BAJA UPDATE

BAJA UPDATE:‘Best fishing ever’ common words for East Capers BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: Jul 06, 2010

Print This Article Email This Article Digg This Article

ROBIN WADEBAJA WEEKLY REPORT Cabo corridor also picking up EAST CAPE — Marlin to 400 pounds, tuna up and over 200, wahoo weighing 100 pounds, striped marlin, dorado(finally) to 50 pounds, cabrilla, amberjack, jack crevalle, triggerfish; the East Cape was the place again this past week. Many an angler caught their personal best, first of a species, or fish of a lifetime. With the Dorado Shoot-Out just around the corner, followed by the Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore Tournament at the end of the month, things are looking good. Meanwhile farther south, around Cabo that has a tough season overall, stripers began to respond and an estimated 600- to 700-pound blue marlin was caught and released. Where to start? How about with 12-year-old Sean, dad Todd and East Cape veteran Ron Katz of Westwood, Calif.? The young Katz landed his first striped marlin, first dorado, first sailfish, first yellowfin tuna, participated in landing a 153-pound monster tuna, as well as helping to put tuna limits in the box. “Both father and grandfather were proud and said the Jen Wren had set the bench mark for them that would be hard to ever beat,” said Jen Wren’s owner Mark Rayor of Vista Seasport. A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING — 12-year-old Sean, dad Todd and East Cape veteran Ron Katz of Westwood, CA with the 153-pound tuna they caught as a team. The young Katz landed his first striped marlin, first dorado, first sailfish, first yellowfin tuna, participated in landing this 153-pound monster tuna, as well as helping to put tuna limits in the box. Once again the East Cape was the place to be. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK RAYOR OF VISTA SEASPORT WON subscribers Larry Wayne and son Paul just returned from Rancho Leonero where they chose to stay closer in. “While the weather was hot, our fishing luck was a little cooler,” Wayne said. “In three days on the water we caught 9 schoolie yellowfin, 2 slightly larger ones, son Paul landed an estimated 40-plus pounder, 6 medium-size dorado, and caught and released 2 roosterfish. We never went more than about 2 miles away from land. Much of our catch was made in the vicinity of Punta Arena,” he said. It’s easy to get spoiled here these days. Water temperatures ranged between 77 and 82 degrees and it was clear and flat, until Hurricane Alex, which made landfall in northeastern Mexico, stirred up the waters with wind and cooler temperatures. “It is very cool for July, the highs were only in the 80s,” said John Ireland from Rancho Leonero. “Sardine were finally available and the yellowfin fishing really took off.” “More and larger schools of porpoise were holding tuna to 150 pounds, very spread out with multiple pods and the tuna were feeding aggressively,” Ireland said. Tuna were being taken within 50 meters of the beach off the Light House and south of Los Frailes also produced yellowfin a little further out. “Sardine were by far the bait of choice, but chunked squid was working as well,” he said. Outside from 3to 30 miles, 3 or 4 very spread schools of porpoise held lots of tuna to 150 pounds. “Each school held multiple pods of feeding porpoise, allowing the fleets to spread out, there were plenty of tuna for all,” Ireland said. There was very light pressure for marlin but most ranch anglers were limiting on tuna and then fishing for stripers in the afternoon, releasing at least 1 or 2 daily. “Every day a number of roosterfish over 50 pounds were also being released. It’s been the best gallo fishing I can recall, plus big pompano in the 15-pound class were being taken daily.” Operations Manager, Felipe Valdez from Buena Vista Beach Resort reported another amazing week, with tuna all over the place. “Right now you could probably catch them with pieces of bread or tortillas they are so abundant,” he said. “We had very good quality fish for all species. We had a nice blue marlin around 400 pounds, roosterfish to 60 pounds, tuna over 150 pounds and some good dorado,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many guests came up to me and said it was the best fishing they’ve ever seen,” said Eddie Dalmau for the Van Wormer Resorts. “And now that the dorado are finally starting to come in, the fishing on the East