I've been trying my best to get to Isla Cedros since learning about the Cedros Sportfishing operation. Bruce and I were booked in 2018, only to have the trip canceled due to a hurricane. More issues conspired, business issues in 2019, and Covid in 2020. So damn it, we were going this year! Bruce's group of five all are dorymen from Pacific City OR. Most are also long range fisherman, and just generally nice guys to hang out with. I'm from OC, and Bruce and I have been friends since we went to HS together in OC. So we had a great group of six, and Rosie booked our group in the upper three rooms and fishing in two pangas. Good call, Rosie. We did participate in a Cedros Sportfishing webinar, loaded with great info about CBX, special packing instructions, information about the lodge and most importantly, fishing tackle and techniques hosted by Luke Burson. Luke is a surface iron guru and one hell of a fisherman. You may have seen Luke, it's hard to miss him at Fred Hall sporting his huge Sam Elliot style mustache. Hey Virgil!
Rosie met us at the CBX location, and had 100% of our paperwork ready in personal manila folders, we just needed to supply our passports and our vaxx cards for boarding. The flight was about two hours, 310 NM from Tijuana. We were greeted by the CSF crew in a van, with a cooler full of beverages. Nice! Monday was our transfer day, so in the afternoon we chilled and rigged up. Tuesday was our first fishing day. It's a five minute van ride to the harbor, and we boarded our respective pangas, already loaded with our gear, rods and coolers! Let's roll. Our panga was tidy, fast, and well set up, including a Lowrance plotter and 115 hp Suzuki outboard. I can only describe Javier's fishing style as "Run & Gun". We ran hard all morning. If there were no strikes or the life disappeared, we were hammer down and hang on. Javier spent plenty of time on the binos looking for birds & life. This place is huge, and only a handful of pangas were fishing it. We chased an assortment of birds of many types, seagulls, pelicans, cormorants, and a few different tern species etc. The birds were on huge boils of bait, sometime over a reef with visible kelp streaming upward. Just an incredible amount of biomass and life! In my head I'm picturing SoCal fishing decades ago, and what it was like to maybe be the first guy to cast a jig on the Farnsworth?
Tuesday was the best weather day, clear skies and smooth sea conditions. Gary had three quality YT in the box first, all on Shimano stick baits, and Bruce and I hadn't been bit yet! Then Bruce and I found our groove a bit on the wind, and the surface iron began to get bit, and the count went up. We had ten quality fish in the box by 8:00 AM! Awesome. We had a 15 fish limit of quality YTs by Noon, and we elected to return to the harbor.
Wednesday was Victory at Sea as we came around the point into the more exposed fetch of water about 7:00. We pounded hard and worked the area for more fish, then retreated as it was getting pretty gnarly, Blowing 15-20 knots and whitecaps everywhere. Bruce and I both had bigger fish, 30 & 33 lbs. on JRI surface iron. My 30 pounder was a PB for me. These fish fought hard over the shallow reef, and would power into the kelp. You know the drill. I fished 30# & 40# topshots, and Bruce stuck to 80# spectra with 50# f/c on his Tranx 500. This was a great setup on his (newish) Terramar two-piece jig stick. Gary was throwing the stick baits on two Saltist spinners with 65# braid, and getting bit like crazy. We put 14 YTs in the boat, and worked hard for them. Due to the rough conditions, we took a beating and were loving it. We retreated to a calm spot over by the salt operation and popped a few more in easier conditions. Then ran back to the harbor where we offloaded and enjoyed a cold beer and weighed fish. Then out to the veranda at the lodge for beverages, rerigging and had a late snack. We had a few afternoon treats during the trip, ceviche, fried YT bites with tartar sauce, and chips with pico & guac. Excellent and all very fresh. The meals were all very good. I have some dietary restrictions, which were met with a smile and great substitutions.
