Huge Fish Caught On Camera!!! HELP IDENTIFY! Trip Report 10/26

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
I never got around to writing a trip report for my EPIC day out on the jet ski Saturday, October 26. This might have been the first time in my life that I actually made it to Cholla Bay right after sunrise. Villa wouldn't launch me until a little after 730am because of the extreme low tide. I made my way around the point to the east and saw two guys kayak fishing just inside Pelican Point between Tucson Beach and Pelican Point. I stopped to ask if they were getting anything and one of the guys told me Corvina every cast. I asked if they didn't mind me posting up in their spot for a little bit. They said it was cool so I anchored up and let one of the guys tie his kayak up to the jet ski because of the extreme tide that weekend the drift was about 3mph. They weren't joking! Corvina every cast! The Garmin was showing so much Anchovy and Corvina under my boat that it looked like the bottom started 10 ft under the boat even though I was in 17 to 20ft of water. I was using a 1oz jig head with eyes and some soft plastic swim shad that I got from Phoenix Fishing Supply. The shad were molded and poured by a guy locally in Phoenix and PFS tries to sell them for the guy. I always forget the two guys names that own the joint that are always there but he gave me a bunch to "get rid of" and "try". They look like 5inch generic paddle tail swim shad but I found out later when I was fishing that the way they are molded it's almost like they are molded in two pieces and the shad splits down the middle almost immediately after putting it on the jig or after a few casts. Definitely won't be buying those again. Anyway, back to the story... Fished with the two kayak guys for maybe an hour and got a bunch of good size Corvina. Here's where things get interesting! We're sitting there fishing and all of a sudden a huge fish breaches the surface and makes an absolute giant of a splash. It was behind me a little and to my left so I didn't see anything just heard the splash and the two kayak guys yelling WOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Immediately we're asking each other if they saw it, what it was, all the speculation! I was speculating what type of fish busts the surface like that for bait, Corvina? Skipjack? (false alby) Bonita? Sierra? The two kayak guys didn't get good enough look to see what it was. They just said it was big! Shortly after that I was sitting there talking to the guy that was tied up to my boat while I was cleaning some of the Corvina and I look over and there's what I would say was an adult sea turtle, Olive Ridley??? Swimming along about a foot under the surface withing 6 feet of the boat. First time that I've ever seen a sea turtle in the Sea of Cortez. So that was really cool. Told the kayak guy how rare that is, not sure if he believed me. It was just one of those days! Shortly after that I pulled the anchor and headed towards the back side of competition to troll some plugs. I trolled the whole stretch east from Pelican Point to Competition. No takers. Decided I was going to head over to the jetty and fish that. I start motoring away and about the same time the GATO LOCO cameraman had pulled up close to me and I noticed they were chasing some dolphins. I decided to pull the phone out and take some videos. This was a GIANT pod of dolphins. At first you can hear me saying there's got to be a hundred. About 20 minutes later after cruising with the pod my estimate jumped to a thousand! This pod was absolutely ginormous! They were super dense too so not only were they covering a large area but when you looked down you could see how many there were so closely together. The Gato Loco and I played with these dolphins for a while or maybe it's the other way around. You can definitely tell the dolphins know what they're doing and they're enjoying it. My favorite is when you get one of the BOW RIDERS to turn sideways so one of their big eyes can get a good look at you. It was seriously epic! I will try and post some of the videos but unfortunately I decided in the moment to use Instagram to take the videos. They delete after 24 hours unless you save them and I don't think I saved all of them. I could have cruised with these dolphins for an hour but I had all the fun I needed and took good videos because PICS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN and then went on with my day. After the dolphin fun I cruised over to the jetty and fished that area for a while with no luck. Ton of bait in the water that day but no luck over there. Good to see so many locals rod and reel fishing the jetty. At least it's getting used for something! Stopped on the east side of the jetty and dropped anchor. Water is so calm over there sometimes. Had lunch, drank a beer. Chilled. Shortly after that I cruised over to Manny's to say hi to some friends that were in town the same weekend. Headed back to Cholla Bay around 3pm. I could really only do about 25 mph on the way back because of the chop but still only took about 20 minutes to get back over to the Pinto Point area of Cholla Bay. Decided I would troll some plugs down my new favorite stretch of rocky shoreline on the south side of Cholla Bay from Pinto Point west to Pelican Point. I got a huge Cochi (trigger) in the 5lb range if I had a good estimate. I decided to make a couple of passes going from east to west right where Pelican Point starts to go under the water on the south side and ended up getting a nice 20" Orange Mouth Corvina on the same jointed plug I caught the BIG DOG on back in June. I called it a day after that fish and Villa loaded me onto the trailer at 4pm. Spent a little over 8 hours on the jet ski and only used between 5 and 7 gallons of the full 15 in the tank that day. I bet I cruised about 20 miles that day. Not bad on the fuel consumption. All in all it was a seriously epic day on the water! One for the memory book!

