MORE THAN 100 YELLOWTAIL CAUGHT IN 5-DAY
BAJA FISHING TRIP AT LA BOCANA

Nov. 15, 2005, Chuck Byard, La Bocana, Baja fishing report, Mexico:

I, Rob Smyth, and Vito Cacucciolo from Redding, Calif., spent five days, Nov. 8-12, 2005, fishing the La Bocana area of Baja California's Pacific coast with Juanchys Aguilar.

We found very good yellowtail fishing with fish up to 40 pounds, as well as good Grouper fishing, with Rob Smyth topping the group with one in the 100 pound range. Many of the Yellowtail were small, 5-12 pounds, and were released. We had three days of good Baja fishing conditions followed by a couple of fairly windy days.

We fished in Rob's boat within 6 miles of the mouth of the estuary at La Bocana almost exclusively in the area of the Rocas Ballenas.

We made bait, mackerel, easily 1-2 miles outside the mouth. We fished mostly in 30-40 foot water but some less that 15, and never more than 55 feet in 63-65 degree water!

We mostly used mackerel, fly lining them for Yellows and Grouper.

We also caught Yellowtail on blue and white iron.

We did fish Laguna la Bocana one day trying to escape a rising wind. We used scampis, swimbaits and white feather jigs, catching numerous sand bass and small 2 pound halibut. Juanchys said in a different tide condition we could have caught grouper as well.

It was good to see that Juanchys and the other La Bocana fisherman we met were very conservation conscious. They did not want to keep any fish in Laguna la Bocana as they recognize it as an important spawning area. They also agreed with our desire to release all the small, less than 20-25 pound, Yellows.

Over the course of our 5 days of fishing, we caught 100+ Yellowtail and 4 Grouper that we landed! We hooked several others that liked the rocks more than the boat. We heard reports of Tuna 4-5 miles south of the rocks but we did not venture down for them, preferring to wrestle with the Yellows and Grouper.

Juanchys knows the La Bocana fishing area very well and we can recommend him very highly. Both Juanchys and his brother Joachim are well connected in the area and can help anyone who travels to the area. Make sure your vehicle and boat are prepared for the rough Baja roads as services in the area are quite limited.