I'm planning a return trip to Baja this spring to kayak from Bahia de Los Angeles to Mulege, and will probably paddle around Isla San Francisco and
Espiritu Santo also.
Two years ago I paddled from Mulege to La Paz and only caught a couple non-keeper fish with the handline I trolled with most days. I used some Rapala
lures recommended by The Baja Catch- they didn't seem to do the trick. I brought a spear that I was much more successful with, but this trip I'm
hoping to get some dinner fish with the trolling line also. I know nothing about fishing except that I like to eat them.
I talked with a guy after the last trip who said the Rapalas are meant to be trolled faster than a kayak travels. He recommended taking a bare hook
and surrounding it with a simple skirt of cut rubber bands; the guy swore by this technique and that it would work well at lower trolling speeds.
I'll try it, but am looking for any additional advice. Simple and cheap is good. Remember this is for trolling behind a kayak with a hand line, I
won't be taking a fishing pole.
Thanks!güero - 2-3-2014 at 09:26 PM
You might try a plastic, like a scampy or single tail. Use a ledhead of a weight that will get you down at least 2/3 the way to the bottom. The closer
to the bottom the better for getting action but better for the fish to get back to the rocks. I like pearl or white or orange or rootbeer.willardguy - 2-3-2014 at 09:28 PM
I'd just drag a krocodile.
AndyP
captkw - 2-3-2014 at 09:34 PM
Hola,,I've caught a lot of fish slow trolling broken back rebels which are basicly the same thing....even landed a giant 6 foot needle fish...while
slow trolling..hooked in the eye and ol man "TiTo" in cabo pumo said was the biggest he had seen in his lifetime ...also the meanest,,turned back and
bite the gaff !! yikes !! so.IMO they work at slow speeds !!! K&TPacifico - 2-3-2014 at 09:43 PM
Just curious, what pound test line are you using for a handline? If you hook something big, you are gonna wish you had a rod! Sounds fun either way!AndyP - 2-3-2014 at 09:56 PM
I used a bunch of parachute cord followed by 30 feet or so of 40 lb (if I remember correctly) line. I figured I could cut the line or just drop it if
I had to. I have a wire leader I was thinking about using this time.
Advice on the handline setup is also appreciated... seriously I don't know anything about fishing.Pacifico - 2-3-2014 at 11:08 PM
Andy, I haven't done any hand lining but from what I've seen of locals doing it down there, they use pretty heavy test line. I've seen them use like
80-100 lb. test (or bigger). The problem you might run into is trolling with a limited amount of line and no drag system like what a reel provides. If
you hook something big, there is an excellent chance it will just snap you off. That being said, you can probably just use 40 pound test and you will
get plenty of bass, etc. I agree with Guero...get some rubber swim baits. They slow troll awesome! Storm makes some that are really lifelike looking.
One time we were just drifting while eating lunch and we let one of those swim baits dangle out on a line about 50'. We weren't even moving and it got
eaten by a 30 plus pound yellowtail!bkbend - 2-3-2014 at 11:43 PM
I've caught lots of fish from a kayak using a rapala, you can easily troll fast enough. It's my first choice of trolling lure for a quick dinner. My
guess is you were trolling in water which was too deep. The fish hang out near cover and close to the bottom, a rapala will sink 4-30 feet depending
on the model so you need to be in water of that depth. When you are occasionally bumping the bottom you are at the correct depth. For deeper water,
the Krocs and jigs mentioned above will get you down to the bottom better. When you do catch something, keep a portion and put a chunk on the
krocodile or jig hook for a little more action.
And since you don't know anything about fishing take the time to learn what a bullseye pufferfish looks like and don't eat one. They're easy to
catch. http://www.mexfish.com/fish/beyepuf/beyepuf.htm
Also check out th scorpion fish and release carefully without touching the spines. (good eating if you're careful) http://www.mexfish.com/fish/calscorp/calscorp.htmMMc - 2-4-2014 at 12:24 AM
I use 4' Krocs, Castmaster, and 3/4 oz swimbait with rootbeer or green and blue with a dash of red. If I am hand lining, use a bungee cord to tie off
to. Tie the line to the yak put about 24 inches of line and tie a loop, Hook a bungee to the boat and hook the loop to the bungee. When the fish hits
the hook the bungee will stretch and set the hook. When I hand line I use 100# mono on a H shaped spool, tied to a swivel to 5 feet of fluorocarbon 20
to 40lb tied to the lure. Use gloves!! If you use more then 40lb and get hooked on the bottem, it's a pain to break the line.
