Report written by Louie Prieto
After picking up the It’s 4 Reels! at Sundance Marine due to a blown hi pressure pump (2nd time in 2 years) myself, Frank (Pancho) Ochoa and Javier Godinez headed to Ensenada hoping to get offshore to look for the reported albacore off the 220. Well it was killing me that I was missing the Laker game and with 6 minutes left we stopped and caught the disappointing last minutes at Rene’s Sports Bar that sits just before the 2nd toll booth. No comment on what happened to the Lakers last Thursday, just glad they came back Sunday to force a game 6. We arrived at my buddy Roger’s house around 10:30pm.
Friday morning day 1 – Stopped at Mike’s Ensenada bait barge for some real nice sardines. Radio chatter was that the yellowtail were at the north end of Todos Santos Island. When we arrived we saw many boats working the area, trolling, drifting etc and saw a few yellows puddling but nobody seemed to be hooking up. The all decided to head offshore and look for tuna and maybe some yellows on the paddies. Along for the ride was a friend of Roger’s named Richard. Water temps varied from 59-60 degrees 2-10 miles outside of the island and gradually climbed and remained in the 63-64 degree range all the way to the Double 220. As soon as we hit the blue water conditions were beautiful with no wind and lots of blue whales:
The first area we decided to scout out was the 475 which lies roughly 36 miles from the Marina Coral. Saw a few paddies which were dry and as continued past the 475 we ran into some beautiful blue water with lots of kelp paddies. We hit one that produced 4 yellows, They went 2,8,11 and 14 lbs.:
Here’s Pancho with his 14 lber:
Richard with an 8 lber:
Me with an 11lb forky:
After a few minutes of no action we moved to the next one. I was in the tower and spotted a yellow trying to eat one of the chummed sardines we threw at the paddy. Javier was the lucky one to hookup and here is day 1’s 16 lb. jackpot fish:
Bloodydecks on the It’s 4 Reels!:
That would be it for the rest of the day. We hit somewhere between 20-30 paddies but none were holding fish. We did catch a blue shark that was released but other than that nada. Here’s our proof that we were at or near the Double 220:
2nd captain Javier at the helm:
Pancho with the thumbs up to the nice conditions today:
Not the most productive of days but I love blue water fishing. Spoke to Tail Chaser at the Marina Coral docks and they had a tougher time than we did. Good to meet you guys. Hope you made it back to SD safe.
Day 2-Wind and swell up so we decided to fish the island. Heard lots of reports from the local Ensenada captains. Some were claiming bonito in the channel between the island and Pta. Banda other were saying barracuda closer to shore by Sauzal lots of boats slow trolling the north end of the island. Didn’t see one fish landed. Worked a reef on the backside that has produced ling cod in the past. Plenty of small lings with an occasional 5-7 lber and also pulled in a few reds. I got smoked and rocked on a dropper loop and sardine. Felt like a nice yellow but it was over in 10 seconds. Drifted some hi spots in the channel between the island and Pta. Banda for some salmon grouper. We used the drift sock for most of the morning to slow us down. Headed to an area of Punta Banda around noon time to fish the boiler rocks that had produced some quality calicos 2 weeks ago. Pancho managed 1 fish. It’s all about conditions, and they were not good today. Moved to an area just north of the 3 sister’s area and had a steady bite of sand and calico bass, a lone bonito and a big mystery fish that nearly spooled Pancho. The fish hit in 20 feet of water and headed straight for the shoreline. Almost spooled him on 15 lb test. Here I am with my day 2 JP bonito and a sandy caught on the very next cast:
Most of the bass were caught on the plastics with clear with red flake being the best color although we caught many fish on other colors as well. Another great day on the water. Javier and Pancho at the fillet table ready to put the knife to the many fish we caught today:
Another excellent trip with no problems to report. Can’t wait to get back when the offshore bite really starts to go off.
It's 4 Reels! - Parker 23
Forever!)
Linear Mode
