L.A. BAY PANGAS DO WELL IN FISHING AT ISLA HORSEHEAD

July 13, 2005, Tim Moore, Go Baja, Bahia de los Angeles group fishing trip, Baja California, Mexico:

A five person charter fished with Go Baja at Bahia de los Angeles (L.A. Bay) from 7/8 to 7/12. I joined one of the anglers since I had hoped to have two people per panga and had three pangas chartered. We fished out of Casa Diaz with Henry Kim of Pomona, David Shanor of Hesperia, Gary Cyr of Pomona, Dave Scales of Fontana, and Steve Marlett of Redondo Beach.

The air temperature in Bahia de los Angeles was 115 degrees on Saturday the 10th and kept the bait running deep as well as the yellowtail.

Bait was made early in the morning out at Caballo Island, or Isla Horsehead, and consisted mostly of baby mackerel and weak sardines.

The fishing action started on the eastern side of Horsehead island and though not wide open, was steady all day which filled the pangas to capacity.

Since I joined one of the anglers, the total catch for the day for six anglers was 40 yellowtail with one bit off by a seal, two gulf lings, two calico bass and 4 barracudas.

At the fish cleaning station there was an excited buzz about the biggest fish caught that day at Smith island, an 82 lb yellowtail.

Fishing on Sunday the 11th, lots of good strong bait was made and the race was on to Smith Island to try and catch another monster yellowtail. The bite started out strong with lots of yellows in the 25 lb range coming up but no monsters other than a 13 lb cabrilla caught by myself.

After the bite came to an end, everyone left for Caballo Island to try for a repeat of the day before but the bite was elusive so some of the boats headed south to Punta Soledad with no luck there either.

The panga with Dave Shanor and Henry Kim headed back to Smith Island for one more try at a monster and both came up a jackpot. Henry landed a 40 lb grouper and Dave Shanor a 60 lb yellowtail. Out of six anglers 15 yellowtail, 5 barracuda and 1 grouper were caught on Sunday.

The scale used belonged to Casa Diaz and is next to the bait cleaning station they have set up. Sammy Diaz checks the weight himself. I don't know how often he calibrates his scale but it is a commercial spring type scale.