That's My Story

This time of year fishing in the Baja is what I call the “transition time.” Although the air temperatures might convince many that it’s already summer, the water aspects of this place tell a different story.

Whereas, many spots, especially here in Southern Baja are already hitting the 90’s and low 100’s inshore, if you stick your toes into the water, you might still get a chill that would make you think twice.

If you were on a fishing craft with electronics or even just through observation, a day on the water might reveal various divergent levels of water temperatures both horizontally as you travel from point A to point B. For example, near the beach it’s 81 degrees. A quarter mile off in seemingly similar water, it’s 72.

Additionally, you might also measure different temperature gradients vertically as well. You might find 80 degree water on the surface, but a mere 30 feet down, hit a thermocline where waters drop to a bracing 65.

It’s not uncommon. In one spot, you could be over ultramarine blue waters that promise dorado or billfish, but several hundred yards away, the waters look and feel like cold green pea soup. Or, in the alternative, the green murky water could be the result of waters that have become warm enough for a plankton/algae bloom to explode where the growth of the organisms clouds the water to near zero visibility. It will stay so until the waters continue to warm and eventually kill the growth in the natural cycle.

The point being is that nothing is stable. It’s not really quite summer. It’s not quite spring and and surprisingly, in some ways, the waters still reflect even winter-like conditions on some level.

So, you come down all fired-up and tricked-out with your marlin rigs and while billfish are there, they won’t give you a sniff. Or, you find lots of sargasso weed that should be holding dorado and all your trolling lures hook are gobs of the grass!

Conversely, your target is pargo or cabrilla, but now your captain says it’s “tan calor.” (so warm) or “Hay tan mucho viento” (too much wind) and you thought all that was done with this late in the year.

My general advice to anglers who ask me is to be flexible. Don’t set your crosshairs on one particular species or style of fishing. Just because the wahoo were always there every June, doesn’t mean they’ll be there again. Just because the roosters are biting off Los Barriles doesn’t mean they’ll be hitting in Mulege or Loreto. Fish for what’s there, not for what’s not.

Water temps are important. I like to keep a small water thermometer with me. It’s not very sophisticated, but I can drag it or lower it to get some idea of what’s around me. It makes no point to fish in waters that are 65 degrees no matter how good it looks if the species I’m hunting usually wants 75 degree water.

Services like http://www.terrafin.com/ are invaluable as well to track where warm and cold water patches are moving. Waters change with currents and upwellings, tides and winds. Today’s 80 degree patch could be tomorrow’s 70 degree green zone.

It’s not only important for the purposes of finding game fish, but think about bait! Gamefish eat. They follow their stomachs like you and me. Find the bait and it helps locate your quarry. If mackerel, sardines or caballito require a certain type of water, then seek that water to find fish or at least use water temps to find bait for your tanks.

One thing I do pay more attention to as well is the length of time a certain patch of water is at a certain temperature. Changing water temperatures seem to affect the bite as much as anything.

I have worked waters where say, marlin, charged the boat en masse and with complete abandon going after anything thrown in the water. Then, the waters go up or down by a degree or two. Suddenly, you can see dozens of marlin and it’s like your boat and baits developed some kind of stink. They won’t give you a sniff and you can almost run over them until they swim away.

To me, it’s a bit like when you win a goldfish for your kid at the church fiesta. You bring it home in a plastic bag and let it sit in the bag bobbing in your aquarium until it gets acclimated to the water change.

Same thing with fish. They need to get acclimated. Pay attention to those temperature changes and you’ll help our hook up success.

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.