Remember to pull the line when you get close to shore. I run the lure about 30 ft. back of the yak. your mileage may very. As you paddle the lure will
rise and fall with your speed. If you are to far off the bottom many fish will not chase it. I have a cleat just behind me to tie off the hand line
and hook the bungee to. Do not use floating lures, they need you to paddle at the right speed to get to depth.
Hears a link to hand lining. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0511e/t0511e01.htm
bkbend offers good advice too.
Tuna chunking !!
captkw - 2-4-2014 at 12:28 AM
If you have a wide stable yak and a good pfd (worn) there are some canyons near shore that you can "chunk" bait for early,,early morning tuna !! like
before false dawn !! make sure your lit like a xmas tree so you don't get ran over...And never,ever assume the other vessel sea's Ya !! I caught a
tuna from shore at Los Fralles before it got light on a nice high tide...small football !!...hope to do it again !! K&T
[Edited on 2-4-2014 by captkw]
[Edited on 2-4-2014 by captkw]Cappy - 2-4-2014 at 05:33 AM
5 gallon bucket with 4-5 live baits. A simple sabiki bait rig. Every few minutes add water to keep your bait fresh. Nothing like the real thingBob and Susan - 2-4-2014 at 06:10 AM
andyp...I read your blog...you don't need any kayaking advice
you are THE experts...
I would come a little later in the year
maybe june or july...
the water is much warmer and the winds not so brutalAndyP - 2-4-2014 at 07:12 AM
bkbend, on our first trip to Baja I made my wife carefully throw back a fish she caught on the pacific side because I swore it was a scorpionfish- if
memory serves when we got back to camp and the fish ID book it was a cow cod...
Bob and Susan, I've spent a summer in Baja before and for me it was too hot for drinking a beer and reading under a shade tarp, much less kayaking.
Love the warm water and settled winds though.
Thanks for the advice everybody, I'll be going better prepared for fishing this time. I'm getting very excited about this trip.mcfez - 2-4-2014 at 09:32 AM
Lots of great advice above. I do kayak fishing very often.....Sea of Cortez being my favorite place in the world.
captkw advise is so true BTW.
Here's what I used 90% of the time...in any ocean water. It works great:
mcfez
Elite Nomad
******
posted on 4-12-2011 at 02:01 PM
Best bait you'll ever use!
From a post I did last year. Good luck with you and your rod :-)
Here's the secret
Best fish to use in this order:
Spanish mackerel
Sand Crab
Mussel
Claim
Shrimp
Start with a box of kosher salt. Do not use iodized salt. Select a container with a flat bottom suitable for the size bait you want to
cure.....Mayonnaise jar works great too BTW. Place twice the thickness of salt in the bottom as the thickness of the bait to be cured. If your bait is
1 inch thick, put 2 inches of salt in the bottom. Place the bait on the salt followed by another layer of salt over it the same depth as the starting
layer. DONT GO CHEAP ON THE SALT! You can continue building layers a bait and salt until all the bait is covered in salt. Do not seal the container.
If you want to cover it just place a towel over the top. It needs to be exposed to the air to dry out. Seal before you go on your vacation...it be
fine by then. Unseal when vacation is over.
Small pieces of shrimp can cure in a day or so. Whole fish can take several weeks. It all depends on how much of the raw meat is exposed to the salt.
All the moisture has to be drawn out of the bait by the salt before it will be cured. That’s why a whole fish can take so much longer.
The bait stays on the hook....really nicely. It almost tough to get on the hook in matter of fact :-) Less bait being stolen......if any!
It's a knock out - got you boy - yahoooooo bait!Pompano - 2-4-2014 at 12:11 PM
mcfez gives good advice on the salt (rock salt). We use the same treatment salmon fishing on the Oregon Coast rivers. Herring pre-treated this way
will stay on the hook much better.
I'd think your success trolling while paddling will be best with a baited hook or lure, rather than a plain lure. You could try a rock cod rig with
multiple baits...but then you may be in for a Nantucket sleigh-ride!RnR - 2-4-2014 at 04:59 PM
I have kayak fished the Sea of Cortez hundreds of times over the last twenty years and have connected with food fish, (sufficient for my wife and I),
on practically every outing.
This is what works for me -
Stay close to rocky shores and in shallow water, 10 -20 ft.
I exclusively use floating 4" rapalas in silver/blue and silver/black.
Troll the lure 50-75 ft behind the kayak.
Use light line in the 15 lb test range with a 20lb steel leader, 18" long.
This light setup allows the small lure to work at the slow speeds behind the kayak. And, it does not provide a lot of drag and slow down your boat
speed.
