Some nice Yellowtail caught at the Coronado Islands on surface iron
Baja, Mexico
Species: California Yellowtail, Calico Bass
April 2016
My friend Gary and I were supposed to go to Aitutaki to fish, but a storm prevented the trip. I suggested he come down to Southern California and we would try to go down south and find some fish. We drove down to San Diego first and hopped on some party boats. We fished the Coronado Islands in Baja both days. There were yellows around but they would pop up and quickly go down. Big sportboats are not ideal for run and gun fishing, so we would chase the birds and get a fish or two on iron and then they would sink out. They did bite a bit better in the afternoon and we had longer stops right at the end of both days. The captain and crew were great and worked hard to put us on fish and we scratched out a few. My friend Gary got a yellow on the surface iron the first day and two on yo-yo right at the end of the second day. I didn't do all that well, getting a decent lingcod on a jig the first day and a yellow on a surface iron the second.
San Diego fishing was a little scratchy, so my friend Gary and I decided to drive down to SQ and see if we could find some fish. We went with Capt Juan Cook, who really has it dialed in down there. The first day we had beautiful weather but the yellows weren't very active. We managed to troll up two but didn't see much activity and couldn't get any on yo-yo jigs so we went to San Martin Island for Calicos. Using a mixture of plastics and stickbaits cast tight against the rocks we were able to pick off some quality fish.
Species: California Yellowtail, Calico Bass
April 2016
My friend Gary and I were supposed to go to Aitutaki to fish, but a storm prevented the trip. I suggested he come down to Southern California and we would try to go down south and find some fish. We drove down to San Diego first and hopped on some party boats. We fished the Coronado Islands in Baja both days. There were yellows around but they would pop up and quickly go down. Big sportboats are not ideal for run and gun fishing, so we would chase the birds and get a fish or two on iron and then they would sink out. They did bite a bit better in the afternoon and we had longer stops right at the end of both days. The captain and crew were great and worked hard to put us on fish and we scratched out a few. My friend Gary got a yellow on the surface iron the first day and two on yo-yo right at the end of the second day. I didn't do all that well, getting a decent lingcod on a jig the first day and a yellow on a surface iron the second.
San Diego fishing was a little scratchy, so my friend Gary and I decided to drive down to SQ and see if we could find some fish. We went with Capt Juan Cook, who really has it dialed in down there. The first day we had beautiful weather but the yellows weren't very active. We managed to troll up two but didn't see much activity and couldn't get any on yo-yo jigs so we went to San Martin Island for Calicos. Using a mixture of plastics and stickbaits cast tight against the rocks we were able to pick off some quality fish.
Our two day 1 Yellowtail
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Big Calico on a stickbait
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The biggest Calico of the trip, caught on a Big Hammer plastic
The second day the weather was extremely rough and getting out to the bank felt like being in a washing machine. However, the yellows were really active. Trolling through bird schools produced 10 yellows. We cast a lot of iron through boiling fish but only managed two that way. We could have trolled up as many as we wanted but we decided to leave them biting and try for some more hefty Calicos. We were able to stick a couple more on orange Big Hammers in the lee of the island where we didn't get beat up as much. Solid fishing, especially for April. Had some very tasty steaks at Jardines.
Some of our Yellowtail for the morning. It was calm in the lee of the island where we took this picture, but it was really rough out where these yellows were
A solid day 2 Calico
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Another good sized Calico for the author. Different coloration than the others
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A solid swimbait Calico for Gary