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By Tom Gatch
In many parts of the nation, Labor Day marks the end of the summer season; not so in Baja California. As a matter of fact, some areas in the upper Sea of Cortez can easily host double-digit temperatures during the months of September and October.
From a visitor’s standpoint, most of the peninsula’s main tourist meccas such as Ensenada, Los Cabos, and La Paz are noticeably less congested during the months of fall, which can make it far easier and more convenient when booking anything from hotel and restaurant reservations to chartering a sportfishing trip.
As far as fishing goes, the excellent action that anglers have experienced this past summer seems to definitely be carrying over into the fall transition period with excellent catch reports coming in from around the peninsula.
Ensenada
This year has proven to be exceptionally good for local anglers both inshore and offshore. Vonny’s Fleet Sportfishing reports that their pangas have been connecting with a wide variety of inshore species, including plenty of reds, lings, calicos, halibut, and even an occasional yellowtail or two that could end up weighing 25-pounds or more.
Ensenada’s offshore panga fleet has enjoyed a banner year fishing for big bluefin tuna that have been swimming only 15 to 17 miles off the coast. This bite usually starts in mid-spring and the backs off by late July …but not this year. Most of the fish have ranged in size from 65 to 125 pounds.
San Quintin
Down the coast in San Quintin, Capt. Juan Cook is back home for the fall fishing season and indicated that they have been getting a lot of quality bottom fish along with an occasional flurry of yellowtail.
He added, “My client, Chris Wheaton, and his buddy, Earl Workknott, joined me to fish the local Dos Mares Tournament. We ended up placing 4th, so no tourney money, however, we did win the bottom fish sided jackpot with a 15-pound lingcod that netted us a cool 26k pesos. We caught all of our fish on a 6oz leadhead jig with a Big Hammer plastic tipped with fresh squid that Chris brought down from southern California.”
Cedros Island
The 2024 fishing season at Cedros Outdoor Adventures just began with a bang in mid-July, and the action has been hot and heavy ever since. As the weeks pass, the fishing just seems to be getting better with catches of big yellowtail up to 50 pounds, white seabass or 35-pounds or more, and several fat California halibut up to 38-pounds. That fish was caught by veteran Cedros angler, Esvin Hernandez, from Los Angeles who has fished the Island over a dozen times previously.
Cabo San Lucas
From Cabo, Pisces Sportfishing reports, “When the fishing’s this good… it’s time to come to Cabo! We have been enjoying big yellowfin tuna, bull mahi-mahi, wahoo some excellent billfish catches, it’s been fun every day out there! Plus, we have had the benefit of glassy conditions and the bluest of seas.”
They indicated that their overall catch numbers were comprised of 74% billfish, 28% tuna, 20% dorado, and 22% miscellaneous species. Although billfish and yellowfin tuna dominated the catches this week, the yellowfin being caught by the Pisces boats have been as large as 180 pounds.
"Another popular ‘catch and release’ target for many of our clients has been roosterfish. The majority of dorado have been bulls, though plenty of the smaller ones were caught and released.”
San Jose del Cabo
From Gordo Banks Pangas in San Jose del Cabo, Brian Bricston indicated, “The main highlight recently has been the unexpected wahoo bite; some boats were able to land 2 or 3, as well as a handful of dorado. Most of these wahoo have been hooked while looking for marlin, and were located a bit closer to shore.
Most of the strikes came around Cerro Colorado and The Westin Regina area, 3-5 miles from shore. All of these wahoo were hooked on marlin lures and rigged ballyhoo. This group of wahoo were nice sized, most of them over 30 pounds. Within the same area, there was a good chance of running into some schools of dorado. Most of the dorado seen were small juveniles, with an occasional 20-30 pounder in the mix.
Towards Gordo Banks, Cabrillo, and 1150, we continue to see good numbers of striped and blue marlin. This far out, there is a good chance of running into a few porpoise schools. Many of the local guys have been specifically targeting yellowfin tuna with these porpoise schools. Most of the tuna caught averaged 30-40 pounds, though we did see one closer to 200 pounds on Friday and heard reports of a handful of big ones lost after long battles.”
Bricston concluded by saying, “A couple of Black Marlin were also hooked in between the inner and outer Gordo on live skipjacks. One of the local boats landed a 350-pound black marlin on Wednesday, a long 4 hour battle on 50 pound test and 120# fluoro leader.
Not a lot of reports coming from San Luis, Vinorama, or Iman at this time. There is a chance of catching a few bottom fish earlier in the morning while jigging. We saw a 65+ pound amberjack caught at Iman this weekend. Some small dorado were also caught on live caballito.”
La Paz
From Tailhunter Sportfishing in La Paz, Johnathan Roldan admits, “Fishing remains erratically perplexing. It’s now September and we should be knee deep in blue water pelagic species like dorado, billfish, tuna and such. But it’s not like that.
Waters are still cooler than normal, very off-color and dirty instead of the pretty blue waters that we should be enjoying. It’s also been a bit rougher than normal as southern winds keep bumping into us and nothing is as it should be.
We’re having to hunt hard to find the blue water and favorable condition. The captains are working hard chasing the right stuff and guests are being patient. The problem is that every day is different. The locations change. The water changes. What worked yesterday doesn’t necessarily work today. One boat finds fish. The boat next to it can’t get a bite. One boat catches dorado. The other boat only gets cold water species like snapper and triggerfish and cabrilla.
So, I think the fish are as confused as we are. The fishing results are mixed and the species we are finding are mixed. I can’t tell you if you go fishing if you have a better chance at dorado, marlin or needlefish. It’s just that kind of year.”
Roldan finished up his report by saying, “We’ve got a lot of folks coming down to visit in the next few weeks, so hopefully things will get better. We just have to hang in there. We’re doing all we can and wish I had a crystal ball or magic wand. In my 30 years this has been the most frustrating of seasons. But, if you don’t put a line in the water, you definitely won’t catch anything. I just can’t tell you what you’re going to hook up with!”
Upper Cortez
The waters around the Midriff Island have been producing great catches of quality grade yellowtail and hungry dorado, according to the folks at Daggett’s Beach Camp in Bahia de Los Angeles. In addition to those do-do’s and forktails, however, their top-shelf panga captains, Poncho and Mario, have also been able to dredge up some big grouper and cabrilla from the deeper water adjacent to the islands and rocky outcroppings.
Reporting for Tony Reyes Sportfishing out of San Felipe, Tom Ward at Longfin Tackle offers, “We had a lot of happy anglers aboard the “Tony Reyes”, which recently returned from another successful fishing trip in the upper Sea of Cortez.
This trip was sponsored by Cal Star Rods and was led by Martin Downs and everyone onboard enjoyed good weather and fantastic fishing. The final fish count included limits of yellowtail, limits of cabrilla as well as 207 bass, 7 pargo, 1 brown grouper, 4 white seabass, and 1 broomtail grouper.
We still have several months of our ‘extended summer’ left. Now that a lot of the tourists have gone home for the season, now is the time to head south and to take advantage of all of those feisty fish, as well as all of the other wonderful things that Baja has to offer.
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