Sport Fishing Reports

Happy New Year!

Repsilon — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:10:38 +0000

We finished off the year and New Year’s Day with an excellent bit on the north end of the Island jigging up yellowtail to 20#. The bite has slowed off of San Antonio, but I don’t think that it is over. We had one last surprise run of bonita with the boats catching 18 and 33! A lot of great yellowtail up to 17#. My father-in-law and I hit lake Oviache with the guide for a catch of 80 bass, with a dozen 5-6# fish. I guess I’ll make it through winter until the pelagics return.

Feliz Ano!

Bryan

Dec. 23rd

Repsilon — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:02:17 +0000

Still a lot of good yellowtail right out front. We are averaging about 7 a day with 7-16# fish. Looks like a few days of wind, but that should just rejuvinate the fishing. Maybe the Island will start to turn on. We have been getting some jigging in close. I think we lost a corvina or white sea bass of about 15# yesterday, but it will still remain a mystery fish. Happy Holidays to all!

Tight Lines,

Bryan

Dec. 17th report

Repsilon — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:37:49 +0000

The yellowtail off of San Antonio are into the mid-teens#. The bite seems to be just for a couple hours in the morning, but that’s good enough to get a handful of fish. The water is cool, so I think that the Sierra and Bonita are gone. Sounds like the bottomfishing is decent. Some good reports are coming from the Island for larger fish.

tight lines,

Bryan

Post-turkey report

Repsilon — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:10:23 +0000

A few people managed to make it through the cartels to enjoy Thanksgiving week in San Carlos. Actually they all made it through. A few are waiting at the stops these days, but just be patient and let them do their jobs. I’ve never had a problem or much of a wait, but I just be friendly, try to understand their questions (thankfully I can, and can choose not to when I have stuff to get through), and let them do their job. I’ve never ran across a bad attitude, probably because I don’t bring one. I’ve never been hassled and I even never have had to pay any importation costs. I’ve even got trailors across without good paperwork … although don’t try that these days. They are asking for deposits on toys and trailors too, so just come down and charter.
We tried the Island on Thanksgiving with no luck. I think that afternoons are the time. The fishing has been a little off and on off of San Antonio, but have been finding some large sierra, some bonita, and small to medium-sized yellowtail. Sounded like the action had picked up at the Island yesterday. Time to go hit the bass look soon if I can!

tight lines,

Bryan

Nov. 20th report

Repsilon — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:56:16 +0000

I think we’ve had a few runs of sierra, but today was the first time that I really caught them. Some nice fish to 7#. Big chompers! We caught one 14# yellowtail in close which was a nice surprise. The water was a little warmer. Tons of bait around. They did well on all species yesterday off of San Antonio. They saw them today, just didn’t connect. We landed one big tail yesterday at the Island. A few small ones and missed a few. Still some good bonita there. The barracuda were thick. The bait was everywhere with thousands of birds working. There was a great afternoon bite for big tail the previous days. One friend went to Loreto for the break down there. It is getting closer but the wind is coming tomorrow. We got over to Tortuga to catch the last couple of dorado. A couple cabrilla at Tortuga and three huge tails at San Marcos. The town of Santa Rosalia was bustling with the mines all open. Wish it was still summer. We’ll see what my friend brings back. Big bass fishing tournament this week. Will be down there soon as the fishing there sounds off the hook.

tight lines,

Bryan

Nov. 10th – the yellowtail are in

Repsilon — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:00:47 +0000

We were out this morning for a few hours being the only boat out there. The yellowtail are up to 17# and were boiling good on the surface for an hour or so. We caught a cooler full. The water is down to 64 and it seems that the sierra and bonita are thinner. We caught a few dorado at the Island on Monday, and they may have been the last. We brought six to the boat on Sunday and had a marlin trailing the bait for 25 seconds but didn’t take. Things have cooled off 15 degrees in the last ten days and that killed off the blue water. It does look to be clearing up and the water is still 75 on the other side and 77 to the south, so we will need to make a run to see any more pelagics this year. Keeping busy and catching fish though.

