help we were able to sink our flies in the channels and up against the tangled roots of the mangroves with ease. We came up with numerous hook ups on a variety of species including corvina, pargo, halibut, sierra, bass and grouper. The most noteworthy catches were a blackblotch pompano and best of all, snook. Make no mistake, the Garcia’s know where the snook live and our multiple hook ups on flies proves it,” Peterson said. While most of their snook were smaller specimens as far as snook go, they both had hard strikes and break offs from larger fish that left their 50-pound bite tippets shredded like they had been worked with a file. “Ellis had the snook dialed in on this trip, landing 3 on back to back casts on day two of our trip.” “We concentrated our efforts on fly fishing but spinning or bait casting gear would have been every bit as fun,” he said. Live bait, when available, is extremely effective. A wide variety of lures get the job done as well, everything from swim baits to topwater lures were productive on their trip. “Regardless of your preferred method, an abrasion resistant leader is a must to fend off raspy mouths, sharp gill plates, and the tangled mess of roots and mangrove stumps that carpet the bottom here. Come prepared with fluorocarbon leader material of at least 40 pounds.” While there are plenty of light tackle species to target here now, don’t be surprised if you get ripped by larger fish in here as well, that can push light lines to the breaking point. In other Baja fishing action: CABO SAN LUCAS: Billfish counts remained way off the mark for this time of year as numbers showed only about 20 percent of the boats landed a billfish. “High billfish boat for the week was the Gaviota VII, skippered by Capt. Alberto Garcia with 3 billfish released for 3 days fished,” said Larry Edwards, reporting for the Gaviota Sportfishing and Fish Cabo fleets. Overall combined fish counts for the fleets and 29 trips included 5 released billfish, 8 dorado, 1 mako shark, 21 yellowfin tuna, 9 skipjack tuna, 7 roosterfish and 132 sierra. Tracy Ehrenberg from the Pisces Fleet also reported sporadic billfish action with only 20 percent of her boats finding and catching them. “We did have some nice sharks though, mostly mako, and some dorado,” Ehrenberg said. “The tuna moved in for a few days and boats caught up to a dozen in the 20- to 25-pound class, plus the giant squid are now back in the area,” she said. Ehrenberg also reported that another one of those weird fish that created such a stir here last year was caught this past week. “The Fish Cabo was fishing 8 or 9 miles off of Cerro Blanco looking for marlin when Capt. Marquez saw a feeding frenzy of birds eating something, so he zipped over. He knew immediately what it was, a ratfish, and it was almost in the same spot that the previous one had been found. Just like the last one, it was already dead, so he fished it out with his bait net and they continued to fish,” she said. ANOTHER CREATURE FROM THE DEEP--Fishing off of Cerro Blanco the Fish Cabo and Capt. Marquez spotted another one of those weird looking, and rare for the area, ratfish, like the one that caused such a stir last year. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PISCES FLEET. The rare fish is now in her freezer for local scientists to study. “We did notice one difference on this one though; it did not have the quirky “lure” looking thing on its forehead which leads us to believe this one was a female,” she said. “I wish I had better news on the billfishing, but that seems to have become a common refrain, once again there were striped marlin caught, just not many,” said Capt. Landrum, owner of Fly Hooker Sportfishing. Fish were seen close to shore in the greenish water on the Cortez side, and Landrum said he had one group of anglers bottomfishing for grouper and snapper in 150 feet of water that hooked 2, releasing one and losing the other. “Other boats were seeing one here and one there on the surface in the same type of conditions but there was no consistent bite nor was there any regularity to the areas they were being found,” he said. Dorado seemed to be missing in action, as boats were able to find the type of debris that should normally hold these fish (weed lines, dead seals, or wood) but there were no fish under any of them. “An occasional flag was flying from outriggers at the end of the day, but I didn’t see any boat with more than two yellow flags.” “The yellowtail provided some steady action with fish to 30 pounds for boats that worked the points on the Pacific side, but several shrimp boats put a crimp on the action when they anchored on the school and 10 guys started hand-lining with shrimp heads as bait. Watching the fish go over the rail one after the other really showed you know how many there were in the school. After two days on the spot the boats left and we were lucky to find 1 yellowtail,” he said. “Our tsunami alert after the earthquake in Chile was a non-event here. We had a few hours where the marina water was ebbing and surging, stirring up the bottom silt and turning the water a really dirty color but that was it. I heard that the marina in San Jose had a few issues, mostly because of the narrow entrance which caused a 5-knot current during the surges, but all in all things were fine.” • EAST CAPE : Up and down wind conditions didn't stop some lucky anglers from landing some nice-sized yellowtail. “The no-wind days actually outweighed the windy ones. But when it was windy some just mixed it up, and anglers headed to several of the local reefs that are holding grouper, cabrilla and pargo,” said Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly. “There has been enough bait around to attract both jacks and roosters and a few schools of 'grandees' exhibited their ability to provide more refusals than takes. There were a few nice-sized fish caught, but not in the 'Bubba' class for sure,” he said. As normal, the trick was to stick with the inshore bite on windy days as long as it produced. “Many days it remained consistent throughout the fishing day. Other days fishing slowed down but heading outside, while tempting, was not worth the effort. “Thank goodness we are done with February and getting closer to spring every day,” Graham said. • ENSENADA: Fishing continued to be good for bottomfishing here using dropper loops with anchovies for sugar bass, lingcod, chuckle heads and a few rockcod. Ivan Villarino of Vonny’s Fleet said aluminum jigs found bonita to 10 pounds and yellowtail up to 28 pounds. Villarino said the surface water temperature was 58 degrees and charter trips had been made comfortable with only light breezes and 3-foot swells. • LA PAZ: The weather on the Sea of Cortez has been more