Cape feels complete. This past week was the first time since April that we saw dorado in the 35- to 50-pound range on a consistent basis,” Dalmau said. Most of the larger dorado were landed south of the Van Wormer’s Hotel Punta Colorada where the water was a bit warmer. The biggest fish of the week for the Van Wormer resorts was landed by Gary Elrod and Tom Reid of Reno, Nev., who had a double hookup on two monster tuna onboard the Fresh Catch. “Elrod’s tuna weighed in at 204.8 pounds and is now the biggest of the year for us, while Reid’s tuna weighed in at 136 pounds. You’d be hard pressed to find a better double hookup anywhere. But these were not the only big tuna caught; we had tuna weighed in at 87, 93, 120, 136, 154, 198, and 204 pounds, along with hundreds in the 15- to 40-pound range.” In other Baja fishing action: • CEDROS ISLAND: Recently the Chuang family joined Jose Angel of Cedros OUTDOOR Adventures to fish at Cedros Island. What they found was a fish of a lifetime – twice! “We tried the regular spots near town, and saw lots of yellowtail and bait, but only a few were caught that first day, along with some calicos,” Angel said. The next day it was off to nearby Natividad Island, where there were more reports of yellowtail biting. “Again, lots of yellowtail, but no bites, good thing big calico are always ready to bite here,” he said. “Our best chance is always at Punta Norte. The rich waters of the California current hit the island first here, bringing cold water rich in nutrients, and creating a pool of life and fish. On arrival a flock of diving birds showed us calico on a feeding frenzy at a rate of at least 40 calico in less than 30 minutes.” “Punta Norte is covered with thick kelp and lots of submerged rocks, only reachable by our 28-foot pangas with local skippers who are used to maneuvering in the kelp as they have to work close in for the abalone divers,” he said. Their prize from here came when they found a big 50-pound white seabass while in a hole in the kelp. “Pulling hard we couldn’t tell what it was until it showed up next to the boat tangled in kelp.” FISH OF A LIFETIME — TWICE! — Felix Chuang from Bakersfield, Calif., with his fish of a lifetime, a 50-pound white seabass caught at Cedros Island. The next day the group caught another white seabass weighing 36 pounds. COURTESY OF JOSE ANGEL OF CEDROS OUTDOOR ADVENTURES The same happened again the next day with another white seabass weighing 36 pounds, and in their own words, “These fish were the catch of a lifetime, and it happened twice!” Returning to town 60 minutes away, they stopped at other sites for more calico and yellowtail. “By the end of each day there was a good dinner and comfortable rooms in our hotel waiting for them that recharged our guests for each fishing day,” he said. • CABO SAN LUCAS: Summertime is still here, but with the wind we had this past week felt more like Chicago. You could look out and see the wind line to the southeast and it was blowing hard almost all day, every day right up the Cape. At least the wind was coming from the normal northwest direction most of the time. Occasionally in the late afternoon it would shift and come from the west though, making for a long bumpy ride home for the boats. “It was a decent preview of summer fishing, with striped marlin being a bit more active than last week, blue marlin showing up and a few swordfish showing as well,” said Capt. Landrum for Fly Hooker Sportfishing. Striped marlin were found fairly close in, as were everything else, mainly due to the fact that the farther out you went the rougher the water became. “Striped marlin were seen tailing on the surface but for the most part ignored the normal live baits such as caballito and mackerel,” Landrum said. Boats that did best hooked them on small bonito close to shore slow trolling. “There were a few fish found that would eat other baits, so it was not a waste of time or money to buy them, but the bonito seemed to work better.” “There was also a nice 600- to 700-pound blue marlin caught and released (I saw the video) two miles off of Gray Rock. The fight lasted 98 minutes and the fish ate a lure. There was also a swordfish weighing 150 pounds caught around the 95 spot on Wednesday,” he said. As billfishing began to stabilize and become more consistent, stripers became the number one catch this past week for the Pisces Fleet, adding to an overall 81 percent catch rate. “Top boat for us was the C Rod with