tight lines,

Bryan

Oct. 30th report

Repsilon — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:19:16 +0000

The guys are out fishing at the moment, so we’ll see if the lighter winds allow them to find some more fish today. We caught three med. sized bulls yesterday in not too much time. I think we may see a good run of nice dorado here. Things are changing quickly. The bonita were biting at San Antonio yesterday and the Island is full of them. We only caught two this morning. I’m sure that there are some nice sierra in close. We caught some great cabrilla at Tortuga mid-week. We caught two 40# tuna on the way over and one on the way back. Guys on the 180 were getting nice tuna to 70#. The wind may have the fish hunkered down but I think we’ll still see a good run here. We read 79 yesterday, but Terrafin showed 81. The tides are kicking water to 71 degrees up against the shore. I think that will just incite the bait and create some good temperature breaks. Not too happy about the wind killing off the blue water, but we caught tuna in the green and it is all about the bait. Just wish the wind would stop. I want another month or more of warm water fishing. I’m sure that the yellowtail will be showing at the Island. We had beautiful glass calm conditions, shirts off, and 83.5 degree water on the way to Tortuga last Tuesday. The best fishing is on this side at the moment though.

tight lines,

Bryan

Big tuna!

Repsilon — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:10:17 +0000

Things are trying to change but we are still seeing 83-85 degree water out of San Carlos. The northwest winds are blowing more consistently though with a strong front predicted for Thursday. We might see a rapid cooling and the last of the blue blue water here by next week. The air temps have been warm at times and we had humid air, winds, and waves from the south. There were even a few thunderstorms lingering over the mountains.
The news on the fishing front is big tuna. Most of us just got to gaze in wonder at the fish jumping, but some catches of up to seven were had. I haven’t heard of any over 100# landed lately, but there are a few stories of big tuna and marlin lost. Most of the fish are nice 40-60# bruisers. They will put a hurt on even the strongest. A lot of times you would see them jumping or boiling right up until you got to them. Some even had them all around the boat without hooking up. It’s a lot of being in the right place at the right time. It seemed that a couple dozen boats were all within a few miles of each other on Saturday as tuna fever hit a peak.
Some larger dorado are being caught, but for the most part they are still thin in number. The billfish too have been scarce, but maybe there are better concentrations on the reef. The water is still plenty warm, but we may start seeing them group up for the migration out of here, as well as seeing more fish tailing on the surface. Good numbers of dorado could start to be found at anytime too.
Inshore my friend was having tons of success with fun smaller fish on light tackle off of the kayak. He had one battle last a half hour though before the fish won. There are lots of Sierra around. With some cooler water we will probably see the bonita, sierra, and yellowtail make a strong run with all the bait out there. For the moment though, most all we can dream about is big tuna steaks.

Tight Lines,

Bryan

We won the Cup!!!!!!!!!

Repsilon — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:36:36 +0000

Well there’s the Stanley Cup, the Davis Cup, the World Cup … I could car less about them. We won the Cantina Cup. Sure, maybe a little easier to do so, but it was a good win. My dorado made the min. weight of 15# at 15.0# along with my two sails to win me the coveted D&D award. We caught five sails in a close match. The win earns us an invitation to fish the World Championships in Cabo in May. Time to start training.

Great fishing in San Carlos. Arturo was filling the box today with large sierra, bonita, and even a yellowtail. The were catching them today to 35# at the Island. The dorado are plentiful to 15#. Hopefully the big ones will show back up here soon. Plenty of sailfish and marlin. A few tuna are showing. I’m ready to catch one!

tight lines,

Bryan

We’re back.

Repsilon — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:19:50 +0000

Sorry for not being there for awhile. There were several weeks that I never made it out in late August. Nice tuna to 50# were being caught. They were seen today, not sure what size. One boat had 14. A short trip but one sail today. Things look to be cooling down. Lots of charters lined up and lots of fish to be caught.

Missed the Rescate report, but Team Margarita kicked butt with thirteen releases. Second place had seven. We were on fire!

Lisa’s probably ready to be helped with dinner, so here’s a report from yesterday.

