Winter is the slow season in Baja for fishing. Dorado are scarce, we haven’t seen one.
There were rumors of Wahoo back near La Paz. We had a visit from a marlin, but nobody’s fishing for them, mine I caught on the outside. All the charts call for yellowtail, but in Barriles the word was you had to fish deep with mackrel bait, like 200 feet. We heard that again at Punta Chivato, though here the suggestion was to jig with “iron” if you didn’t have bait. We trolled a lot on the way up from La Paz, but the only thing we caught were a couple small either bonita or skipjack, I can’t really say; I know the difference, yet. We don’t keep bonita, after one in Southern CA turned out to be a little… iron rich, shall we say.
Always, birds diving in a frenzy, means big fish have pushed up the bait. We caught two Jack Crevalle in Caleta Partida chasing the birds by casting with a spoon. We were hoping for yellowtail — cuz they’re yummy.
Finally, at Isla Estanque as we were heading out, bound for Bahia de Los Angeles, we got into a bird frenzy that kept going long enough to make a few passes. We picked up a yellowtail on a trolled “Wahoo Bomb” each time we went through. Diana who was at the helm, cheerily pointed out that at three fish we already had plenty to eat… so we were done right? Hard for me to admit, but the birds had calmed down anyway, so it really was time.
Diana made sushi for dinner… inside out rolls, with cucumber, carrot and pasilla chili. Each roll a little better than the last.
That really put us on the hunt for yellowtail. After riding out the cold front/norther (gusts to 39 knots) at Puerto Don Juan, we anchored at the picturesque Esta Ton on the west side of Isla Angel de la Guardia. The promised SW wind had not really materialized in the morning when we left, so we planned to hunt for fish with the fish finder sonar until we got a breeze while trying out the downrigger to troll as deep as we could.
Nothing on the troll, but we found a nice point with at least 2 knots of current swirling passed like a river and marked a waypoint with lots of “targets” from 200 feet to 150 down. It took some maneuvering to get Allora on the right drift, but the first time we really thought we had it right, I dropped and somewhere down there in the briny deep, it felt like it hit and then stuck on the bottom. I pulled hard and it didn’t move. It was a brand new lure (just purchased in Bahia de Los Angeles), and I couldn’t imagine how we’d get it unstuck in this heavy ocean current. Then the fish pulled hard. It fought for a while, putting a nice bend in the pole and then seemed almost to give up. I worried that I lost it, reeling madly until it turned away again and there was no doubt I hadn’t. Still, coming from the depths you never know what you’re in for. Anyway, this was a much bigger yellowtail than the three at Estanque. Again, Diana pointed out that we had a long way to sail, and the wind was coming up and we had plenty for dinner.
Since I have two of those jigs, I’m planning to bend the barb down on one, so I can keep fishing next time. We had one night of sushi and a lunch and dinner of filets from that yummy yellowtail. It’s the perfect fish for a converted trout fisherman, pretty colors and long shape, very trout-like mouth, with no teeth, and not scaly either. Though I did find out the hard way that they have one very sharp barb on their dorsal fin.