If you've got salt water running through your veins and love Mexico deep sea fishing in Baja California, Then Coyote Cal's Baja Hostel is the place to be. Below is all the fishing information you will need to fish Erendira. Arrange a charter from Castro's Fishing Place, or one of Erendira's independent Sport fishermen located a short hop from our Mexican hostel.
Learn some Fishing Techniques here!
What equipment do I need?
Summer Baja fishing conditions are from May to mid September. Bottom fishing is year around.
Use small hooks, #4 or #6, Sabiki bait rig lure to fish for Mackerel, Sardines or Smelt bait. You can snag them around the rocks and put them in a bait tank.
Calico Bass are isolated to rock structures. Most rock structure are not visible, so it is important that the skipper or pongader has a fish finder to locate the rocks. Use mostly 4” and 5” paddle-tails with ¾ oz. heads any color but browns and blues may be preferred. Keep your rig about one foot from the rocks. Let it drop and slowly crank it back and let them hit. Slow retrieve is the key. If the fish are busting the surface, then you want to pick-up that retrieve and work it faster or throw some top water baits. Calico Bass do not need live bait for the fishermen to be successful. The best structures are at 75 to 85 feet. On Calm days you can catch them at the surf line. Make sure your skipper backs-in and keeps the motor running. The Calico stick close to the rocks. They eat the mussel on the rocks.
Because of the kelp, 65# braid line is preferred on a bass real. Use a 7 ½ foot to 8 foot calico stick. Use a 20# full carbon leader. Use a real size similar to a Shimano Corado 300 or Diawa 300 or 400 series.
When casting, use 7” crocodile jigs with orange or blue strip. Iron Tady jigs work very well too. Suggested colors are white and candy bar. Ultimately live bait is best! Small mackerels are like candy to them. Ask the skipper to go for live bait before the fishing starts. The suggested real is a two speed Diawa Saltist with 60# braid line. Use 30-40# full carbon leaders.
Size 4 bait circle hook. Use an 8-9 foot jig stick. If you use live bait a 7 foot rod is better. If you want to bottom fish for yellow tail, you can Yo-Yo a butterfly jig. Sink it to the bottom and quickly real up with intermediate stops. When booking a panga, make sure the boat has a live bait tank. Most of the 24foot, 25foot and 26foot boats have a live well in front of the consol.
6oz, 8oz, 10oz and 12oz weights, torpedoes. The depth will be between 130 feet to 300 feet. Use a medium size bait casting real. Spool it with 65# braid with a 30# leader. You can put the weight on the bottom with a couple of #2 or #4 rock cod jigs on top.
If your hook is too large smaller mouthed fish will steal your bait. Frozen Squid is a stable bait. You can use a 3oz jig head sinker with a scampi, orange is the preferred color, root beer and green are good too. Put the scampi up on the leader and have squid on the bottom so the fish follow the line. Another method is to use 5 1/2oz lead jigs with a treble hook on the end of it.
Use squid on the bottom of that. Put two dropper loop on top about one foot above the jig, install a rod cod feather and fish it that way. The ling cods and the bigger reds like hitting the scampi or the larger bait. If you are fishing for white fish you need to scale down to smaller hooks because they have smaller mouths, # 8 hooks. Live Bait is good to use on Rock Cod. Let them sink to bottom and you will catch bigger fish and get more bites.
You don’t need the larger reels today because you can put much more line on a real when it is braided. For example a 60# braided line is the same diameter as a 20# mono line. In addition with two speed reels, you can get the fast retrieve.
Best pole is a long surf pole to reach in-between the Kelp, 25# to 30# rated line with a 15-20# leader. An open face real with a flip bale is recommended. #2 Eagle Claw hook, #4 or #6 if your bait is stolen often, with 8" leader 12” from bottom and spark plugs or 3oz torpedoes for weights at the bottom of the line.