Thursday was different again. Before sunrise, we noted heavy overcast and a light breeze from new wind direction. Good, we thought maybe less wind would be nice today. I had the drill down better now, with two days of fishing here under my belt. I was already stoked with a PB fish, and near limits. Our group of six decided to pool the fish as best as we could, to work hard to fill all six anglers with the 50# weight limit of fish. There's more to this story, as the smaller aircraft does have firm weight limitations and you can't just take all you want. We were also respectful of the local regulations and our take. Thursday we had the drill down, and we each found our corner of the panga. The boat slid in, and jigs would fire out. We had another amazing day on stick baits and iron. My white/mint Tady 7X stuck a brute of a fish that put my on the rail. Javier motored over the fish and I gave it all I could on my Trinidad 16A setup. And after a serious tug-fest, bang and other amazing PB at 34 lbs! We fished hard, and we all hung fish over 30#, all on surface iron and stick baits. By this time, I was pretty worked casting iron, so I grabbed a stick bait and my Lexa 400 setup. Damn, on again! This is a freakin' amazing YT fishery. We boxed another 13 YTs. I gotta say that we were really focused on the Yellowtail fishing, and that's why we went. But... we all released huge Calicos 5# to 8#. We didn't even photo them. The OR boys didn't quite understand the SoCal addiction for Calico fishing, so I tried explaining it. Hey, these guys hammer the Oregon coast for Cod, Bass and monster Lingcod all day so whattaya say? We also caught a boat load of Calicos, Bonito, and a few "pencil" Barracuda. The pangaros also put some anglers on a Halibut bite on the cobbly south beach. We didn't try it.
There's a lot more to talk about, but I'm about typed out here and gotta return to reality soon. If you want to do some amazing fishing in a pristine Mexican environment, visit Cedros ASAP. Rosie, Richard and the team at Cedros Sportfishing are organized, polite, responsive and did a super job. Pull the lever!
A couple of notes:
The pic with the masks and life jackets was only a Harbormaster requirement. We wore masks in the Harbor area and at the airport only. The shopping downtown is closed to visitors due to Covid, so the lodge crew did all the shopping for us.
We have fished in Baja for over twenty years, and the care of our catch is very important to us. We feel that if we are going to take from the resource, we need the catch to be cared for with good standards and no excuses. The locals do not always agree or look after things the way we do. In the past, I have flown with a fish vacuum packer! The fish processing here is exceptional. The lodge owners decided to set up their own fish processing unit. It's very nicely done, with a clean a/c environment (zero fishy smell). Skilled personal butchered our catch and packed it in nice size portions on a commercial vacuum packing machine. And no additional fee was charged, all inclusive. Exceptional and huge kudos to Cedros Sportfishing! All Baja fishing resorts should take note.
Thanks for takin' a look -
Jeff
Rosie met us at the CBX location, and had 100% of our paperwork ready in personal manila folders, we just needed to supply our passports and our vaxx cards for boarding. The flight was about two hours, 310 NM from Tijuana. We were greeted by the CSF crew in a van, with a cooler full of beverages. Nice! Monday was our transfer day, so in the afternoon we chilled and rigged up. Tuesday was our first fishing day. It's a five minute van ride to the harbor, and we boarded our respective pangas, already loaded with our gear, rods and coolers! Let's roll. Our panga was tidy, fast, and well set up, including a Lowrance plotter and 115 hp Suzuki outboard. I can only describe Javier's fishing style as "Run & Gun". We ran hard all morning. If there were no strikes or the life disappeared, we were hammer down and hang on. Javier spent plenty of time on the binos looking for birds & life. This place is huge, and only a handful of pangas were fishing it. We chased an assortment of birds of many types, seagulls, pelicans, cormorants, and a few different tern species etc. The birds were on huge boils of bait, sometime over a reef with visible kelp streaming upward. Just an incredible amount of biomass and life! In my head I'm picturing SoCal fishing decades ago, and what it was like to maybe be the first guy to cast a jig on the Farnsworth?
Tuesday was the best weather day, clear skies and smooth sea conditions. Gary had three quality YT in the box first, all on Shimano stick baits, and Bruce and I hadn't been bit yet! Then Bruce and I found our groove a bit on the wind, and the surface iron began to get bit, and the count went up. We had ten quality fish in the box by 8:00 AM! Awesome. We had a 15 fish limit of quality YTs by Noon, and we elected to return to the harbor.