"Handlining" needs heavy line to avoid cutting your hands. I use just the lower half of a 5 ft spinning rod (only one line guide) and a very small
spinning reel. Bring the top half with you, too. Then you can spincast from shore if you feel like it.
Put a bungee around your waist, hook the two bungee hooks around the reel mount of the spinning reel, turn the reel up and the rod underneath, and
point the rod straight back along the deck of the kayak.
The rod and line do not interfere with your paddling and the low angle of the line to the water does not tend to lift the little lure out of the
water.
Occasionally, I'll get spooled by something big, but not often. Big fish do not typically go for the small lure. That being said, I have landed a 20
lb yellowtail and an unbelievable 40" long sierra. (Didn't know that they grew that big)
Remember, I'm fishing for food. Two 12-16" fish will feed the two of us while camping on the beach.
Success rate for a 90 minute outing - better than 80%.
Good luck. Sounds like a great trip.
[Edited on 2-5-2014 by RnR]redhilltown - 2-5-2014 at 12:19 AM
Small hooks and some bait and you WILL catch Triggers and Spotted Bay Bass along that stretch. As mentioned, tight to shore is the key.RnR - 2-5-2014 at 07:02 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by redhilltown
Small hooks and some bait and you WILL catch Triggers and Spotted Bay Bass along that stretch. As mentioned, tight to shore is the key.
I agree. Bait is better. You can also sit offshore and bottom fish when it's too rough to troll close to the rocks.
Triggers will just HAMMER that small rapala. The problem is, after one good triggerfish, you need to put on a new lure. Those floating rapalas are
made of balsa wood or something equally as weak. The triggers will bite them into two or three pieces.
I use the floating lures for a reason. When kayaking near shore, I always seem to stop or slow down for some reason or other. The floating lures
just float. The other types immediately sink to the bottom and snag when you take off again.bkbend - 2-5-2014 at 09:23 AM
I once had a balsa rapala last for three triggers. It is more economical to use a hook and bait if they're around.AndyP - 2-5-2014 at 09:42 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by bkbend
I once had a balsa rapala last for three triggers. It is more economical to use a hook and bait if they're around.
Ouch, at $10+ per lure I'm thinking I might bring one or two and go the bait route.
AndyP
captkw - 2-5-2014 at 09:50 AM
your find that a good strong hooks and a short 10" wire or multi strand leader goes a long way in Baja fishing !!! if you catch trigger you will need
to watch someone clean them first,,, easy to do once you have seen it...great eating and lb for lb strong lttle fish !!
[Edited on 2-5-2014 by captkw]jimcallard - 2-5-2014 at 08:19 PM
See link below to kayak mag article I wrote that I entitled: "You Never Knows What Is Coming For You." It is about catching my first Dorado in a
kayak near Loreto.
Great info above. You can never ask to many questions or try too many new ways to catch fish down here.
The problem in the Sea of Cortez is the variety of fish caught and the variety of ways to catch them. Today close to shore and off of Nopolo two of
us in Hobie Kayaks, using plastics and trolling lures caught or saw someone catch Trigger fish, Cabrilla, Corvina, Lizard fish, Puffer fish, Sierra,
some kind of Jack, Barracuda, and a first in the area, I got a a halibut! Got rocked, lost some lures, but I find a spinning rig with 20 # braid and
a 20-30 # mono tippet works most of the time. Every day is a new day...and something new is coming to get you...
...and once you've caught a few or two (of any fish) and cleaned them you should be set for bait for the next day (realizing you won't have a cooler.)
Triggers are not picky. Bring your sharpest fillet knife Udo - 2-7-2014 at 04:00 PM
All this has been great info...hope to get some more posts.Marc - 2-7-2014 at 09:03 PM
New Guinea 1994. Hand line from a kayak. Notice the gloves.
RNR
captkw - 2-7-2014 at 11:18 PM
Hola,,Why do you use floaters ??? I don't understand that one at all !!monoloco - 2-8-2014 at 09:32 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by captkw
Hola,,Why do you use floaters ??? I don't understand that one at all !!
I think he explained it pretty
well. They do not sink to the bottom and get snagged on the rocks if you quit paddling.
floaters
captkw - 2-8-2014 at 09:44 AM
He also will not be in the sweet spot !! If he is close to shore...offshore the fish are near the top inversion zone.. near shore they are near
structure.(bottom)..I cheated when I first got down here and did a bit of diving to see the fish and what they did !!MMc - 2-8-2014 at 09:49 AM
Captkw, fishing from a kayak is very different then even fishing from a car topper. It is more like fishing from shore. If you see birds a mile away
you most likely be able to get to it while it's active.You have to paddle to get anywhere and you are easily pushed by the prevailing tide. Some of
use use a sea-anchor to help in the paddle.
