hi how’s it going guys this is my first post on BD so please don’t go too hard on me.
I am a southern California native who has moved part-time to San Felipe to further my angler goals of catching more fish. I have a house and air bnb in Pete’s camp in town and as well as a beach house down in the south campos towards Gonzaga.I have been fishing down in Gonzaga Bay alone for the last 5 years and this is the first year of me fishing my own vessel down in Baja(shout-out big bass sportfishing and bebo for teaching me how to get on the fish). I have recently finished my late 80s panga restoration I am looking for solid guys to join me and pitch on ice and gas so we can get out on the water and chase tail.
I currently store my boat down at Papa Fernandez Landing I have been fishing there as much as the wind has allowed for the past three months and will give my reports and attach photos of our recent trips. The panga is 23 feet, has a live well, T top, center console with Garmin GPS and fishfinder as well as a marine radio and all required US Coast Guard safety equipment. Powered by a 2015 Yamaha 115 this fiberglass skiff can cruise 35+ knots when the weather is flat enough. As someone who’s been traveling Baja all of their lives I am aware that some people are not yet fully comfortable driving alone to go fish these awesome waters and I will be able to accompany you from San Felipe down to Gonzaga where there is no cell phone service for serious anglers! Enough about me here’s the fish report from March-May for you guys:
Fishing was good early March we went out maybe 3 times in the first 2 weeks of the month. Our first stop on the islands in 110 feet of water we hit an awesome school of yellowtail that wanted to bite and we ended up with 20 yellowtail for 3 anglers within 2 hours returning to the ramp with full boxes of 15-18lb models. I got 12 yellows one day all on the 80g zakana jig on 25lb izorline. Big Sierra mackerels came thru smacking the rapala magnums towards the end of March in the 2-4 foot long range. Awesome fighting fish the only downside if you haven’t caught Sierra before is the steel leaders are a must and even then you will be losing lots of jigs to these. The bottom fishing bite during March was phenomenal and on days when we couldn’t go offshore to the golden reef we would limit out on yellow eyes and triggerfish on the islands, although haven’t seen much whitefish caught this year compared to previous years. The African pompano bite is insane on the shore near La poma and one could sit there all afternoon with a few jerkbaits and surface irons and have a blast. As far as corvina during March it was wide open on some days with bird schools covering most of the Gonzaga bay all the way past alfonsinas. The corvina we’re plenty in good edible 4-6lb size and biting on pretty much anything you threw in the water. When the wind would occasionally let us go offshore for yellowtail we would bring anywhere from 2-5 bigger models home on a good day and many various sawtail groupers and big cabrillas being pulled up out on the reef. We always fish jigs on my boat unless someone has a cast net and the jigs that we’re getting bit the most we’re the zakana, colt snipers, yo-yo heavy, and believe it or not many of my buddies were pulling up solid yellows off the bottom using 300-400 gram bluefin slow pitch jigs. Yellowtail bite slowed down towards the end of April making it a harder grind but occasionally we would get on a few using lighter leaders and smaller jigs (60-80g Katy Perry sniper would get them to eat). A lot of guys go down here chasing the big groupers I haven’t targeted them yet because I don’t have a rail rod with the rating and line thickness to go after them my buddies from big bass sportfishing and captain Juan cook pulled out 130+ lb groupers on the first two weeks of April but it definitely is slower this year for grouper than previous ones in regards to the goliaths. As someone who’s witnessed the San Diego fishery die from overfishing I prefer to let the groupers go if we were to catch a big one and let them breed for the future generations. There’s plenty of other species of meat we can fill the cooler with down there!
Went out this week as well 2 times back to back on the 5 and the 6th. Big balls of bait everywhere in the bay and tons of bird schools great sign on our way out to the reef. As we get to the reef the moment we pull up boils all around us for 100 yards each direction as we frantically scramble for a surface iron rod they dive back deep. Oh well we got to see some action which is good! First drop on the salas 7x blue white I’m pulling hard after the first few cranks at the bottom and BAM big 25lb yellow gets put on the deck by 8:45am on the first drop of the day. We finished around 12 with 7 yellows on the deck and lost 2. 2 big cabrillas, and 2 huge red snapper/pathos. The following day we headed out same deal, got my wife on a 30lb yellowtail as her first fish on a 80gram colt sniper. Once she figured out the technique we came home around 1:30 with a nice hefty bag of cabrillas, Sierra, and yellows. Right before we left they started boiling everywhere so I tossed my JRI-3 iron onto them and within half a second got spooled by a big yellow. Didn’t get him to the boat before it snapped my leader off and took my jig. Looking forward to seeing how the fishing picks up in may. This week wasn’t so good down in BOLA for yellows according to a few captain buddies down south but we got em up north in Gonzaga right now.Really love the way the wind keeps the fishery lively albeit some of you probably hate the wind
As we get closer to summer I know a lot of people will be heading straight to BOLA but I thought I would share this and see if anyone wants to do a quick pit stop and fish with me. The cabrilla fishing and grouper fishing can go wide open sometimes as well, and because everyone is down chasing them at LA bay there is much less pressure on the spots during those times and can make a fun day inshore⛽️
🛥 here is my Instagram for any of you who are on that platform @bowman.fishing
(I AM attaching several photos of our trips below) FISH ON!!!!
