Loreto sardina...Cabo dorado spells spring

Baja Bytes Weekly Overview
Friday, March 24, 2017
Gary Graham​

Que Pasa



66 totoaba found dead in a single net and a dead newborn vaquita porpoise washes ashore . . .

http://www.ecowatch.com/sea-shepherd-dead-vaquita-2317124850.html

Baja Norte

Coronado Islands . . . there was a very late report of some decent yellowtail action along the weather side of North Island yesterday with yellows being caught off sonar marks on yoyo iron, surface iron as well as on sardines. The Mission Belle was there and scored 36 yellows from about 18- up to about 25-pounds; their 15 passengers also caught some rockfish. …fishdope.com

 

In Ensenada, a late report from Sushi Hunter, headed down to the marina to jump on the Wahoo with Caesar. He mentioned bait was non-existent right now, and that we'd use frozen squid along with irons. The ride out was smooth as can be in a panga, and headed out towards the "gas plant." Once there it was nonstop bonito bite on the iron.

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/3-10-17-ensenada.650979/ 

Lower 500 area to just west of Colonet. Very likely there are more areas of kelp holding yellows between these two areas as well -- not to mention there are likely spots of tuna as well.
Looks like it’s time to seriously think about making a run offshore, though it’s best to wait for better weather. Beginning early next week we should have some of that. …fishdope.com

 

San Quintin, Caption Kirk and Leland were here for 5 great days of fishing; although it was slow fishing for yellowtail. However, wide open fishing for sand bass, calicos, whitefish and on our last day out, wide open big lingcod. …Captain Juan Cook

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/denis-quensel-deadhead-lures-sq.650999/



The girls got it done . . . my wife and daughter-in-law: First stop of the day! Nena is six months pregnant and she's been roping yellowtail for the last two days. My poor granddaughter is gonna’ have a gimbal on her forehead…Captain Kelly Catain

The Upper Sea of Cortez



Great spur of the moment trip to Bahia de Los Angeles.
Headed back to San Quintin because Jaime had some customers for Sunday and Monday. Customers caught nice assortment of reds, lings and whitefish as well as yellowtail, and the weather was still holding. …Ted Snellen

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/bola-trip-march-18.651413/




We fished the Northwestern edge of the upper sea of Cortez. One of the best release photos I’ve seen in a while -- directed by Rick Jensen, Cameraman “Rockdyle;” L-R Captain Juan, Pete Gray and Rick Jensen.

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/si-me-gustan-las-cabrillas-sardineras.651076/

Baja Sur

 

There were a few seasick passengers at Laguna Ojo de Liebre as we wrapped up another great whale watching season in 2017. …Shari Bondy.

Vizcaíno, Ascensión, and Abreojos…remains quiet.



Julio Meza points his boat north to San Quintín with a brief stop in Cedros after a successful winter trip to La Bocana.


Loreto Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing. The fish were boiling up at Pulpito this past Tuesday. Captain Tony Davis took clients on the long ride on a smooth day and found both yellowtail and sardina romping in the surf!

The only problem they had was that there were acres of sardina and the yellowtail had no interest in the challenging athletic mackerel!

It was bad news for the fish box but it may forecast a fantastic summer season with dorado and billfish. We haven't seen many sardina on the Baja coast for several years and that's probably due to the now gone El Niño.


Ed and Mike, a couple of old fogies from Tripui/Escondido, managed to hold up an almost 30-pound 'tail from Punta Perico. It's hard to get a good photo sometimes. The old dudes can crank 'em in to the boat but lifting them up for a photo is the toughest part!

One of our pangas landed only one fish for every three hookups with the "lobos" stealing the rest . . . a fair pick at the yellows at Punta Lobo for the boats that get there before the sea lions wade into the action.

Down south at the "109" spot, the action has been good for cabrilla and yellowtail with an odd pargo mixed in. "Wild Will" out of Escondido did the long run a few days this past week and found almost unlimited action with the down rigger.

The bait supply is consistent with a lot of the bigger mackerel. Water is still green, green, green but getting into the mid-60s at most spots.

I have been blessed to be able to not only see but also to pet the Gray whales that have come all the way down from the Bering Seas of Alaska to breed and have their babies. Well, all good things come to an end. Today is a holiday in Mexico and our Town celebrates its annual year-end of the whale festival.