If you add a bait tank you just put 25# on a boat that you have to paddle.
I prefer to remember to pull my lure in, over using a floater. For what Andy is doing a floater might a better way to go. Not because of being in the
sweat spot but for convince. I would take booth. Day old chunks might be real good if they were packed in a little salt.
[Edited on 2-8-2014 by MMc]
[Edited on 2-8-2014 by MMc]maspacifico - 2-8-2014 at 12:32 PM
At kayak speed the size of the lip determines how deep the lure is going to travel. I don't think I have any lures that don't float but some will get
hung up on rocks at 20 or 30 feet. Not sure a boat can get them much deeper without a downrigger?
I use the 6' depth lures mostly. Easier to paddle and cheaper. I only put the deep ones on if I know there are tuna or wahoo around and I'm not
hooking up. There are a lot of dog snappers and grouper out there with my top water lures in their mouths.
The poster wants to travel from one place to another, not stop and bottom fish. Put a flourocarbon leader on the hand line and a 5" xrap in blue
sardine (4" if you put stronger hooks on), and he has a better chance of getting something while he's moving. He won't want to drag a deep diver for
15 miles. When he gets where he's going to camp bring out the bait if he doesn't already have something.
Sounds like a fun trip!RnR - 2-8-2014 at 01:52 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by captkw
Hola,,Why do you use floaters ??? I don't understand that one at all !!
The lures float when not being actively trolled.
While trolling, the lure dives down to probably five feet. I usually fish in 10-20 ft of water over some sort of rocky structure.
Ninety percent of the hits are from some sort of reef fish. They have no problem coming up 10 ft to nail the lure. It doesn't have to go right by
their nose. (Basically the same principle that Gene Kira details in the Baja Catch. Slow and shallow near structure)
If you stop paddling for whatever reason, (a look around, a drink, sunscreen, a photo, etc.), the lure rises to the surface and just FLOATS. No snags
when you resume paddling because it sank to the bottom while you were dawdling.
And, a few times, I've had a hit on the first or second paddle stroke after a stop and the lure was just floating around on the surface. Obviously,
some fish came up to investigate and grabbed it when the lure "tried to get away".flyguy - 2-12-2014 at 10:50 AM
Being a steelhead fisherman in BC i've caught the most illusive and hard to catch species of fish on dry flys or just below the surface film.... yes
fish love bottom and structure however don't forget that they are always looking up ready to eat and in steelheads case attack anything that catches
its eye and peees it off enough. Those are the fish you wanna catch anyways and why lure action is more important than depth IMHO....
Skipjack Joe - 2-13-2014 at 12:12 AM
Fishing with floating rapalas over deeper water is not very effective. Most won't expend the energy to swim that far for a 5 inch rebel/rapala. Use
floating lures in very shallow water or sinking lures close to bottom.
Kira recommends fastracks over a bottom that's just barely visible. You will catch fish that way but they will be smaller and less frequent than they
could be.
If there you run into a bait ball then that changes everything.
I'm not familiar with handline trolling so can't comment on that.redhilltown - 2-13-2014 at 12:32 AM
Joe is so right about the deep water...many predatory fish hide in rocks and jump out only so far to nail their dinner... (unless later in the year
when some Sierra or Barracuda might be around.)
With one small Spotted Bay Bass you'll have all the bait you need for catching dinner once close to your nightly destination...otherwise if trolling
all day, they'll be sitting in your kayak without ice ( I assume!). Sounds like you'll be in some isolated situations and the fishing for dinner
should be fairly easy.
As we've all seen, for the locals a spark plug, a hook/bait, and some line is all you need!Udo - 2-13-2014 at 03:21 PM
This has been a great thread for those of us who are kayak fishermen.AndyP - 2-13-2014 at 04:47 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
This has been a great thread for those of us who are kayak fishermen.
Agreed, tons of great info here. Thanks everybody.Alm - 2-16-2014 at 12:52 AM
Small rapalas do work at kayak speed, so use them. And, I don't know why you are not taking a fishing pole. Cheap telescopic fishing rod - if you
don't have one - is a cr.ap, but it's better than throwing a line wrapped around a coke bottle, you can get a combo with reel for 20 bucks at Amazon.
Worked for me. With Scotty rod holder mounted on a small board tied to the deck, so your hands are free for trolling until it bites.
