As most Baja and southern California fishermen are well aware, the giant Humboldt squid that have been frequenting our waters for the past several years possess incredibly powerful tentacles, along with a razor-sharp beak that can easily tear through the flesh of its prey …or that of an unsuspecting angler. This makes them an ominous factor to be reckoned with when hooked by someone who was actually fishing for another species of marine life.

Of course, serious aficionados who specifically target these nasty boys know exactly what they need to get the job done effectively. In addition to a 3 to 6 foot length of multi-strand, 150+ pound test wire leader to prevent the Humboldt’s sharp beak from quickly separating the terminal tackle from the main line, a specially designed squid jig is also often used. These lures have numerous pin-like prongs running up and down the body, which ensnare the tentacles of the giant squid as soon as they wrap around the artificial bait.

To some, however, their chance encounter with Dosidicus gigas is totally unexpected. At least such was the case recently for Pete Morris and his fishing buddy, Miles Smith, who are both unconventional and adventurous in their angling techniques. The two friends regularly fish the waters just off their families’ respective condominiums at K-38, located just a few miles south of Rosarito Beach on Baja Norte’s Pacific coast.

Since there is no marina or ramp convenient to their locale, Pete and Miles have taken to launching Pete’s small, motorized Zodiac raft right off the beach in front of the condos. They have been doing this for a few years now, and have become quite adept at the practice.

In regard to their most recent trip, Morris offers, “We have been getting bolder in our 14' inflatable. This time we went all the way out to the Coronado Islands and saw lots of yellowtail under patties, but most of them wouldn’t touch anything we were offering and we ended up catching only one.”

Morris then added, “We decided to try the 8-mile bank a bit further south, and at 5 miles out, we ran into a sight that we had never seen before; BIG brown creatures thrashing about near the surface. Instinctively, we threw metal jigs into the churning melee and immediately hooked up. It soon became obvious that we had encountered a huge school of squid; but not just regular squid …these guys were the giant Humboldt kind!

“They were heavy, hard-fighting and even made long runs.” Morris recounted. “One of them even spooled one of our reels. We eventually realized that things would work better if my partner, Miles, worked the rod while I handled the gaff. Getting one of those big monsters onto our inflatable Zodiac and then into the ice chest was quite an experience. When we were finally exhausted, we counted 7 of the big squid onboard and decided to head back toward the beach.”

After returning to shore and cleaning their catch, the two intrepid anglers, family and friends dined on fresh calamari steaks that were described by Morris as being simply ‘Incredible’. The following weekend Morris and Smith went out to the same spot and took an identical catch of 7 Humboldt before retiring for the day. Unfortunately, they haven’t seen another one since.

Pete Morris then added with a grin, “No big yellowtail or white sea bass, but we'll try again soon.”

In other local fishing action south of the border, yellowtail has been the name of the game. The long-finned albacore tuna that were hovering around in waters within 25 miles or so of the beach have now moved much further offshore and one of the largest members of the jack family that made Ensenada famous in sportfishing circles during past decades is back in the limelight.

(Photo by Tom Gatch) San Diego angler, Bobby Arms, headed south to get in on the hot yellowtail bite at the Coronado Islands.

Yellowtail fishing has been good from below Bahia San Quintin north to the International Boundary just past Islas Coronados. As a matter of fact, the north island continues to play host to numerous sportfishing boats from both sides of the border, several of whom have taken limits of fish weighing 20 to 30 pounds while fishing an area known by the unfortunate, but well-earned name of “Pukey Point”. Most of these quality yellowtail are being caught on either live sardines or surface iron.

From Bahia San Quintin, Capt. Kelly Catian of K&M Sportfishing euphorically reports, “This whole last week has been great! We’ve had super warm, clear blue water between 68 and 72 degrees on the outside with Tuna Dorado Yellows Marlin etc.... We fished the paddies until they wouldn’t bite anymore, and then we jumped in the water with our and spear guns and stuck the fish with ‘lock-jaw’ until we had our limits of dorado and yellowtail.”

Catian adds, “I was out with my son, Christian, on the Habanero the other day along with Pete Engle, Chris Pierce and Austin McKeever.  Some of the paddies we dove at had well over 50 to 60 dorado and a few yellowtail as well! There were also some marlin at the 240 spot that were jumping in the afternoon. Nonetheless, Captain Catian sanely concluded, “Some of those floating kelp paddies had several very large mako sharks cruising around them …so we skipped those!”