Here is my neighbor’s panga . . . all ready for the parade. …Diana Hoyt Puerto Lopez Mateos,Magdalena Bay, still a few whales left at the entrance. Big yellowtail in good numbers on the outer banks with a few white seabass mixed in. While inside the bay fishing still good with pargo grouper and snook the norm…Bob Hoyt



Yes, yellowfin this week in La Paz! Taylor Murphey from Lakewood, Calif., fishing on her uncle’s boat with Captain Hugo who hung this nice YFT just south of Cerralvo Island. The tuna were taking Rapalas as well as chunked squid. …Jonathan Roldan, Tailhunter International

 

At Van Wormer Resorts, spring time usually means yellowtail time in the East Cape. This year we are starting to see the usual yellowtail bite and a surprise appearance of yellowfin tuna! The tuna were landed on the south end of Cerralvo Island which is about 30 miles to the north of Hotel Palmas De Cortez. The yellowtail are much closer and have remained close to shore. We are also seeing some roosters and pargo around the East Cape this month. Bait seems to be much better than last year and water temps. have been averaging about 5 to 10 degrees cooler than they were last year at this time. We are looking forward to a great season! Hope to see many of you down here soon. …Anibal Miranda

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/spring-fishing-in-the-east-cape.651198/

 

An unusual sheepshead landed by Mark and Richard Terry with Captain Santos.

It was a very interesting week with a real variety of fish brought over the rail. We had some big yellowfin, a couple of wahoo, a decent yellowtail bite, and lots of pargo, sierra, and even a first for the ranch -- a “Monster” 28-pound sheepshead. …John Ireland

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/interesting-week-with-a-real-variety-of-fish.651059/

 

My husband Keith was at a charity golf tournament . . . so we had no choice, but to bring home the bacon (aka wahoo) ourselves. Anglers: Christa Maurer (CSL) and Aishwarya Shivkumar (Mumbai, India) with Capt. Chuy (Gordo Banks Pangas, SJD).

Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, San Jose del Cabo pending

Cabo San Lucas



Finally, a nice dorado landed aboard the Pisces Valerie…an encouraging omen of a super spring coming.

The billfish catching continues to be very difficult for the anglers and the crew from Cabo San Lucas, and even though a few are being caught here and there, the overall catch ratio is for the number of days fished is very slow and continues to make for some long fishing days for the anglers. There was an unconfirmed report of the first swordfish.

Cabo Climate: Daytime temps averaged 80.5 degrees and nights at 63.6 and the humidity ratio was stable at 51.3% average. A partly cloudy week with super sunshine for the weekend starting on Friday, March 24.

Sea Conditions: Pacific side cooler from the Finger Bank down across the Golden Gate Bank, down across the Jaime Bank, and around the corner by Cabo San Lucas and on to San Jose Del Cabo . . . all at 72 degrees. The 95 Fathom Spot and northerly to the 11 Fathom Spot and across the Gorda Banks . . . all at 75 degrees. Las Frailes and off shore at 76 to 77 degrees. Sea surface conditions averaged 12.3 mph flowing from the westerly directions. Good fishing weather and conditions toward the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula.

Best Fishing Area: The 1150 Fathom Spot and the Herradura and the Migrino area.

Best Bait/Lure: Rigged baits worked best for the Tuna Time for their two billfish.

Bait Supply: The live bait supply remains very good for the caballito at the $3.00 per bait rate…Larry Edwards, Cortez Charters. 



Brian Solomon and friends on a recent successful ceviche run. Out for an afternoon fishing trip, three nice Sierras plus they lost a nice grouper (need that big one got away story), fishing with Michelle Robles, Lillian Bribiesca, and Amelia Acevedo.

Baja Bytes Weekly Overview 03/17/17

By

 Gary Graham

 -

 Mar 17, 2017

Friday, March 17, 2017
Gary Graham

Que Pasa

Sea Shepard found nets 16 kilometers north of San Felipe — Mex Biosphere (Protected area) with fish in an advanced stage of decay. For whatever reason, the culprits didn’t return for their catch. So what. . . they’ll just kill more. Also last week Sea of Cortez fishermen burned and turned over 15 Mexican Fish and Game vehicles and 3 boats in a government yard.

