LOTS OF SPOTTED BAY BASS AND SOME SNAPPERS
CAUGHT WHILE SHORE FISHING AT BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES

Dec. 31, 2005, Sam Koh, Bahia de los Angeles (L.A. Bay), Baja California, Mexico:

My wife Shanie and I went to Bahia de los Angeles (L.A. Bay) from Dec. 27-30 and scored on endless amounts of cabrilla and even a handful of red snappers right from shore!

Along with the shore fish, my friend John and I caught 6 yellowtail in the 25-35 pound range and one grouper in the 15 pound range.

Concerning the Bahia de los Angeles shore fishing, the snappers and cabrilla (spotted bay bass) were coming into shore at the tidal push and there was fish activity everywhere. The ticket to getting bit was light line, small hook and a small strip of squid.

The night was very calm with no winds on the particular night we caught the snappers.

The next day at break, we went out to sea on the hunt for some hard fighting yellowtail.

The first fishing day, the Bahia de los Angeles winds were so strong we abandoned our try for the yellowtail. The yellows were at the main island, Isla Angel de la Guarda, but because of the winds we went to check out some lingcod spots and the bite was wide open.

The lings here have a round bulbous head and were quite ugly. It does not look like its other ugly cousin out in the Pacific. I wish I would have taken a picture but just thought nah...too ugly.

Then the next fishing day, with the Bahia de los Angeles winds looking favorable in the morning, I headed out with my friend chef John to the main island.

This time came forth completely different conditions. It was wide open yellowtail off the bottom about 100 feet using live caballitos. Every drift into the area where the yellowtail were hanging out, you drop your bait and BENDO. I mean literally, every drift. They fought like mad and did everything they could to get off the hook including violent head shakes long runs, etc.

I was using 40 pound gear at first, then changed to 50, then to 60 and still two fish were able to break me off using 60! The yellows were going right into the rocks.

When the morning was over, we had a cooler chest hold of 6 yellows and 1 grouper. Not a bad start for a day and so we decided to enjoy the rest of the day to sip apple cider on our porch and headed back to our lazy cabanas at around 11:30 a.m. How's that for a day of fishing! Go out early, take care of business and in our cabins eating our yellowtail sashimi within three hours of catching them. AWESOME.

Bahia de los Angeles road conditions are great. There is gas in town and the weather was real nice in the high 70's and low 80's when we were there.