Hi Everyone. Spring has really sprung around here but, unlike the saying goes, the grass ain't 'riz' and there are only a few of the "glamor" fish around. The yellowtail seem to have headed south for cooler waters and the dorado have yet to arrive because our waters are still a bit too cool to suit them. The water is in the high 60's now and is clearing up as the blustery days are becoming fewer and less frequent.

Some of the guys that are venturing as far south as Punta Theresa and Isla San Ildefonso are picking up some 'tails but not in the numbers we
found in February. Guides Alejandro and Mateo both are reporting fewer fish but they are scoring mainly on live bait fished deep. One of our local Mulege boats ran into a raging boil on top down by Punta Theresa during the week and the group pulled seven 'tails out before the action quit. Some of the other guys managed a few baby 'tails in the 5-8 lb. size from Santa Inez waters. Dustin Brown took some of his friends to Ildefonso during the week and picked up a few cabrilla but no 'tails. Dustin's been using some new Magnum lures and has some pretty impressive numbers to bolster his claim that the lures really work well here.

Marty Robison has been griping (well, maybe 'hinting' is a better word) that fishing needs to improve a bit before he'll be happy but Marty has been landing his share of cabrilla and a yellowtail or two when he runs into one that wants to commit suicide! Marty can usually be found trolling near Santa Inez.

Manuel Diaz, Jr., my fishing partner in the MCT fishing derby is a commercial fisherman who uses an interesting technique to boat his fish. Manuel and his two fishing partners use a net to enclose the fish, usually cabrilla and snapper types. Manuel then goes into the water and spears only the ones they want to harvest and then they release the rest. Using such a method, Manuel is very familiar with where the larger cabrilla are. He has been keeping me up to date on their whereabouts and I can verify that there are plenty of larger cabrilla and snapper around. I can't divulge where Manuel does his fishing but suffice it to say that just about any of the "normal" spots where cabrilla and snapper might be expected to be found will be found. Try any rocky point or any of the many reefs in the area and you'll probably keep the skunk off the boat. Manuel did suggest using a larger white hoochie-type lure as close to the rocks as you dare. He said that in cloudy water, this squid imitation is a killer. I'll have to agree. It's been working for me. Also working is my standby 6" broken-back orange & yellow Rapala. This mid-sized lure is a killer, especially when slow-trolled in less that 20 feet of water. I'm going to try using it with a Pink Lady ahead of it on some of the deeper reefs. I figure if it works shallow, it'll work deep just as well.

For you Concepcion Bay fishermen, try Frijol Reef for red and dog snappers right now. The big boys are in and feeding readily on the numerous sardines that are hanging out in the area. P.S. The reef is mis-marked on the charts!

That's all folks. Sea you next week.

Rick:

I saw your post recently on one of the California kayak fishing forums (either Spike's site or Jim's) and was very interested (and appreciative). My buddy and I are planning a kayak fishing trip to the Sea of Cortez... probably July or August... and we've been scouring for all of the information we can find.

I got the book Baja Catch and it has a lot of great info. However, it's also doing a great job of scaring the crap out of us and confusing us. The original plan was to hit Bahia de Los Angeles for a couple of days and try and nail a few Yellowtail. Then we were going to round out the rest of the week around Mulege (give or take 50 miles or so on any given day). My buddy wants YT, and my dream is Dorado. Per what I'm reading, it sounds like the YT won't come down as far as Mulege that time of year, hence the two destinations.

However, the more I read about L.A., the more I'm put off by the 1) wind; 2) distances you have to trek to reach the decent YT grounds (remember, we're in kayaks); 3) freaky currents (again, kayaks) and 4) the heat.

Mulege, on the other hand, sounds a little more temperate (might just be bad communication on the part of the writers) during the summer (i.e. highs in the 90's), and the weather sounds a little more mild in terms of the wind as well, especially with Concepcion as a refuge. For the dream target, I was thinking we could drive down to San Nicholas / San Sebastian. It seems the fish (Dorado, Yellow Fin Tuna) come in much closer to shore, especially North of San Sebastian and generally throughout the entire bay. In the event we run into weather, it seems like a safer bet to be closer to safe harbor, and the fishing, especially for Dorado, just sounds more wide open down there.

If you could give us your thoughts on the 3 areas (L.A. / Mulege / San Nicholas) for targets like Dorado, YT, YFT and other smaller but fun species like Grouper, but from the perspective of kayak accessisbility to those game fish, it would be greatly appreciated.

We've also considered hiring a panga to maybe drag the yaks to good grounds, and then to pick us up later in the day. If you think that would be a viable option, your thoughts would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott Frost & Neal Peskin