Santa Rosalia, Mexico: Isla San Marcos Yellowtail Bajos Run Hot And Cold

Jan. 27, 2007, Isla San Marcos, Mike Kanzler, Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

I made it back to Isla San Marcos this Wednesday evening after a month Stateside. It's nice to be back again and yes, get some good winter yellowtail fishing done.

Santa Rosalia fishing area weather was changing to more favorable boating conditions. The weather just been a bear down here this new year 2007.

Word around the San Lucas Cove fishing campfire is windy for most of January. Being in Los Angeles with no rain and one day of snow in Malibu I kind of knew it's been windy down here in Baja.

But it's changing for the better. Santa Rosalia weather since Thursday has been just perfect, with cool mornings down to 45 degrees, cold for here, and afternoon highs in the low 70s with no wind.

The fishing water temperature is also a bit cooler at 59 to 60.5 degrees and the water is clean green with visibility of 40 feet.

It has been tricky to get a fishing pattern going, as it has been in most years that I've fished here.

The fishing has been so off-and-on for my two days of fishing since I got back.

I started fishing on Friday with best friend Alan "Voodoo Lounge" Lewis and my son Michael, called Miguelito by everyone.

The boat was mess. After walking two batteries a quarter-mile I got it started and was late picking up Alan, and even later after gassing up. We were lucky to get any bait at all after that.

We pulled off a tank of Spanish, Bigeye and Mackerel in deep water off a new secret bait area. After that, we headed out to the deep panga bajo off San Marcos Island's northwest side.

While en route, I made a radio call to see what was up. The word was some bites, fish lost, saw another boat gaff one, and so on. Things were looking promising.

Once we got close enough, I could see the fleet of pangas and sport boats stacked up on the bajo.

We had wide-open, nonstop fishing action the whole morning and into the afternoon. We could not keep them off. We put 12 yellowtail in the box and lost or missed a few too.

The yellowtail were running in the mid too high 20s with a few 30s here and there. Our best was about 28 pounds or so.

These yellowtails were not on the surface, but near or on the bottom in 190 to 260 feet of water. A slider sinker-rigged live bait was the method of choice for most.

Fish numbers were high on all boats with most in the double digits. I think the lowest count was like 6 or something. After not fishing for a month, I got dropped into the fire big time. Love the pain.

On Saturday, more boats fished after the word got out. And I saw 3 fish caught for 28 Baja boats fishing!! Unbelievable! I never even got bit all day. Alan hung one really deep and got stretched out and rocked. That was it.

It was hard to see any pattern. The current was much slower, almost none. That was the only difference or reason I could see for the shutdown.

With Santa Rosalia weather still holding, the plan is now to try the Isla San Marcos bajos for a couple of hours, and if there are no fish, run for Isla Tortuga island, because no one has in a while. Until next week.

Mexico Fishing Home Page < Santa Rosalia Contents < Report

Copyright ©