Use live Mussel found on rocks for bait. Large sand crabs are in the surf/sand line. To clean a mussel, insert a knife near the hole located in the beard area. Carefully cut the white mussel area located on the forward lip of the clam, and open with your hands. Scoop out the black lip with your thumb nail, a half shell at a time, and in one piece. The black area is the firm part of the clam and stays on the hook. Cast in water 10-20 feet deep.
Close to kelp but not close enough to snag the kelp and near a rock ledge but not close enough to snag the rock shelf when reeling in. Use the surge of the wave to lift the hook and weight over the rock ledge. Halibut can be found in sandy areas. Calico Bass and White Sea Bass swim behind the impact zone of the waves.
(Beer can rigs are for sale at the Coyote Cal’s bar for $15.00 usd.)
Preferred fishing poles: (Yellow Tail),8’-9’ foot jig stick, for live bait 7’ foot rod, (Calico Bass), 7 ½ foot to 8 foot calico stick, (Bottom Fishing), Best pole is a 25 pound, (7’) foot rod. (Seeker© or Calstart©), (Shore and Surf Fishing), long surf pole.
Preferred reels: (Calico Bass), reel size similar to a Shimano Corado 300 or Diawa 300 or 400 series, (Yellowtail), reel similar to a two speed Diawa Saltist, (Bottom Fishing), medium size bait casting real. Best all around real is a Penn Jig Master©. (Shore and Surf fishing), open face real with a flip bale.
In the Box: 3oz, 6oz, 8oz, 10oz and 12oz torpedoes weights, as much as two pounds for deep sea Rock Cod, a variety of rock cod feathers; colors are orange, green blue, yellow and orange, blue and white. Various jigs such as a 5 1/2oz white Tady jig, 3oz jig head sinker with a scampi, orange is the preferred color, root beer and green are good too. 4” and 5” paddle-tails with ¾ oz. heads any color but browns and blues may be preferred. #4 or #6, Sabiki bait rig. Bait; use squid, mackerel and anchovies. 7” crocodile jigs with orange or blue strip, iron Tady jigs, suggested colors are white and candy bar. #2 or #4 rock cod jigs.
5 1/2oz lead jigs with a treble hook. size 4 & 8 bait circle hooks. #2 Eagle Claw hook Surface irons. (Tady© "45" or "C" or a Kicker© "25"),Best colors are (Blue/White), (Scramble Egg: Brown/Yellow/White), and (Blue or Green Mackerel color.). Rapallas© CD-14 and Crocodile© 2oz silver w/chrome flash tape work good too. Most of the time your skipper will supply squid but you should bring some along just in case! Fish Traps©, 5" swim bate, are also effective with the natural colors of Sardine, Anchovy or Calico Bass.
Full carbon leaders; 20-30-40#, Mono fishing line; 30#, Braid fishing line 60-65#.
Pangas seat 2 to 6 people and are equipped with radios for safety. Bait and fish cleaning are part of the boat's cost. Average tip to the skipper is $50.00 per panga. Average fish cleaning tip is $20.00/ice chest. For trip past (15) miles from port an extra charge. Boats leave harbor at 6:00am to 7:00am and return around 3:30pm. Boats are based on availability and can be canceled by pour weather like high winds. Below is the local wind and weather report web site: (https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/ensenada_baja_california_norte). Please book your Erendira fishing trips as much as one to two months in advance to avoid disappointment; this is very true during the summer, July thru August, and Saturdays. Check out Erendira sports fishing boat charters here!
To save your spot at Coyote Cal's, Mexico cheap hotels.
If you love to eat fish, but would rather not catch them you can always go to the fish co-op or El Prieto Y Toñares, phone; 011-52-646-107-9563,Office:011-52-646-154-4179 (Prices are in pesos per kilo) you can buy fresh crab meat:$160 ,shrimp:$150, clams:$100, bait:$35, and fish cheap:20, Halibut:$65-$50, White Sea Bass$65:! Place at about 10am and barter for your fish.
Fresh crab claws:$100/large, $55/small. The fishermen will clean and fillet it for you. All that's left for you to do is bring it on home and toss it on the BBQ and enjoy it! Whatever is left can be stored in our chest freezer.