five released during the Stars and Stripes Tournament,” said Tracy Ehrenberg for the fleet. The Falcon had one of the first sailfish of the season as well as a striped marlin the day before at the 11.50 spot and the El Gallo had a really big striped marlin, which the captain reported weighed 210 pounds plus a smaller 100-pound fish, both released in front of Pedregal. “There were several boats with double marlin days such as the Rebecca, Tracy Ann and the Ruthless which was great to see; catches getting more consistent,” she said. But some of the most active days were had by boats that had a marlin and then went on to catch small game. “They were out on the Andrea and caught 1 striped marlin and 20 yellowfin tuna and then went on to get a few dorado. Fifty percent of our boats this past week were fortunate enough to hook striped marlin, so that’s a big improvement and there is a lot more action to come,” Ehrenberg said. Pisces anglers caught a total of 46 striped marlin and 1 sailfish this past week, all released, except 1 180-pound striper kept. “Tuna catches were fair this past week, though fewer boats found them, if they got to the right spot, catches ranged from 1 to 25 fish in the football size, so for sheer numbers more tuna were caught than anything else, giving us a total of 169 and 1/2 fish. The half fish was aboard the Ruthless, when one of their fish was severed by a shark as they were reeling it in, leaving them with just a head on the end of the line.” There were also some nice catches of wahoo, with the Great Escape Jr. catching 2 40- and 50-pound fish and the C Rod also catching 2 around the same size, plus releasing a striped marlin. “Forty percent of our boats caught yellowfin tuna. Dorado catches were slower with just 17 percent catching 1 or 2 fish in the 15- to 30-pound class. In addition, the Ruthless released a hammerhead shark as well as a striped marlin at the 11.50 spot. Inshore some roosterfish, jack crevalle, sierra, bonito and red snapper were also caught in lesser numbers. The Gaviota Sportfishing and Fish Cabo charters also saw an exciting upturn in fishing that reflected a nearly 1 billfish per boat day average that also included their first sailfish for the season. “High boat for the week was the Gaviota VIII skippered by Capt. Juan Dominguez, reporting 8 stripers for 3 trips and rounding out his catches with 10 yellowfin tuna,” said Larry Edwards for the fleets. His first day was just a few miles outside Santa Maria Bay, scoring 2 stripers. His second day was at Destiladeras, about 25 miles into the Sea of Cortez, again scoring 2 stripers and on the third day he was just outside Cabeza De Ballena, (Gray Rock) scoring 4 stripers and all billfish released. “Overall fish counts for 24 trips included 22 released stripers, 1 released sailfish, 6 dorado, 5 wahoo, 1 roosterfish and 44 yellowfin tuna,” Edwards said. • LA PAZ: It was all going along really well here and then the winds came up again. “It was like April all over again as the week came to a close, but before that, fishing had been really great,” said Jonathan Roldan for his Tailhunter International Fleet. “For the better part of the week both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets had been doing really well. I mean, when was the last time someone said, “There are too many marlin!” That’s what I heard more than once this past week, especially for our anglers fishing with our Las Arenas fleet. Over the last two weeks, all those lazy striped marlin and sailfish that have been sunning themselves on the surface, waiting for the waters to warm finally woke up and came to the party,” Roldan said. In addition to the billfish though, the fleet had quite a variety of other species, especially around the south end of Cerralvo Island and Las Arenas. “More and larger dorado showed up, although there were still quite a few dinks, we saw some fish caught in the 20- to 25-pound category. And although we’re not seeing as many roosterfish, some really hefty big boys were caught and released up to about the 60- to70-pound category as well as pargo and cabrilla.” More exciting than that, however, was that some large squid popped up south of Arenas and usually when that happens there’s tuna that come up out of the deep trench. “We got into some 20- to 60-pound fish and several larger tuna in the 100-plus-pound category were hooked and lost after long battles. There weren’t a lot of tuna, but enough to get everyone