BAJA REPORT

SAN QUINTIN PLAN:Pick a good weather window for yellowtail, bottomfish BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Mar 08, 2010

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ROBIN WADE BAJA WEEKLY REPORT SAN QUINTIN—Although the weather has been sketchy in Baja, just like almost everywhere else, there is still time to get into some good yellowtail, lingcod and rockcod action in San Quintin. If you can catch a good weather window and head down, then yellowtail in the morning and bottomfishing after that should be a good plan. Rob Rhyne from San Diego and his visiting big brother Andrew drove down hoping they had found a “window”  to fish with Capt. Juan Cook. “It didn’t start out that way, it poured cats and dogs the first night they were here and they woke up the next day to rain as well, but that cleared up in the afternoon so we checked the forecast for the next day and it looked better,” said Cook. With a three-foot swell and no wind, their window appeared to open and off they headed to the 240 high spot the next morning. FIND A WINDOW CAUSE THERE ARE FISH TO BE CAUGHT—Looking for a good weather window, Andrew Rhyne of San Diego shows off one of the many he and brother Rob in between storms this past week while fishing out of San Quintin. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPT. JUAN COOK.   “As it turned out there were 8- to 10-foot swells but with no wind, that worked out to be about 15 to 18 seconds apart. It was kind of rollie but nice enough to stay,” Juan said. “We fish the 240 on great looking marks but found no buyers, so over to the 15 fathom we went. The same thing happened there so we packed it up and headed for the 6 fathom spot. Sometimes you just have to hunt them down,” he said. On Andrew’s second drop at the 6 fathom mark, he hooked and landed his first yellowtail, and then it was the younger Rhyne’s turn to put one in the boat. After that it was all about the visiting older Rhyne, who showed them who was hot stick on that high spot. “We put 5 yellowtail on deck, but left after feeding two to a sea lion. So it was back to the 240, where “little brother” hooked and landed a 13.5-pound bonita, or so I thought.” Wanting to give the Rhyne brothers their money’s worth and finding no tails there, it was back to the 15 fathom. “On the first drop Andrew had a nice 20-pound fish, and we began decking fish, and feeding them to the sea lion until we all had our fill, and went home happy with 9 yellowtail, and a few bonita to 8 pounds, for a full day of fishing for the three of us.” While a typical day starts by looking for yellowtail in the morning and finishing off the day with a lingcod/rockcod hunt on the way back in, they never made it to the bottomfishing that day. “I later discovered that what I thought was a 13.5-pound bonita, actually turned out to be a rare type of skipjack called a kawakawa,” he said.   The water has been holding at 60 and 61 degrees with just a hint of green. “It looks great out there and these fish are still holding around the high spots. I think they’ll stay around for awhile. This last storm didn’t move them and it was a big storm. I think we will have some great fishing for a few more weeks before the windy season begins,” he said. In other Baja fishing action:   • BAHIA ASUNCION (Just south of Guerrero Negro):    With water temperatures still cooling down, the yellowtail fishery has been hit and miss, but bottomfishing was excellent this past week for calico and sheepshead. “The currents were strong this past week due to the full moon tides but Juan Arce Marron managed to catch a 26.4-pound yellowtail and some smaller ones as well,” said Shari Bondy from Campo Sirena. SIRENA WAS THE ‘WORD OF THE WEEK’—Weather kept many off the water this past week but Sirena shows off 1 of 4 yellowtail (and 8 calico bass) were brought in from the panga Sirena, caught by her dad, Juan Arce Marron fishing out of Campo Sirena. PHOTO BY SHARI BONDY OF CAMPL SIRENA. “On Tuesday Juan took our panga Sirena out and had 4 yellowtail and 8 calico bass before the weather got bad,” she said. • CABO SAN LUCAS:  While the water temperatures were not bad this past week, the water color turned a greenish tint that is not favored by the fish. Even the inshore fish took a break and were difficult to find. Reporting for the Gaviota Sportfishing and Fish Cabo fleets, Larry Edwards said the overall fish counts for a combined total of charter day’s fished included 3 released stripers, 6 dorado, 5 yellowfin tuna, 3 skipjack tuna, 3 roosterfish, 33 sierra and 5 jumbo squid. “Other than where there was water movement caused by the earthquake off of Chile, the sea temperatures ranged from 72.5 to 74 degrees, from the Golden Gate to the Gorda Banks, all with an off-color greenish tint,” Edwards said. The blue water started at about 15 miles south of Cabo but even armed with a mix of mackerel and caballito; there was still no concentration of fish to be found in any direction. Capt. Landrum from