In a typical summer in August, there are few places where the fish are not biting – on the surface, mid-depth, or bottom. There are usually plenty of fish to catch. Several areas that recently have had little to report were San Quintín, San Felipe, and Gonzaga Bay.
Coronado Islands / Rockpile
There is much tougher yellowtail fishing now than just a few days ago. Many that were around the Islands have left for another location. That said, they haven’t completely gone either. You just have to work harder for them.
There are signs of deep-water yellows off sonar marks in 150 to 200 feet of water along the weather side of North Island and off to the SW of South Island. Plus, some yellows are still running the Ridge through the Middle Grounds to the Gun Site—the key word here: SOME. There is not nearly the volume that was there. (They are biting yoyo iron).
The water around the Islands rolled over, and the temperatures dropped to the mid-60s. It had been up as high as 71.
There are a few signs of some small bluefin in the lee of South Island out by the Tuna Pens. Barracuda are at Ribbon Kelp, and some are at the Lighthouse Kelp. Anglers should be able to score a few on surface iron at both places.
Calico bass are biting in the boiler rocks at Middle Island, and lastly, there is a good triggerfish bite happening on rockpiles scattered around Middle Island. …Fish Dope
Ensenada
August is a great time to target Striped Marlin as they tend to show up closer to shore. Additional key species should include skipjack, yellowfin, and bluefin tuna.
Bahía de Los Ángeles
Although it’s Hot! Hot! Hot! The local favorites, yellowtail, and grouper, have been joined by the incoming dorado, which are almost always a special summer treat.
Cedros Island
In addition to yellowtail, other species include calico, sheepshead, halibut, bass, and white fish.
The descriptions of the effectiveness of what they bite (on the surface) have been in this order: yoyo, trolling rapalas, and live bait.
Guerrero Negro
There is an exceptionally good bite of yellowtail, jacks, and grouper. The weather has been good – a bit hot, but good.
Loreto
It was such a good weekend on the water. Feathers, plus live mackerel on Punta Lobos and Lágrimas, helped catch and release a couple of black marlin. The biggest dorado was 36 pounds. It looks like the dorado are starting to approach the Islands, and August will be better.
Lopez Mateos
We were fishing outside Lopez Mateos with Ruben Duran. After a 4:00 a.m. launch, we found nothing on the Ridge except a few nuisance dorado. The day was salvaged, however, by a terrific yellowfin tuna bite on the way back to Boca de Soledad. In an hour and a half or so, we caught our limits, mostly on double hook-ups.
The biggest fish was the 59-pounder Ruben is holding in the photo. The others were primarily in the 30s and 40s.
La Paz and Muertos Bay
The weather is all over the place. It’s hot in the afternoons…blazing hot! But it’s not as hot as usual. Mornings and nights can be cool or hot and humid. It’s different every day. It can also be windy and breezy; sometimes, there’s not even a whisper of wind.
The water is like the weather – and directly related! Warm surface water and blue clear conditions or cold, green, dirty water a few yards away. Waters can be flat, calm, and, an hour later, bumpy.
Fish hooked recently were dorado, marlin, sailfish, bonito, tiny tuna, jack crevalle, yellowtail, amberjack, pompano, trevally, pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, and shark!
Gordo Banks
Some boats focused part of the early morning on fishing the bottom at the inner Gordo. However, most fleets concentrated on the inner and outer Gordos as we saw more surface and bait activity with many tournament boats fishing in this area. Anglers also spotted a few larger marlin in the surrounding areas.
Boats landed a handful of big dogtooth snapper on drifting strips of skipjack. A couple of these fish surpassed the 60-pound mark. Some captains reported losing many more as they couldn’t stop them from getting into the rock structures. Other boats reported similar snapper activity at Vinorama and Iman Bank. There is a good chance of picking some quality red snapper and amberjack with jigs at Iman Bank earlier in the morning.
If bottom action slowed on some days, the boats started trolling marlin lures and rigged Ballyhoo to target dorado and striped marlin. We are seeing more quality-sized dorado, though the numbers remain low. The striped marlin bite seems to have settled down compared to previous weeks. Many blue marlin were hooked throughout these areas, though most were under 200 pounds. A few boats reported wahoo strikes while looking for marlin and dorado. One local pangero landed a nice 50-pound wahoo on a marlin lure this weekend.
A few private boats continued to look for the schools of porpoise 35 to 50 miles offshore. Even though this activity has slowed down significantly, some of these boats were able to find the larger yellowfin. Most of the yellowfin were over 80 pounds.
It is now late in the season for roosterfish, though we are still seeing a few nice ones throughout our shorelines. Some boats also report seeing schools of big Spanish mackerel (Sierra) while fishing with live sardina later in the day.
Cabo San Lucas
Summer has settled in for our Pisces fleet. Everything seemed just a tad sluggish, with the fish moving around the many banks surrounding Baja’s tip. However, the teams were up to the challenge, and the variety remained consistent, although the count dropped slightly. Recent fishing featured blue and striped marlin, sailfish, yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, silky shark, roosterfish, jack crevalle, skipjack, and needlefish, spread over various locations from the 95, the 1150 Spot, the Cabrillo, the Herradura, 17 miles outside of the Lighthouse, and 20 miles from the 190 Spot, as well as the Migriño, and 18 miles outside the Hill with consistent weather featuring clear skies, calm seas, waves from five to six feet high, and wind at 10 to 12 knots. The water temperature has varied from 74 to 82 degrees, and the air has varied from 78 to 84 degrees. Judging by the increased number of locations, it is safe to say the conditions were a bit different than in preceding weeks.
It’s also safe to say that this should be a season of some of the best we have had in many years. The locations on both sides of the Peninsula are producing as they haven’t for a long time. The old-timers watch in amazement as multiple billfish are repeatedly hooked and released.
And what is wrong with this picture? The dorado seem to stay low, and the few that show up are mostly smaller.
But if a billfish is on your bucket list, now is the time to head to any of the Baja Sur locations.
Gary Graham
That Baja Guy
thatbajaguy@gmail.com
With more than five decades of fishing experience – from light tackle and fly to offshore billfish – Gary Graham has experienced all aspects of fishing in the Southern California and Baja waters. His observations of species behavior, tackle and techniques are always from his unique perspective, earning him the respect of his peers as well as anglers who eagerly follow his Baja reports and features.
Gary maintained a home at East Cape in Baja Sur for more than 18 years and still spends nearly half of each year exploring the entire peninsula in his self-contained Roadtrek van. He observes everything Baja, from the mysteries of a tide pool on a deserted Baja beach filled with tiny sea creatures to the largest billfish in the sea.