Ensenada Yellowtail, Bonito and Calicos 5-28 and 5-29-09

Joining me on this trip was Moe Alcala, rod wrapper extraordinaire from Big Fish Tackle and John Benache. Plan for day 1 was to head offshore in search of paddies and tuna and for day 2 we were going to search for those elusive yellows that have been hit and miss from day to day at Todos Santos Island. A search of Tempbreak.com revealed little in the way of SST’s for the areas we intended to fish which probably due to cloud cover the last 10 or so days.

Day 1-We left the Marina Coral around 6:30am and metered the area for signs of bait. After about 10 minutes of looking we headed to the Ensenada Harbor Bait Company and loaded up on a mix of sardines, mini macks and some really nice sized anchovies. Mike Richardson was there and suggested we hug the 500 fathom curve and look for paddies. So with no other info to go on we headed out towards the 238 with stops and looks at the 500 fathom curve. Before heading offshore we spotted a couple of schools of puddling yellows about 1 ½ miles from the north end of the island. We were able to cast an assortment of jigs at them but they did not want any part of our offerings. So off we go. Stopped on our first paddy right at the 500 fathom curve and picked up 5 firecracker sized yellows. Here is Moe with one of our first yellows for the day which was caught on a new line of jigs he was testing:



I stayed with the Tady 45 in blue and chrome and did pretty well myself. We all decided to head west and look for signs of tuna and fish the kelp paddies along the way. It was a good plan in theory but the further west we headed the fewer paddies we found. And conditions were pretty ideal for paddy hopping, 63 to 64.6 degree water and calm seas:



Just before reaching the 238 we turned towards the Double 220. The water turned from somewhat milky blue to clean and clear blue water. Beautiful looking but the bad part was the temperature was dropping to a low of 62.1. We started trolling about 15 miles from the 220 with no signs of life. Just as we were about to head back we finally spotted a nice sized paddy about 10 miles short of the 220. There were yellows and bonito boiling all around and it was wide open on both for about an hour. Here is John with a pair of firecrackers:



Bloodydecks:



We ended up with 8 yellows and too many bonito and big spanish mackerel to count. After the bite pretty much shut down we headed back and picked up this little guy along the way:



We made it back to Todos Santos with a ton of bait left and decided to look for white sea bass and or calicos. No white sea bass but some beautiful calicos taken mostly by John and Moe casting directly into the kelp using 25 lb test and fly lined sardines:





What we did was chum along the front side of the island in tight to the kelp and once we found a concentration of calicos boiling I dropped the anchor and it was game until just before dark. Calicos ranged in size from 2 to 7lbs.
Day 2- After a much needed good night’s sleep we were off to the races again. Armando of Ensenada Bait Company took care of us again, thanks amigo, and with limited time due to John and Moe needing to get home we headed for Todos Santos again. No signs of those yellows puddling so we decided a quick run to the 500 fathom curve was in order. What we did was run the ridge south to just above the Banda Bank and we nailed another 5 yellows and caught all the bonito anyone could want. The yellows were all off paddies on the 500 line and the bonito were 3 or 4 miles off of Punta Banda. The 500 fathom line water temp was 62.8 to 63.5 degrees and the bonito were holding in 61.8 degree water. There are soo many bonito out there and as long as you can run and gun them (slide up and cast lures to boiling fish) you can limit out in minutes. The bonito we caught offshore were bigger (6-10lbs) than the Punta Banda models (3-7lbs). A strange hookup for John happened as we were sitting 5 miles off Punta Banda. With the engine off the fish finder lit up with some individual, very large, and dark red marks between 20-30 feet down. There were quite a few marks going by and I suggested to the guys to drop something down. John was first in with a megabait and as he was cranking to just about the surface when he got slammed. The fish took off and was ripping John’s Avet with 40lb test pretty quick. The fish surfaced a couple of hundred yards away and just as I was turning to chase it down it broke the line at the hook. I never saw it but Moe and John said it had a brownish tail and actually jumped. Let’s see 61.8 degree water, a school of these big guys on the meter and it jumped. Do swordfish and or mako’s travel in schools? I’ve never heard of a bluefin jumping. John and Moe think it was a marlin. I think it was a mako as we ruled out thresher due to no visible sign of a large tail. Whatever it was it was pulling 40 lb off a tightened drag like there was no tomorrow. We headed back around 11:30am to clean fish and called it a successful trip with a 2 day count of 18 yellows, 50+ bonito, 15+ on the 3-5 lb Spanish macks and 12-15 calicos. Me with a couple of Tady 45 yellows:



No signs of local tuna yet but we had a great couple of days of fishing and catching. It was good meeting Moe for the first time and John proved again that he knows what to do when there are fish to be caught.

Great Report

can you give us details?