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/66-totoaba-in-gill-nets.650801/

Baja Norte

The Coronado Islands had much better water conditions and more yellowtail are moving into the Islands. There are now fish in the Middle Grounds and along the weather side of North Island. Anglers caught them today on the surface iron, the yoyo iron as well as on sardine. Things are looking very good right now…fishdope.com

Bahia El Descanso has a bit cleaner and there are some small schools of yellowtail around. Seems most of it is deep-water fish and those being caught came on the yoyo iron. The fish are coming off sonar marks and the schools are moving very quickly. …fishdope.com

Yellowtail and reds are on the menu at Ensenada according to local Pangero Sammy Sussery.

Guys are still finding lots of 4- to 8-pound bonito around but sadly the numbers of yellowtail are quite low. Just a few fish on trolled Rapalas and on the yoyo iron at San Miguel Reef.

The bonito are spread out all over the place from Salsipuedes to the north to all around Todos Santos Island. Trolling mackerel or sardine colored Rapala X-Raps is working very well in locating the schools.
There have been a couple of barracuda caught this way over the past week too. …fishdope.com

Ed Martinez landed this tanker on his last trip to Colonet

The bite at Colonet resumed this week. One boat was down on the High Spot and found the 12- to 20-pound yellowtail still around and willing to bite the yoyo iron and at times the sardine when fished with a 1- to 2-ounce slider.

There were also a few giant bonito. These are monsters with the little ones running at about 10 to 12 pounds. The big ones are huge with some pushing the 17- to 18-pound mark. These are being caught by accident on the yoyo iron and on the sardines meant for the yellowtail. …fishdope.com

Weather was great in San Quintin, but fishing was slow by SQ standards; all of the boats in our group got yellows on Fri. and Sat. On Sunday, we only got a couple of yellows. Bottom fish were hard to find even when targeted but we managed a few each day. Again, on Sunday one boat had a pretty good score of reds and Capt. Juan and Rosarito Jimmy found all you could want of giant whitefish. All yellows on yoyo iron with blue/white getting the most but some came on other colors. The lings mostly came on the flatfalls…Bob Rehfuss

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/fred-hall-and-sq.650326/#post-4288628

The Upper Sea of Cortez

I returned late last night from an awesome Northern Baja trip with Pete Gray and Juan Cook. With their nice cameras, Juan and Pete recorded the fantastic two days in detail. I will share the highlights when they send me some of the shots…Rick Jensen

Flatties biting at San Felipe orchid martinez San Felipe…Orchid Martinez

Baja Sur

Today’s greatest hits at Laguna Ojo de Liebre with La Mar Laguna Marina Eco-tours .We had a whale party with 8 whales all around and under our panga for a long time — wore ME out! Laguna Ojo de Liebre…Shari Bondy

Vizcaíno, Ascensión, La Bocana and Abreojos…remains quiet.

In Loreto, Rick Hill, Pinchy Sportfishing . . . It looks like we have turned a corner here in Loreto and because the weather has been off for the past few years. I am not sure if this change is on time or early!

Two significant fish behavior signs kicked in this week with the first being yellowtail boiling on the surface. Both at San Bruno’s high spot and off Carmen’s “Perico” there were schools of yellowtail breaking the surface. Attempts to get them biting bait and iron mostly failed but sure got our blood boiling for more.

The second springtime event is the awakening of the cabrilla. We are seeing more cabrilla biting at the high spots and a bunch of 12-pound fatties smacking trolled lures along the rocky coastlines.

We had late fall bites on cabrilla but most of the past two month’s action was void of these rocky bass-types.

Green, green, green and it isn’t because of St. Patrick’s Day. We are seeing lots of serious green vegetation patches floating in the current lines and blowing up on the north facing beaches!
That’s exactly what we want to see and that also gets the blood boiling and the saliva flowing for dorado should be coming soon.

As far as yellowtail hitting the fish boxes, it has been moderate action strung all over the Loreto area. Yellowtail at San Bruno and the boats working Catalana Island have also struck ‘tails with cabrilla mixed in. Still no monster yellowtail but these next few weeks could break our 35-pound mark, maybe even 40 plus!

A couple of yellowtail that returned to the boatyard.

One has obviously been selected by Sara’s sister, Jenna, as the honored guest at tonight’s sashimi and cerveza party. The bigger models are fine for trophies but this 12-pounder is perfect for sashimi or the barbeque!

Puerto Lopez Mateos, Magdalena Bay, report pending

La Paz

PENDING

Robert Weiner, Orange County, staying at Rancho Leonero with a 130-pound yellowfin taken yesterday on trolled ballyhoo, north, on the south end of Cerralvo Island.