I am a southern California native who has moved part-time to San Felipe to further my angler goals of catching more fish. I have a house and air bnb in Pete’s camp in town and as well as a beach house down in the south campos towards Gonzaga.I have been fishing down in Gonzaga Bay alone for the last 5 years and this is the first year of me fishing my own vessel down in Baja(shout-out big bass sportfishing and bebo for teaching me how to get on the fish). I have recently finished my late 80s panga restoration I am looking for solid guys to join me and pitch on ice and gas so we can get out on the water and chase tail.
I currently store my boat down at Papa Fernandez Landing I have been fishing there as much as the wind has allowed for the past three months and will give my reports and attach photos of our recent trips. The panga is 23 feet, has a live well, T top, center console with Garmin GPS and fishfinder as well as a marine radio and all required US Coast Guard safety equipment. Powered by a 2015 Yamaha 115 this fiberglass skiff can cruise 35+ knots when the weather is flat enough. As someone who’s been traveling Baja all of their lives I am aware that some people are not yet fully comfortable driving alone to go fish these awesome waters and I will be able to accompany you from San Felipe down to Gonzaga where there is no cell phone service for serious anglers! Enough about me here’s the fish report from March-May for you guys:
Fishing was good early March we went out maybe 3 times in the first 2 weeks of the month. Our first stop on the islands in 110 feet of water we hit an awesome school of yellowtail that wanted to bite and we ended up with 20 yellowtail for 3 anglers within 2 hours returning to the ramp with full boxes of 15-18lb models. I got 12 yellows one day all on the 80g zakana jig on 25lb izorline. Big Sierra mackerels came thru smacking the rapala magnums towards the end of March in the 2-4 foot long range. Awesome fighting fish the only downside if you haven’t caught Sierra before is the steel leaders are a must and even then you will be losing lots of jigs to these. The bottom fishing bite during March was phenomenal and on days when we couldn’t go offshore to the golden reef we would limit out on yellow eyes and triggerfish on the islands, although haven’t seen much whitefish caught this year compared to previous years. The African pompano bite is insane on the shore near La poma and one could sit there all afternoon with a few jerkbaits and surface irons and have a blast. As far as corvina during March it was wide open on some days with bird schools covering most of the Gonzaga bay all the way past alfonsinas. The corvina we’re plenty in good edible 4-6lb size and biting on pretty much anything you threw in the water. When the wind would occasionally let us go offshore for yellowtail we would bring anywhere from 2-5 bigger models home on a good day and many various sawtail groupers and big cabrillas being pulled up out on the reef. We always fish jigs on my boat unless someone has a cast net and the jigs that we’re getting bit the most we’re the zakana, colt snipers, yo-yo heavy, and believe it or not many of my buddies were pulling up solid yellows off the bottom using 300-400 gram bluefin slow pitch jigs. Yellowtail bite slowed down towards the end of April making it a harder grind but occasionally we would get on a few using lighter leaders and smaller jigs (60-80g Katy Perry sniper would get them to eat). A lot of guys go down here chasing the big groupers I haven’t targeted them yet because I don’t have a rail rod with the rating and line thickness to go after them my buddies from big bass sportfishing and captain Juan cook pulled out 130+ lb groupers on the first two weeks of April but it definitely is slower this year for grouper than previous ones in regards to the goliaths. As someone who’s witnessed the San Diego fishery die from overfishing I prefer to let the groupers go if we were to catch a big one and let them breed for the future generations. There’s plenty of other species of meat we can fill the cooler with down there!
Went out this week as well 2 times back to back on the 5 and the 6th. Big balls of bait everywhere in the bay and tons of bird schools great sign on our way out to the reef. As we get to the reef the moment we pull up boils all around us for 100 yards each direction as we frantically scramble for a surface iron rod they dive back deep. Oh well we got to see some action which is good! First drop on the salas 7x blue white I’m pulling hard after the first few cranks at the bottom and BAM big 25lb yellow gets put on the deck by 8:45am on the first drop of the day. We finished around 12 with 7 yellows on the deck and lost 2. 2 big cabrillas, and 2 huge red snapper/pathos. The following day we headed out same deal, got my wife on a 30lb yellowtail as her first fish on a 80gram colt sniper. Once she figured out the technique we came home around 1:30 with a nice hefty bag of cabrillas, Sierra, and yellows. Right before we left they started boiling everywhere so I tossed my JRI-3 iron onto them and within half a second got spooled by a big yellow. Didn’t get him to the boat before it snapped my leader off and took my jig. Looking forward to seeing how the fishing picks up in may. This week wasn’t so good down in BOLA for yellows according to a few captain buddies down south but we got em up north in Gonzaga right now.Really love the way the wind keeps the fishery lively albeit some of you probably hate the wind
As we get closer to summer I know a lot of people will be heading straight to BOLA but I thought I would share this and see if anyone wants to do a quick pit stop and fish with me. The cabrilla fishing and grouper fishing can go wide open sometimes as well, and because everyone is down chasing them at LA bay there is much less pressure on the spots during those times and can make a fun day inshore⛽️
🛥 here is my Instagram for any of you who are on that platform @bowman.fishing (I AM attaching several photos of our trips below) FISH ON!!!!
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