Fly Hooker Sportfishing reported the same results, as marlin fishing remained slow, and the most he saw this past week was one boat flying three flags as it returned from a charter. “Quite a few more boats were able to find the fish this past week compared to last week and they were biting a bit better, but it was still nothing to write home about, at least for those of us who go out all the time. The fish seemed to be concentrated closer to shore than normal though, with most of the marlin found within three miles of the beach, and on both sides of the Cape,” said Capt. Landrum. Most of the tuna that were found a long way from home, necessitating a two hour or more cruise to get to where you might find some action. “At least those were the conditions for most of the week. There are always exceptions though and on Saturday there was a pod of dolphin found three miles off of the Chileno Beach that had loads of football tuna, 5- to 20-pound fish, and the first dozen boats to get there had a blast. There were a few more fish found close in this past week as well but for the most part tuna were a long run from home with your fingers crossed,” Landrum said. Inshore was for the fourth week in a row, the way to go. “The sierra bite busted wide open on the pacific side late in the week and I was disappointed to see so many of these so called “environmentalist” captains load up with two, three or more times their limits.  How can you have two clients on the panga, come in with 40-plus sierra and then the next day complain that the fish have disappeared,” he said.  Get a clue, please.  Along with the good sierra bite, there were a few decent yellowtail caught as well as a few grouper and snapper. “The surprise for many was the marlin that were found so close to the beach. Dropping bait to the bottom for grouper and snapper, many boats keep a live bait half way down for amberjack, but there were quite a few marlin caught this way doing that.” There were also still plenty of Humboldt squid out there for those that wanted them. EAST CAPE: The weather here on the East Cape this past week included a bit of rain, a few overcast days, and a little wind earlier in the week, but there is always something to hunt down and enjoy. It won’t be long before these “cool” days are gone and we once again complain about the heat. This past week the focus included some nice-sized roosters along the beach, although it was chilly enough for a vest or a light jacket. Along with the roosters there were schools of sierra chasing sardina close to shore. • ERENDIRA: Reporting for Castro’s Camp, Teresa Castro said the weather was horrible last weekend and by Monday only two boats were able to out. “They had good fish, but as all our clients know, this time of year it is mostly about the bottomfish. There have been several very large lingcod caught,” she said. “We have several reservations for this coming weekend but we still don´t know if we will be able to fish because of the weather.” Now is the time to start making your reservations for this coming summer here, Castro said she was already getting booked up, especially for the weekends in July. LA PAZ: Another interesting week with quite a variety at such diverse ends that it makes one wonder about the El Nino everyone says is upon us. Inshore, roosterfish, cabrilla as well as sierra were almost slam-dunk easy to hook most days. “Wish we could say the same thing about the pargo. Easier to hook than put into the boat, and the ones we got were the 5 to15 pounders. The larger toad pargo kept taking guys into the rocks,” said Jonathan Roldan from Tailhunter International. The best news about the inshore fishing was that it looks like the yellowtail bite has finally kicked in. “Fish were in the 15- to 25-pound class, but about half the fish were breaking off. Still, it's encouraging to finally get into some of the forktails,” Roldan said. On the other end of the spectrum, warmwater fish like dorado are still hanging out. “Not big fish but even seeing 5- to 15-pound fish in March is pretty remarkable. The fish are readily hitting sardines or any small feathers in dragged behind the pangas.”  More marlin are also showing up. “We didn't get any to bite this past week, but again, having marlin in our waters this early in the season is worth keeping an eye on,” he said. Just as an aside, the new Fiesta Inn Hotel in La Paz closed its doors this past week. Word has it that they plan to re-open at some undisclosed time in the future, but for now, the hotel is closed. LORETO: Many of the boats are still working the east side high spot, which is two miles east of the south tip of Coronado for yellowtail. There are actually two hot spots on that same underwater peak, with one being a little closer to Carmen Island and the other a half mile east. “The yellowtail are getting larger too, we are starting to see more of the 35- to 45-pound fish coming in to the docks now,” said Rick Hill for Loreto Sea and Land Eco Tours. Large mackerel fished with 2 to 4 ounces of lead, a 7/0 hook and heavy 60-pound-test minimum, was the only way to get the job done. “Take some time to just enjoy being on the water while you are out there, as well,” Hill said. We were accompanied by 2 humpback whales within 200 yards of the boats. There must be a lot going on underneath us to have the yellowtail eating and the humpbacks so close to 12 pangas.”  