excited. The only problem was that many anglers were outgunned or not experienced enough to tackle these bigger gorilla tuna and in some cases, I heard of at least 2 anglers simply cutting themselves off when they realized what they were tied onto,” he said. • LORETO: As of late the bait and dorado have played hard to get around here and during the recent Tripui Fishing Tournament this was still the rule. “I don’t know where the dorado are but we can tell you they weren’t around Loreto,” said Chris Pearson, tournament photographer. “Only 5 dorado were caught, however, we did have a wahoo, an amberjack and lots of big yellowtail weighing between 26 and 36 pounders in the “other species” category,” Pearson said. The 2010 Tripui Charity Sports Fishing Tournament was once again hosted by the residents of the Tripui Resort and the Hotel Tripui with owner Alma Rosa Aguilar. “Aside from the low dorado count, we had a great tournament with lots of families and lots of kids fishing. This year’s tournament was a real family event and included trophies for our junior anglers. The communities of Loreto, Tripui, Juncalito and Ligui all came together for an event that benefitted all of the communities,” he said. ROWE BOAT JR. TAKES “OTHER SPECIES” — As bait and dorado played hard to get during the recent Tripui Fishing Tournament, many chose to target the “other species” category, like 10-year-old Kevin Rowe from Poway, winner of the Junior Angler category, who took the prize with a 32.04-pound yellowtail. PHOTO COURTESY OF PROUD GRANDFATHER WALT KAINZ Forty-seven boats entered the tournament from Tripui, Loreto and Juncalito and with few dorado and live bait around for the event; many boats traveled over 100 miles looking for that dream paddy of seaweed with dorado hiding underneath but came up empty. “Many opted to fish the “other species” category this year, we weighed yellowtail, amberjack and even a wahoo,” Pearson said. Winners in the adult category was Reel Time with Mark Jacob and Will Block with 2 dodos totaling 32.22 pounds, Frequent Flyer with Gerry Puglisi and his 36.08-pound yellowtail in the “other species” category. In the junior division, Mark Jacob on Reel Time had the largest dorado and 10-year-old Kevin Rowe from the Rowe Boat took top “other species” with his 32.04-pound yellowtail. All funds raised will go to benefit the Bomberos (firemen) of Loreto and the library at the Ligui Dormitory School run by AsistED (www.educationbaja.org). Ninety percent of the fish caught were donated to the village of Ligui so that nothing went to waste. • MAGDALENA BAY: The marlin action is off and running, as Robert Hoyt, son of Mag Bay Outfitters Bob Hoyt, and his buddy Rojo proved while fishing with Capt. Sangi on his panga. “They got 2 and broke of several others as they only went out to catch small tuna, which they also got,” said Hoyt. • MULEGE: WON subscriber John Devine’s first time driving trip this far, with Baja first-timer, John Leons (and second time saltwater fishing ever) found the fishing here slow, although they did gets some sails, stripers and baby dodos. “He did manage his first dorado weighing up to 15 pounds though, a sailfish weighing 90 pounds, and an 80-pound striped marlin, all first for him,” Devine said. Not bad! • SAN FELIPE & NORTHERN SEA OF CORTEZ: The boat Tony Reyes returned from another great 6-day trip fishing to the Midriff Islands in the Sea Of Cortez. “They had excellent weather and fished Snake Island, San Francisquito Bay, Partida Island, San Lorenzo Island and Enchanted Islands,” said Tom Ward from The Longfin. Yellowtail up to 31 pounds (398 of them) were landed with many larger fish broken off as the yellowtail are very large this year and a score of other species were also caught. “Jigs seemed to work better than bait as the fish were very aggressive,” Ward said. Trolling Mirror Lures worked well as well as some cut squid bait. “Live mackerel were difficult to get as it has been most of the year. The best tackle so far this year has been jigs in blue/white, chrome, green and yellow in the Salas 6X Jr. and DX sizes. With the big fish, many jigs are being lost so anglers need to bring a good supply of them as well as plenty of hooks and sinkers in the 12- and 16-ounce size,” he said. The ERIK returned from its 6-day trip to the Midriff Islands with Tom Ohmart and his charter leaving Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) last Saturday and returning to port on