I have fished this area before as outlined in "The Baja Catch"
a number of years ago. I always wanted to return to fish the
beach area the other side of the dunes. Can someone tell me
what time of the year/ conditions are optimum towards catching with seabass from the surf?Bruce R Leech - 4-5-2006 at 06:21 PM
Variety Beach? some of us don't know where that is.David K - 4-5-2006 at 07:10 PM
This is the beach just north of Morro Santo Domingo and Laguna Manuela...
We fished there in the early 1980's and found it to be the hottest surf fishing spot in Baja... for croaker and corbina (on the sand shore) and calico
bass (on the rocky shore just south).
We used grunion for bait (captured during a grunion run and frozen).
Here's my mom with a nice corbina and my dad and I exhausted from fishing and fileting, at Variety Beach...
Photo from Whistler at Variety Beach
David K - 4-5-2006 at 08:16 PM
Whistler asked me to post this showing white sea bass...David K - 4-5-2006 at 09:43 PM
My pleasure Glenn...
I have always considered corbina and the related croaker to be the finest tasting fish one can catch in the surf.
I grew up on the beach in Del Mar where we fished for corbina. Then when we started going to Baja, found them at San Antonio del Mar (west of
Colonet), then when we explored the beaches south of San Felipe in the 60's my dad thought it sure looked like great corbina opportunity... Sure
enough, even without waves, they were biting every time we dropped a line... In the shallow bay that is now called Bahia Santa Maria!
At the time we only heard about corvina being caught around San Felipe (takes lures not bait like the bottom feeding corbina or croaker does).
Difficult names corvina and corbina as the Spanish v and b or so similar. Sometime a u instead of an o is used for the second letter. They are
different fish, both good eating...
Nice Corbina photo from Gene Kira's MexFish.com fish ID page. ..
He calls the Gulf Corvina a 'weakfish' as its primary name...
[Edited on 4-6-2006 by David K]
Variety Beach
Skipjack Joe - 4-6-2006 at 03:51 AM
My only WSB was hooked at Variety Beach and farmed while landing it. That was in December and on a large chrome jig. I believe it was a Kastmaster.
Hooked in the early morning. I understand that fresh squid, several on a hook, is quite effective. That's not to my liking, however. I like to always
keep moving and casting.
There was a guy that lived in a trailer at Laguna Manuela. Ron was his name I think. He tried to take a picture of every white sea bass people caught
from that beach (gringos that is). His wall was lined with snapshots of WSB's. He, on the other hand, was more interested in more consistent game and
fished for spotfin croaker on a good incoming tide. I don't know what happened to him. I haven't seen him in a long time. It's always just too windy
there to make the unloading and loading worthwhile.
Variety Beach
neilm - 4-10-2006 at 11:25 AM
This sounds like a great place to try - only 6 or 8 miles off the highway.... looks like the last mile might be tough, with deep sand.
How the temp. down there in the summer? Does the Pac. coast stay cool, that far south?
Thanks,
Neil
Speaking of Variety Beach
Skipjack Joe - 5-3-2006 at 10:14 AM
It looks like the beach has been kicking out some record surf fish recently. Not sure what a "burrito grunt" is, though. But it's a record ... all
right ... that's all that matters.
Hugh Cobb of Pacific Coast Bait & Tackle at Oceanside said Baja shore angler Harold "Lance" Rigg of El Segundo has apparently scored another
IGFA record for burrito grunt at Morro Santo Domingo on the Baja Pacific coast north of Guerrero Negro. Cobb said that Rigg showed up at the store
with a fish weighed at exactly 10 pounds, caught on a sand crab, that is being submitted to IGFA. Rigg is also holder of the current burrito grunt
record, 9 pounds 11 ounces, set at the same beach just north of the morro, and he also has a spotfin croaker record pending from that beach. "There's
more," Cobb said, "Rigg's pal Mike Inscore of Mar Vista caught a 3-pound, 12-ounce sargo, also on a sand crab, that will undoubtedly go into the
record book. These guys were in a hurry to get home and start filleting, because they also had white seabass they took from the beach."
I believe this is a sargo, however.
[Edited on 5-3-2006 by Skipjack Joe]PabloS - 5-5-2006 at 09:15 PM
Mas, mas!gonetobaja - 5-7-2006 at 02:16 PM
The White Sea Bass are in San Felipe and south right now. I got this one a few weeks ago on a trip to the islands.
It was my first White Sea Bass I have ever got down here and Im still stoked weeks later!
here are some pics.
l used a fast presentation of sharpened spring steel followed by a slow retreive.
Only problem with spearfishing is you scare all of the other ones away when you shoot one. No big deal this one was plenty for me!
I think croakers are great eating too David!!
GTB
Bass
Sharksbaja - 5-7-2006 at 02:51 PM
That guy looks like he's been around the horn a couple times. How deep was he swimming?
Whistler. I use that same set-up for other fish too. That is great for surf fishes, thanks for telling the details.
I may have to try that area, never been there. What's camping there like? Any arroyos? Windy? Mucho personas?Skipjack Joe - 5-7-2006 at 07:29 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by whistler
Oh, I forgot.I doubt if Gene Kira ever caught a white seabass from the surf.
Why do you say that?4baja - 10-28-2008 at 06:22 AM
allso if you can bring a quad set up with pole racks to move up and down the beach and allso around the lighthouse(very loose sand) . allso good
halibut fishing just north of the light house in those coves. the old guy that lived in the fish plant years ago was full of information on the area.Paulina - 10-28-2008 at 12:37 PM
