The recent Atmospheric River chatter and an unusual amount of rain on the West Coast have been impressive. However, for the most part, the rains only went as far down the peninsula as Bahia de Los Angeles.
Imperial Beach Pier
The sand bass at the Imperial Beach Pipe are still biting, with the afternoon being the best time, and the “knocker rig,” along with a whole fresh dead squid, being the best bait. The “knocker rig” is a ¾-oz. slider on the line ahead of a 1.5- to 2-oz. lead head. The slider and the lead head “knock” against each other, making a sound that appears to attract the bass and sculpin.
Hook up the bait in green sardine or mint blue, and cast them out as far as you can, then just dead stick it until they bite. Halibut are also showing on the hard sand bottom along the edges of the Pipe.
Coronado Islands / Rock Pile
Yellows have been breezing under birds just to the east of the Island, roughly the Rock Pile area. They are in the 20-pound class, biting surface iron.
As a backup, you can likely load up on rockfish and lingcod at the Rock Pile if the yellows fail to show.
Ensenada
Yellowtail are showing up under birds at times and down 180 to 250 feet at times both in the Punta Banda area and down the beach at Santo Tomas. Yoyo iron is working for the deep fish and surface iron for the yellows under birds.
Don’t throw yoyo iron for surface yellows. The jig is too heavy to swim right. Light jigs are for surface and heavy jigs are for fishing deep.
Local pangas are still reporting big bonito. Some under the birds are biting cast chrome jigs or trolling with feathers and Rapalas.
Rockfish action is also excellent down at Santo Tomas, along with lots of large, quality reds and some lingcod.
San Quintín
Fantastic yellowtail bite for February that should remain through March, depending on the weather.
Bahía de Los Ángeles
Depending on the weather, the action should be great for grouper, rock cod, and trophy-sized yellowtail. Recent visitors reported scrambled-egg yoyo jigs have been the most productive.
Guerrero Negro
Chema Medina is reporting continued action for trophy-sized white sea bass and grouper.
Bahía Asunción
There are plenty of yellowtail in the area according to the locals.
Magdalena Bay (López Mateos)
Lopez Mateos continues to offer inshore action for grouper and prized black snook-on bait. Offshore the striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna are still in the area.
Cabo San Lucas
Recently, we had excellent fishing inshore for sierra and roosterfish. There was a lot of bait and good action early in the mornings, especially for big sierra. Overall, the fishing out of Cabo San Lucas was good.
Offshore the dorado and striped marlin have had extraordinary limits of dorado, and some offshore boats scored multiple releases of billfish in the double digits.
Puerto Los Cabos
The fleet has continued to catch nice-sized tuna at Iman and Punta Gorda. Most of these fish are in the 20 to 30-pound range, with some nicer fish in the mix of up to 60 to 70 pounds. The best action for these fish is around noon. We are using live sardina for the tuna, though the bait supply was limited this week. The bait guys continue to net sardina towards Cabo Real and they head back towards the Marina to supply our boats before they head out.
Dorado action continues to be consistent. We are finding the best action while drifting and trolling live sardina. These dorado tend to swim in big schools, so there is a good chance of hooking more than one at a time. Most of the dorado are nice-sized and we continue to see big bulls in the mix up to 40 pounds.
The sierra bite was also good this week, throughout most of our shoreline. Most of the sierra are caught with live sardina, shiny jigs, or small Rapala. We have also been picking up a few smaller grouper and snapper throughout the shore.
East Cape
The East Cape continues to fish well also. This past week, some nice weather allowed boats to go out. There was steady action for some nice dorado and a few marlin and yellowtail which provided some action as well. A good early morning bite provided some action for sierra, from sunrise until about 7:30 or 8:00 at the lighthouse. After that, the action slowed. There were also a few roosters in the same area as the sierra.
La Paz
Weather: Daytime in the mid-70s and nights in the high 50s. We have had some clouds and rain to go along with the strong winds. The Port Captain had to shut down all boat traffic in La Paz Bay because it was so rough.
Water: If the wind is blowing, the water is going to be rough and off-color. But there’s some strange warm blue water here and there in the 70s holding pelagic species! The fish hooked recently weretuna, dorado, amberjack, yellowtail, billfish, pargo, sierra, bonito, jack crevalle, roosterfish, and cabrilla.
Loreto
As predicted last month, the yellowtail picked up at South Carmen Island, where 35-pounders were being reported that were caught on both live bait and knife jigs that have become so popular.
Bahía Concepción
The locals continue to report a steady bite of yellowtail outside the Bay throughout February. It is anticipated that it should remain steady as Spring arrives, weather permitting.
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.