typical of this time of year. One day it can be extremely windy and the next flat and calm. “Just to be on the safe side, and more for the comfort of our anglers, we're doing the majority of our fishing out of Muertos Bay, where the fishing areas are more protected and we can still get quality fish without having to go too far,” said Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International. “The yellowtail really haven't shown up yet enough to make a fuss about, but there's all the sierra you could possibly want most days as well as roosters. Vanessa Cannon from Utah got her first saltwater fish this past week and it happened to be a 30-pound roosterfish. Plus, while her husband Paul was still baiting up, a striped marlin swam by and gulped down her little sardine, resulting in complete pandemonium for about 3 or 4 minutes until the fish broke off,” he said. In addition to roosters and sierra, the pargo are still up in the rocks and they're definitely biting, but anglers were losing more than they were putting in the pangas. “For other species, cabrilla are in the same areas up to about 5 pounds and there's also bonito just where the drop offs occur,” Roldan said. • LORETO: Some nasty winter winds from all directions lingered in the area but there was still tons of bait in the water, along with green seaweed floating in small chunks and some green "oil slicks." “That's got to mean something, all I can say is that it seems a little early in the season for that but a good sign,” said Rick Hill from Loreto Sea and Land Eco Tours. Wednesday was the best day for fishing all this week. “The yellowtail seemed to be concentrating on a high spot 2 miles east, off the south tip of Isla Coronado. All but four boats were concentrating on that area for fish averaging 15 pounds. And the yellows were attacking live bait, with both sardines and macks performing equally,” he said. “North of Coronado and near Pulpito was productive for the larger yellowtail, if you didn't mind the long ride and many lost fish in the rocks. But soon the spawning yellowtail will be hitting on the surface and it will be easy even for beginners to land the 30 to 40 pounders,” Hill said. • SAN JOSE DEL CABO: Weather patterns have been normal here for the month February with scattered cloud cover at times, unpredictable winds predominately from the north, switching from the south, low temperatures in the mornings that hover around 50 degrees, and high temperature reaching near 80 degrees. “Water temperatures are averaging a couple degrees above normal for this time of year, now ranging from 72 to 75 degrees throughout most of the region. Clarity has fluctuated greatly though as a result of the rapidly shifting currents,” said Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas. INSHORE’S BEST WHEN THE WINDS ARE BLOWING--Gordo Banks Pangas skipper Chame Pino shows a sample of the quality sierra that were found this past week by anglers looking to stay out of the wind. This fish weighed in the 7-pound range and hit a sardina near Santa Maria. PHOTO COURTESY OF GORDO BANKS PANGAS. Anglers continue to be treated to the annual migration of humpback and gray whales in the waters of southern Baja which should last for the next month or so before they return north. But not all sea life was appreciated, as sea lions have been excessively aggressive this winter, and took up residence on the same popular fishing grounds where local charter fleets have been congregating. “This has made the situation very frustrating, as anglers tried unsuccessfully to land their fish before a sea lion beat them to it. The key has been to locate a rock pile that is holding fish, but has no sea lions in the vicinity, easier said than done,” Brictson said. Offshore fishing has not been consistent throughout the zone, though there was fair marlin action on the pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, where boats were scoring with catches of stripers while soaking baits deep, trolling surface lures, or tossing baits into feeders. “We look for this action to switch towards the Sea of Cortez soon, as more concentrations of mackerel baitfish are being reported. Tuna and dorado have been scarce offshore; scattered reports of some encounters with these favored species come in, but nothing consistent from day to day. The majority of the dorado recently have been found chasing baitfish closer to shore, and most of them have been from small to medium-sized,” he said. “The majority of the panga charters have produced better results working the inshore coastal stretches for sierra, roosterfish and jacks, as well as drift fishing over rock piles with jigs and baits for snapper, bonito, amberjack, cabrilla, grouper and triggerfish. This action has been the most productive of the available options, though the bite has been up and down.” Earlier in the week, while fleets looked for more wind protected waters near Santa Maria, they located schools of quality-sized sierra in the 4- to 8-pound class. Larger roosterfish appeared on one hot stretch from the Regina to the Hilton resorts, with several roosters up to 40 pounds caught and released. “A handful of amberjack to 30 pounds were accounted for, along with a few pargo, snapper and triggerfish. But the strong current made bottom drops difficult at times. Mexican bonito weighing up to 8 pounds were taking over the area of San Luis Bank, maybe this is why so many sea lions were on the same spot. Yo-yo jigs as well as larger baits produced mixed results, an occasional grouper was also being hooked into, but some of them couldn’t be stopped,” he said. The combined panga fleet launching out of La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos sent out 79 charters for the past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of 3 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 29 dorado, 21 yellowfin tuna, 164 bonito, 2 yellowtail, 28 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 7 grouper, 33 pargo, 188 sierra and 29 roosterfish. There have been adequate supplies of mackerel, sardina and sardinetas available most days, although a times there were limited amounts of the preferred inshore baitfish of sardina, and the size of these baits varied, larger baits were found further towards Vinorama. • SAN QUINTIN: Private boaters and the commercial boats are still doing extremely well on yellows at the 240 and 6 spots when they can get out, but there were no charters out. There was plenty of weather though this past week. As soon as the wind dies, you can expect fishing to resume, with yellowtail averaging 20 pounds once again targeted. Readers: To have your reports included in the Baja report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com.