Thursday. Three hundred thirty-four yellowtail ranging between 15 and 28 pounds, as well as pinto bass cabrilla, pargo, broomtail cabrilla, white seabass, 1 83-pound grouper and 5 sheepshead were taken. “They fished Vivora, San Esteban, San Lorenzo and San Fransisquito in beautiful weather,” said Andrea Velez from Baja Sportfishing. • SAN JOSE DEL CABO (L0S CABOS) Despite the recent passing of the full moon phase, the all-around fishing action improved this past week, as conditions began to stabilize. The live bait situation remained the same, most common baits available were caballito and mullet, with giant squid being found off the East Cape, but not in the Los Cabos region. Bolito and smaller skipjack are late to show on the local fishing grounds this season, but are now starting to be reported more frequently. This should begin to attract more game fish throughout the summer here. SAILFISH THE NUMBER 1 CATCH IN CABO — Adolfo and Steven Rivera, father and son from Austin, Texas released 1 striped marlin and caught 11 yellowfin tuna aboard the Rebecca this past week as fishing improved in Cabo. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PISCES FLEET “Billfish action was much improved with lots of striped marlin throughout the area, they were readily striking on live baits and at times on trolled lures,” said Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas. “Sailfish are showing up in the warmer waters as well, as are black and blue marlin. We started hearing reports of larger marlin hooked and lost due to undersized gear, but blue marlin to 400 pounds were reportedly landed,” he said. “Yellowfin tuna were more abundant and spread throughout a wide range; the larger fish at this time appear to be in the East Cape area, as fish to 200 pounds were reported. The majority of the tuna found recently are associated with porpoise, and anglers using live baits or cut squid were most successful.” Tuna off of the Los Cabos area are now averaging in the 20- to 60-pound class. “Often times the yellowfin are being encountered within a few miles of shore, as clean bluewater is in close proximity,” he said. Dorado counts improved the past few days, as did the sizes of fish, some charters were finding limits or more on dorado ranging to over 30 pounds, though the average fish was in the 15-pound range. “They were striking on a variety of lures as well as live or rigged dead baits. Look for this action to bust wide open in the coming weeks.” “Wahoo remained active over coastal structure in 120 to 170 feet of water in areas off Chileno, Cardon, and from La Fortuna to San Luis all produced strikes for anglers trolling the normal array of specialized wahoo arsenal, as well as slow trolling with live baits such as caballito. Often times the best wahoo activity was encountered nearer high tide periods, which recently was mid to late mornings.” Sizes ranged from 25 to 50 pounds. Inshore action was very good for roosterfish, trolling live mullet near the sandy beach stretches produced great action on fish to 50 pounds, and there were plenty of jack crevalle mixed in, as well as an occasional dogtooth snapper or larger-sized late season sierra. “For the past several days there has been an unprecedented bite for quality-sized amberjack right off the Puerto Los Cabos Marina channel entrance, this action occurred late in the day as the sun was setting, so mainly locals were getting in on this. Using a small baitfish named the pacific moonfish has been the ticket; they are similar to a lookdown (small flat silver member of the jack family.) Slow trolling or drift fishing resulted in strikes on amberjack, roosterfish and jack crevalle. Amberjack were averaging in sizes from 30 to 80 pounds,” Brictson said. The combined local panga fleets launching out of La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out 47 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of 4 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 103 yellowfin tuna, 33 dorado, 13 wahoo, 24 amberjack, 30 jack crevalle, 8 sierra, 7 pompano, 8 dogtooth snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 18 huachinango (red snapper), 9 cabrilla, 14 bonito and 98 roosterfish. • SAN QUINTIN: With lots of wind and cold water, plenty of bluefin tuna were found on the outside but they all had lockjaw. Those going out did well on bottom critters. Readers: To have your reports included in the Baja report, send photos and e-mails to baja@wonews.com.