Wednesday was Victory at Sea as we came around the point into the more exposed fetch of water about 7:00. We pounded hard and worked the area for more fish, then retreated as it was getting pretty gnarly, Blowing 15-20 knots and whitecaps everywhere. Bruce and I both had bigger fish, 30 & 33 lbs. on JRI surface iron. My 30 pounder was a PB for me. These fish fought hard over the shallow reef, and would power into the kelp. You know the drill. I fished 30# & 40# topshots, and Bruce stuck to 80# spectra with 50# f/c on his Tranx 500. This was a great setup on his (newish) Terramar two-piece jig stick. Gary was throwing the stick baits on two Saltist spinners with 65# braid, and getting bit like crazy. We put 14 YTs in the boat, and worked hard for them. Due to the rough conditions, we took a beating and were loving it. We retreated to a calm spot over by the salt operation and popped a few more in easier conditions. Then ran back to the harbor where we offloaded and enjoyed a cold beer and weighed fish. Then out to the veranda at the lodge for beverages, rerigging and had a late snack. We had a few afternoon treats during the trip, ceviche, fried YT bites with tartar sauce, and chips with pico & guac. Excellent and all very fresh. The meals were all very good. I have some dietary restrictions, which were met with a smile and great substitutions.
Thursday was different again. Before sunrise, we noted heavy overcast and a light breeze from new wind direction. Good, we thought maybe less wind would be nice today. I had the drill down better now, with two days of fishing here under my belt. I was already stoked with a PB fish, and near limits. Our group of six decided to pool the fish as best as we could, to work hard to fill all six anglers with the 50# weight limit of fish. There's more to this story, as the smaller aircraft does have firm weight limitations and you can't just take all you want. We were also respectful of the local regulations and our take. Thursday we had the drill down, and we each found our corner of the panga. The boat slid in, and jigs would fire out. We had another amazing day on stick baits and iron. My white/mint Tady 7X stuck a brute of a fish that put my on the rail. Javier motored over the fish and I gave it all I could on my Trinidad 16A setup. And after a serious tug-fest, bang and other amazing PB at 34 lbs! We fished hard, and we all hung fish over 30#, all on surface iron and stick baits. By this time, I was pretty worked casting iron, so I grabbed a stick bait and my Lexa 400 setup. Damn, on again! This is a freakin' amazing YT fishery. We boxed another 13 YTs. I gotta say that we were really focused on the Yellowtail fishing, and that's why we went. But... we all released huge Calicos 5# to 8#. We didn't even photo them. The OR boys didn't quite understand the SoCal addiction for Calico fishing, so I tried explaining it. Hey, these guys hammer the Oregon coast for Cod, Bass and monster Lingcod all day so whattaya say? We also caught a boat load of Calicos, Bonito, and a few "pencil" Barracuda. The pangaros also put some anglers on a Halibut bite on the cobbly south beach. We didn't try it.
There's a lot more to talk about, but I'm about typed out here and gotta return to reality soon. If you want to do some amazing fishing in a pristine Mexican environment, visit Cedros ASAP. Rosie, Richard and the team at Cedros Sportfishing are organized, polite, responsive and did a super job. Pull the lever!
A couple of notes:
The pic with the masks and life jackets was only a Harbormaster requirement. We wore masks in the Harbor area and at the airport only. The shopping downtown is closed to visitors due to Covid, so the lodge crew did all the shopping for us.
We have fished in Baja for over twenty years, and the care of our catch is very important to us. We feel that if we are going to take from the resource, we need the catch to be cared for with good standards and no excuses. The locals do not always agree or look after things the way we do. In the past, I have flown with a fish vacuum packer! The fish processing here is exceptional. The lodge owners decided to set up their own fish processing unit. It's very nicely done, with a clean a/c environment (zero fishy smell). Skilled personal butchered our catch and packed it in nice size portions on a commercial vacuum packing machine. And no additional fee was charged, all inclusive. Exceptional and huge kudos to Cedros Sportfishing! All Baja fishing resorts should take note.
Thanks for takin' a look -
Jeff
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Rosie!