Meanwhile, everyone waits for the surface bite to explode, and is keeping an eye on the water temperature, which has been averaging 68 degrees. MAGDALENA BAY:  Another quiet week was reported by Gary Graham of Baja on the Fly, with few anglers even in the neighborhood. “The entrada produced some nice-sized sierra along with a few small yellowtail and the sandy beaches at Belchers were holding some of the smaller variety of halibut in very shallow water,” Graham said. • MULEGE: While it should be too early for marlin to be this far up north, and water temperatures here do not indicate otherwise, there were two reports of them last week. One baited at the north end of San Marcos Island weighing an estimated 250 to 300 pounds, and another further south. Other than that, even the popular Wilbur's Hole had little to offer in the way of yellowtail. • SAN JOSE DEL CABO (LOS CABOS):  The next few months are a transition period for this area. Conditions can change rapidly from day to day, and anglers will have the option of going offshore, inshore and also off of bottom structure. Following reports to determine the best strategy for your next trip, reading the water temperature satellite reports, knowing what baits are available will all be important in deciding where and what to go fishing for. The start of March brought spring like weather, as temperatures reached 80 degrees and skies were mostly clear and sunny, with the exception of Saturday when rain rolled through the area. Winds from the north, and then switching around from the south, created strong currents and fluctuating ocean conditions. “This contributed to slower all around fish counts, and the majority of the action took place either closer to shore or off of bottom structure,” said Eric Brictson fro Gordo Banks Pangas. Inshore anglers found good action for sierra in the 2- to 4-pound range, and slow trolling with sardina was the most productive way to target them, although these aggressive feeders were also striking on hoochies, Rapalas and casting jigs. “There were some roosterfish in the same areas as well, the majority of them smaller-sized fish, though several roosters up to 40 pounds were reportedly hooked into and were released,” Brictson said. There were also some dorado encountered closer to shore mostly single fish or in pairs but still, there was a chance at catching 1 or 2 of these acrobatic gamefish. JUST IN TIME—While inshore fishing was fair in San Jose most of the week, by the weekend a school of wahoo showed up, taking some of the abundant Humboldt squid now back in the area. Brian Brictson, son of Eric Brictson shows off one of his catches of the day. PHOTO COURTESY OF GORDO BANKS PANGAS. “Yellowfin tuna were reported on the outside traveling with porpoise, with most of the reports for tuna coming from the Cabo San Lucas area, though it was hit or miss, as was the action for striped marlin,” he said. Giant squid made a strong appearance this past week off of the region, mainly a deal that the commercial fleet was taking advantage of, since their bread and butter fishery of bottom species has not been very productive. The charter fleets were doing more bottomfishing, using a combination of bait and yo-yo jigs, they reported a mix of snapper, amberjack, grouper, bonito and cabrilla. “With persistent winds and strong currents some days, this option was not producing the numbers of fish that would be expected for this time of year.” Sardina were found schooling inshore from San Luis to Vinorama and were a good size for bait, along with limited quantities mackerel available most days. Water temperatures varied from 72 to 76 degrees, with a warmer current found outside of the Gordo Banks that moved towards the 95 spot outside of Chileno. “The combined panga fleet launching out of La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos, sent out 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of 1 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 7 hammerhead shark, 4 yellowfin tuna, 29 dorado, 17 cabrilla, 9 grouper, 16 amberjack, 36 pargo, 44 bonito, 8 surgeon fish, 232 sierra and 19 roosterfish.” Today (Sunday) the fishing actually improved, and good numbers of cabrilla, grouper and even 1 wahoo was added to the count. “A school of wahoo showed up close to shore off of Punta Gorda. One boat had 4 wahoo on cut squid, other boats had 1 or 2 wahoo mixed in their overall catch, with others hooked and lost, they hit on various baits and yo-yo jigs,” Brictson said. Readers: To have your reports included in the Baja report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com.