La Paz Fishing Report / May 9th
Weather & Bait
Normally May/June are considered transition months. This is when we are between the winter/spring species and the summer Pelagic run. Even though weather and water conditions
are shaping up nicely for the Pelagic’s to make their way up the sea of Cortez the yellowtail are still making a strong showing.
These mossbacks are not in all their normal spots but in the few places they can be found it’s a wide open bite. Also the fish we are catching are post spawn so I feel much better
taking these fish since their baby making business is over.
The water is definitely on the rise 73 degrees and clearing up offshore and around the seamounts. Bait can be easily made at sunrise in the back of the bay. Sardines can be bought
on the west side of the islands.
Fish Talk
This week the yellowtail moved into the bay literally 10 minutes outside the marina. These fish were consistently some of the largest of the year averaging 25lbs with some brutes
tipping the scales at 35lbs.
Almost everybody had their limits and some even returned to the docks by 11am. The best technique was running live mackerel on a down rigger at 70ft, if you weren’t bit in 5
minutes check your bait because something was wrong. If you didn’t have access to a down rigger a 6 oz weight 4 feet above the hook worked as well. You can meter tons of bait
with the yellowtail underneath them.
A few Dorado are being caught around the island near the sargasso paddies. This should continue to improve as the conditions continue to change to our summer pattern. Pitching
sardines around the paddies is your best bet. We did not have any boats go the the south end of Cerralvo as that’s an all day trip with limited fishing time but, I heard the wahoo
activity picked up this week. This is good news as they will start to swim north to punta Norte as the water continues to warm.
Those cow tuna are still poking around. They show up for a day or two then disappear again. I wouldn’t recommend spending time chasing those hogs unless you have a few days
fishing. There’s low hanging fruit way too close to pass up.
A few Almaco Jacks cousins to the AmberJack around the seamounts. This is the season for Pez Fuerte. So far they’ve been on the smaller size 20-30lbs but the 60/80 pounders
won’t be far behind.
Cabrilla and snapper are hanging on the rocky high spots as they also are finishing the spawning season.
A few stripe Marlin have been spotted jumping around the ElBajo and El Charro area. They should start moving in in greater numbers by June.
That’s it for this week. I’ll keep you informed on this epic yellowtail bite. This in itself is reason to go fishing.
Keep the faith
Scotto.