East Cape, season for Rancho Leonero boats found spring-like conditions producing quality yellowfin tuna, wahoo, yellowtail and sierra by the bucketful…John Ireland

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/rancho-leonero-resort-starts-off-big.650495/

Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, San Jose del Cabo, schools of sardina are being found near Palmilla; on most days sufficient supplies were being netted. Other bait options included ballyhoo and strips of squid. Most of the local action has now been found off of Palmilla, to Punta Gorda, La Fortuna and to the Iman Bank. Not much at all is being found farther offshore for the charters that did scout that out. There’s a lack of billfish action at this time with most charters fishing closer to shore and over the normal rocky structure areas until reports offshore improve.

Yellowfin tuna action was very spotty; the tuna were seen at times on the surface, but were very finicky, not hitting on lures either. Best chances were found while drift-fishing or slow-trolling with live sardina at La Fortuna and the Iman Bank, we were only seeing a handful of yellowfin landed each day. Anglers were fortunate to land one of them; the fish we saw averaged 20 to 30 pounds though we did see one 60-pound fish brought in mid-week. There were more black skipjack than anything else.

Off the bottom, on these same grounds, we saw a mix of species such as yellow snapper, island jack, amberjack, cabrilla, red snapper, pargo and triggerfish. Not a lot of larger fish, mostly in the 4- to 10-pound range — no big quantities either, but all very good eating. Strong currents have been running which never helps anything, especially when fishing the bottom. Inshore the main action was for sierra to 8-pounds while using sardina.

We have not seen any dorado recently, though we did have a big surprise with a wahoo bite developing off of Punta Gorda . . . this is something we normally would see in December.

89-year-old Frank Harbin with his catch of wahoo. Frank is from Chico, Calif., but he also has a residence in San Jose del Cabo.

Even though the water temperature is in the lower 70s, there were sizable schools of wahoo holding in this area, ranging from 15 to 60 pounds, all less than a mile from shore. Fish were a bit finicky, coming up on baits — most often not striking, but other times they would hit sardina or rigged ballyhoo and many also hit on yo-yo jigs. A few of the local skippers tried other techniques normally used only while trying to snag baitfish such as mullet; not an approved method, but wahoo are very elusive and open game.

Of course the word got out about this action later in the week and then we saw free divers with spears working the same spot; this is always a quick way to spook the fish out of the area.

You can sure tell its Spring Break time in Cabo San Lucas as the town is filled with College students.

A few photos from the last few days — some really good fishing this year. …Baja Anglers, Grant Hartman

This week saw almost exclusive catches in the other category, with the main gamefish being caught by our boats in the fleet being: sierra mackerel, grouper, yellowtail, red snapper, roosterfish and amberjack. Boats remained for the most part on the Pacific side and used macarela (mackerel) for live bait, or it was cut up as bait and sunk to the bottom to coax out the grouper and other deeper water inshore fishes. Two boats this week landed marlin, one of them having gone out to the Finger Bank, while the other was lucky enough to find a marlin near the Old Lighthouse at Cabo Falso.

The Pisces Tracy Ann was the boat that landed the first and largest marlin of the week coming in at 150 pounds by some anglers from Massachusetts.

Finally, a couple of stripers were landed and released this past week, with one aboard the “Gaviota II” and one aboard the “Tuna Time”. According to Captain Roberto Marquez, the boats are beginning to see more and more stripers but the fish are very finicky and too stubborn to bite. However, just seeing them back around the area is a terrific plus and encouragement for the anglers and the crews as they will begin to bite, sooner or later, and restore some fishing faith in the community.

Cabo Climate: A week full of sunshine and toasty warm weather with daytime average at 80 and nights cooler at 64. Humidity ratio averaged 56%. Great weather for all visitors.

Sea Conditions: Sea surface breezes flowing mostly from the westerly directions at a 10 mph average. Pacific side remains cooler from the Finger Bank to Cabo San Lucas and goes around the corner, all at about 70 degrees. The 95 Fathom spot to the 1150 Fathom spot and up across the Gorda Banks and into the northeast, all at 73 to 74 degrees.

Best Fishing Area: the released stripers came from the Jaime Bank and the Herradura. Most of the mixed-bag catches came from Cabo Falso area.

Best Bait/Lure: The stripers, jurel, toro, roosterfish are all taken more on the live baits with a few taken on artificials.

Live Bait Supply: Remains plentiful for the caballito at the $3.00 per bait. …Larry Edwards, Cortez Charters.