Rpt-04-24-13 Todo Santos and Salsapuedes!
I went fishing Wednesday 04-24-12, with Bill Fisher, on his 18’ Trophy, “Toad Hall”. I drove down from work in San Bernardino and spent Tuesday evening at Bill’s place south of Rosarito. I stopped at Charley’s Place, just up the street from Bill’s trailer and ordered up some tasty fish and shrimp tacos for dinner.
We watched a bunch of Baseball and Basketball before calling it a night, with a wake call set for 5:15 am. Up and at them bright and early, we were quickly off to Las Salinas where Bill slips his boat. We arrived in Las Salinas, at 6:15am, and exited the harbor into fairly calm seas, with some small swells.
Conditions were ideal for a shot at the Yellowtail hanging out at Todos Santos Island outside of Ensenada.
We made about 20 pieces of bait, a mile south of the harbor, a combination of Green and Spanish mackerel, with a few large sardines.
Bill headed out towards the island at a comfortable pace in the very calm seas. We arrived at San Miguel Reef at about 7:20 am. There were a couple of Yachts fishing the area near the island, as well as a few pangas. We were hopeful for the birds to wake up and show us where a school of Yellowtail might be hanging out.
We stopped on numerous meter marks combined with good structure in a variety of depths. The Lingcod, Reds, Copper Rockfish and other bottom critters were on the chew, but no Tails. Bait was plentiful, the current was excellent, and the water temp was 61.9 degrees. So where were the Tails? We worked our way as near as ¼ mile to the Island and up and down San Miguel Reef some 3 to 4 miles off the island. There were no signs of any Yellowtail. At 11am we decided the bite was not meant to be and headed north towards Salsapuedes.
The shallow water Rockfishing was excellent. We released at least a dozen Reds in the 2 pound weight range, lots of Lingcod fewer than 24 inches, Coppers, Gophers, Johnny Bass, Chocolate and Starry Rockfish. We both caught some decent size Calico Bass.
Having released a majority of the fish we caught, we decided to head north and fish some deeper water for some bigger Reds and surprisingly we had not yet caught one Bocaccio? For a change the weatherman was right and the wind did not blow in the afternoon. Bill set us up on some hard bottom rocks in 300 feet of water. It was a slow pick, yet we managed to add to our fish kept count with a few nice Reds, some Bocaccio, and a couple of Copper Rockfish.
It was getting late, nearly 4 pm and Bill said one last drop on a another spot. I hit bottom and reeled up my slack. Thought I had hung bottom, then it broke free. Felt like I was reeling up a rock, then I got a few vicious head shakes and it could not be a rock? A nice way to end the day:
We cleaned the fish near the harbor and returned to Bill’s place after 5pm. Yikes I was still facing a 3.5 to 4 hour drive home and hoped I had the energy to make a straight run?
Fortunately the wait at Otay Mesa was only 20 minutes to cross the border. I pulled into my driveway at 8:55 pm, extremely tired.
Bill thanks again, we gave the Tails a shot, it just wasn’t meant to be, yet a very good effort! We had the usual great bottom critter fishing though. Can’t wait until our next adventure!
Hook up!
Cory