Well, I’m back from a few weeks in California and ready for the Fall fishing season. I felt the water today and I think it felt a degree cooler. A chilly 87. It seems like it has been a long warm summer, but I think those cooler currents filled with bait are just waiting to come up again. Reports were slim over the few weeks that I was gone, but the fishing sounded decent. Unfortunately I’ve only heard of a few tuna lately. They should still be around though. Most of the dorado are under 15#, but there are a fair number swimming around. Some of the skipjack are pushing 10# (if only they tasted better). I’ve heard of some sierra, corvina, and barracuda, so some of the ‘Fall fish’ are starting to show. One fish that we have been waiting on all year though are the big marlin.
San Carlos hosted the 2nd Pacifico Light Tournament over the weekend with a whopping 77 boats entered. The fish were seemingly found all over with the boats fairly spread out. Our boat and many others suffered from poor radio reception, and with the conversation in spanish it was a little tough to follow the action. Maybe I just never figured we were ‘in the money’, or I couldn’t keep track of it all. Mainly we just couldn’t stand to listen to the annoying static and noise from our radio, turned it down, and focused on fishing. I had one friend coming down that wanted to fish. He knows his stuff, fishes circle hooks, and I thought we could have a winning team. Unfortunately I think I forgot how to fish after a few weeks off. Either that or my luck ran out. Still, I heard of many fish lost (44 of 137 hook-ups) mid-battle and probably countless bites missed. The fish just weren’t taking the baits too great. My friend flew in the first morning, so that created a little delay as we came back in to pick him up at the dock. Our first fish was lost inches from being released. My mojo just never recovered after that. Out of four or five bites I never had a fish stick and I lost one huge sail that threw the lure after his tenth jump. We ended up with three released fish. I guess you just can’t win them all. That is it seems unless you’re Team Kryptonite. They seem to have arrived from another planet with their string of wins in the last two years. Marlin counted for 200 points and sailfish 100 in this tournament. Kryptonite ended up with seven fish and 1000 points winning a new Mako 18′ with a Mercury 150. Team Telamon (who I usually fish with and almost joined) earned 900 points to win a new Ford 150.
As I returned to stew some more at my wife’s bar after being comped a meal from my friends who took second and were rejoicing, I sat down next to a guy who had the real fish story. A potato farmer from Chihuahua, he came down and chartered a boat for his first time fishing. They hooked a giant Blue Marlin that took a leap and dragged out a five plus hour-long battle. He showed me the video on his phone of the entire team of seven barely hauling in the 14′ beast over the rail. They rejoiced and maybe still are. It didn’t look like you could wipe the grin off his face (maybe also due to the empty Captain Morgan bottle). I’m sure that the story is being told around the state. He was off to see friends and clients in Hermosillo and Obregon over the next few days after resting comfortable at Playa Blanca that night (no poor farmer here). The fish weighed 662#, though I believe he had told me 766#. I’m not sure if that was adding on the 5% weight loss and the dorado and tuna that fell out of its mouth. I’m sure by now that it’s a grander. I’ll have to fish a long time to ever catch one like that. I did hear of one 500# fish released and a few 300-400# marlin lost. It’s time to break out the big guns.
So my report from California: I didn’t get to participate in the legendary bluefin bite off of San Diego or go for albacore farther north. I did get to see the San Francisco Bay at pre-dawn and fish outside the Golden Gate on a perfect day. We missed the incredible salmon bite the day before. We caught rockfish, some lingcod to 12#, three 25″ salmon, and a couple thresher sharks. So I got to eat some different fish which was my main goal. I ran around the Yuba and Feather River near the Sacramento and tied into a few large salmon on light tackle. The Sierras were beautiful but didn’t pan out too great. At least I got to cast my fly in some cool water. A lot of driving, visiting friends and family, a little surfing, hiking, and a lot of swiping of the credit card. I read the reports for months about the great fishing, to where I just couldn’t wait to go. I think I found a lot of ‘you should have been here yesterday’, either that or they just always lie in those fishing reports. We all know though not to believe everything that a fisherman says, right?