Take away: I have never seen so much bait in the water before! Someone said they were Anchovy but there were spots on the south side of Cholla Bay that looked like the water was gleaming and glistening because the Anchovy were shiny and so thick! I mean. The amount of bait was NUTS!!!

Side NOTE: When I got home I realized my GOPRO captured the huge mystery fish on camera. Not the best still shot but it's all we have!

PLEASE HELP IDENTIFY OR SPECULATE AS TO WHAT FISH THIS IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Kenny

Well Known Member
A great day Joe and hearing your voice an octave or two higher than usual when you were in the midst of the pod had me grinning. The fish, I don't know, but you might as well put Yellowtail on your list too, as I've caught a juvenile trolling that area. I also hooked into an almost 4-foot billfish of some kind along there as well. He was darting around the boat and I put on a big white jig, and he sped off with it on the first cast. The fastest fish I've ever seen, but not for long.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
A great day Joe and hearing your voice an octave or two higher than usual when you were in the midst of the pod had me grinning. The fish, I don't know, but you might as well put Yellowtail on your list too, as I've caught a juvenile trolling that area. I also hooked into an almost 4-foot billfish of some kind along there as well. He was darting around the boat and I put on a big white jig, and he sped off with it on the first cast. The fastest fish I've ever seen, but not for long.
Yellowtail?! I didn't even think about that. I can post the video hopefully. It's definitely dark or dark green on top/dorsal... Could be yellowtail! Croaker can get pretty grey/dark grey up top too... hard to tell. Body shape is more streamline from what I can see. Can we narrow it to the fish at least being a pelagic? I'd say 20-30lbs? That's 30 yards from the rocks on the inside of the Tuscon Beach bay.
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
Yellowtail?! I didn't even think about that. I can post the video hopefully. It's definitely dark or dark green on top/dorsal... Could be yellowtail! Croaker can get pretty grey/dark grey up top too... hard to tell. Body shape is more streamline from what I can see. Can we narrow it to the fish at least being a pelagic? I'd say 20-30lbs? That's 30 yards from the rocks on the inside of the Tuscon Beach bay.
In the late fifty's and early '60s, it wasn't uncommon to see turtles all throughout that area, and we'd even see Manta ray in the bay. Most all of the fish that used to be there can show up at any time. Oh, and lots of sharks in those days too. That's why it's so much fun to fish that area. I mean who knows, you might hook that fish next time out.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
In the late fifty's and early '60s, it wasn't uncommon to see turtles all throughout that area, and we'd even see Manta ray in the bay. Most all of the fish that used to be there can show up at any time. Oh, and lots of sharks in those days too. That's why it's so much fun to fish that area. I mean who knows, you might hook that fish next time out.
Not if hes a pelagic... he's pry back down in Lobos with the rest of the crew. Hiding out. With the rest of the banditos. I wish I could have seen Cholla Bay in the Golden Age. The sharks not so much! I don't want to picture a 12ft Tiger shark when I'm sitting 8 inches off the water in an 11ft kayak.
 

Kenny

Well Known Member
Sharks were a big pain in the ass, Joe. It wasn't uncommon for a Shark to take our biggest Pinto of the day and right in that area you were fishing around Pinto Point. check it. Our boat was 16 feet long and my Uncle Teddy had hooked another shark that was 3 or 4 feet long, and when he had it almost to the boat, a huge Tiger as long as our boat came up, and it just seemed to swallow it. My dad wide-eyed yelled for me to get to the front of the boat. I didn't, hell, I couldn't. Teddy sat down as it swam away peeling off line. He pulled his knife out and cut it... They had a shark jaw, I think by Natcho's store, that I could almost walk through at 10. It's a love affair Joe, and you've fallen hard.:thumbsup:
 

estevan

Active Member
Great report! My guess is a big sierra or , like you said, a croaker. The shape of the tail makes me think you're probably right.
Those dolphin videos are unreal. Nothing like coming eye to eye with one of them.
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
sounds like a great day. I do not think my back could handle being on a jet ski for 8 hours though.
The Seadoo seats are incredibly plush believe it or not. I'm sure I feel it at the end of the day or the next morning though. That's why you just go to your local farmi y compras unas pastillas de dolor... me entiendes?
 
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