Photo by Ivan Villarino
Banda Yellows – Solana Beach residents, Scott (left) and Dennis Cramer, show off a couple of the nice yellowtail taken last weekend on a Vonny’s Fleet panga with Capt. Hector Zamora.

Despite the fact that a menacing bloom of red tide moved in and out along the Baja coast over the past week or so, Vonny’s Fleet pangas continued to take a seasonal mix of calicos, barracuda and the usual bottom dwellers.

Say’s owner Ivan Villarino, “The yellowtail are biting again, and the barracuda action has been very good some days. But those looking for quality bottom fishing won’t be disappointed either; we’ve taken several of those big green lingcod recently as well.”

Photo courtesy of Gordo Banks Pangas
Good Eats – Another fat red snapper, also known as ‘huachinango’, finds itself headed for the dinner table.

Although water conditions are not quite up to seasonal expectations yet, both red and yellowtail snapper have been eagerly inhaling the baits of those fishing inshore off San Jose del Cabo.

Explained Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas, “Although last week marked the official start of the summer season, you sure would think it was more like winter or early spring by the way the local ocean conditions were. Persistent southern winds pushed in chilly Pacific currents, reaching as far as Los Frailes and this dropped water temperatures to the mid 60s, with a break of 72 degree plus water being found some twenty plus miles offshore.

“Live bait remained plentiful, with sardinas, mullet and caballito all available. It was hard to believe the weather forecast from day to day, they would predict light winds and then on the same day the south wind would kick up to nearly 25 mph.

“The cruiser fleet found that their best chance was to head straight out from Cabo San Lucas and Chileno, anywhere from 20 to 40 miles offshore, this is where they found cleaner blue water of 74 degrees and a mix of striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna. Often times the striped marlin that were found had lockjaw, but with persistence some of them did bite. Dorado were not numerous, but some very nice-sized fish were accounted for, with reports of bulls weighing 30 to 60 lbs. striking on trolled lures. Yellowfin tuna continued to be scarce, but some schools of football-sized fish were encountered further offshore traveling with porpoise.”

The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 73 panga charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of: three striped marlin, two dorado, two mako sharks, nine dogtooth snapper, 31 pargo colorado, 124 yellowtail snapper, 15 cabrilla, 11 pompano, 17 amberjack, 18 roosterfish, 22 sierra, 19 jack crevalle, 25 Mexican bonito, 32 triggerfish and four halibut.

Courtesy of Michael Kanzler
San Marcos Yellow – Carlos Garces with a sweet Isla San Marcos homeguard yellowtail.

From Isla San Marcos Sportfishing out of El Rosario, ‘Kid Jurel’ Michael Kanzler reported, “After the first day of summer arrived, the sizzling hot fishing continued on through the week. Hot and getting hotter is the story down here, the mercury keeps rising, and it’s been a bit of the ‘ups and downs’ with humidity; few days were very dry, and now we’re back to the steam bath effect.

“One day last week, we started with full tanks of bait that we took off San Lucas cove in a matter of minutes and found fish chewing at the ‘twin bajo’ spot, which sits in 190-230 ft. of water. We ended up our morning with a total of five nice yellowtail in the 24- to 30-lb. class that were all caught with live bait on sliding sinker rigs.

“On another trip, we took a quick offshore run 5 to 7 miles outside to do a little paddy hopping. We baited and hooked a fining sailfish in the 60- to 70-lb. class, which put on one heck of a tail walk around the boat. After releasing the fish and heading back to the landing, we ran across some other paddies and saw the electric blue and green fins of dorado swimming everywhere. We caught and released most of them, but kept a couple of the 12- to 15-lb. bulls for lunch.”

Courtesy of Tailhunter International
Paz Pargo – This colorful pargo is just one of many gamefish recently available to anglers visiting the La Paz region.

Jonathan Roldan of Tailhunter International in La Paz reported, “Some folks who fished down here this past week might tell you that fishing was not very good. But, I gotta tell you, not many of them were our folks. We did pretty well. It wasn’t wide open and if you fished few days with us, there were some rough spots. Winds came back, getting bait was a little tough and there were a few periods of slow fishing. If you went out with us a few days, you went home with fish. You might have an off-day, but overall there was some great fishing in between and our anglers got fish.

“The winds came back up again and turned the waters off-color and cooler and made some mornings bumpy, but if you had a bait in the water you probably got bit. We still have a lot of variety around the south end of Cerralvo, Punta Arenas and Punta Perrico. Generally these are the areas where the water was calmer although some mornings there were late starts until you could get enough bait.”

Roldan continued, “Wahoo continued to tease with a few fish caught every other day or so. People would crash the areas and scatter the fish then take a few days for the area to re-load. Dorado could show up at anytime and anyplace. Generally, many of the dorado from Las Arenas were the larger variety especially if you were fishing the buoys.

“Marlin are rather abundant. Some boats got multiple hook-ups daily, as many of the billfish are starting to finally warm up to the idea of eating a bait and are also actively eating all the small dorado in the area.

“Inshore species like roosterfish are still around, although not many are being caught as anglers have turned their focus more towards the better eating fish like dorado and wahoo. Still, any of the sandy beach areas could hold pez gallo if you throw a handful of bait and watched the combs explode. In the same area, jacks and pompano are also being caught, as well as amberjack up to 50 and 60 lbs. and more pargo, along with a smattering of small yellowfin tuna, which popped up in the middle of the bonito and skipjack schools.”