By Kenji Nakagawa
CEDROS ISLAND – On July 17, our group of 12 anglers made a second visit to the legendary Isla de Cedros for four days of fishing with Cedros Outdoor Adventures. The trip was full of thrills and spills, as we targeted a variety of species. The yellows weren’t out in massive numbers during our trip, so we definitely had to capitalize on the few bites we did get. But the lack of numbers was made up for in quality with a few standout yellows up to 44 pounds.
After landing on the island around 11 am, we were off for a six-hour afternoon session. All the pangas found quick action on big yellowtail while fishing close to the harbor. Most fish were taken on slow trolled live mackerel rigged on OWNER Mutu ringed hooks. My boat got into a nice flurry of action on the surface irons, landing five fish in the last hour up to 20 pounds. The afternoon session was a great way to get the gear dialed and set the game plan for the rest of the trip.
On day two, our fleet of pangas spread all over the island to target different species. One boat went far north to fish white seabass and ended up hooking four black seabass, landing one estimated at 165 pounds. Other boats stayed close to the harbor and had success on big grade yellows up to 38 pounds. At the end of the day, we found most of our group fishing a beach near the harbor where bait was being pushed into some dirty water. The key was to either drift fly lined or slow troll mackerel along the color change, where the yellows were ambushing the bait. We also had a few fish taken on the yo-yo and surface irons, casting into the stained water.
Our third day was rinse and repeat. The yellows weren’t eager to eat the irons, so most boats switched to live bait to seduce a few bites. The result was a nice score on more of the large grade in the 30- to 40-lb range topped off with a personal-best at 43 lbs. while fishing near the old Cattle Ranch. One boat also got a nice hit on some beautiful sheephead while fishing the south end of the island. The goats were caught fishing small jigs like Colt Snipers and P-line Laser Minnows.
The final morning before we flew out, a few of the boats went out for a three-hour last hoorah. I decided to target calico bass using plastics. The hot bait was the 7-inch Dep’s Sakamata Shad on a 1.5-oz swimbait head. The calicos were crushing the bait on the fall before I could even turn the handle. At one point, I landed 5 fish on back-to-back casts!
The other boats decided to drift live mackerel in the shallows just north of the town beach. Before the buzzer rang, a handful of lucky anglers were able to land more personal-best yellows at 36, 37, and 44 pounds!
If I were going back to the island today, I would come prepared with a handful of surface irons in blue/white, mint, and scrambled egg along with live bait hooks like OWNER’s Gorilla J hooks or ringed Mutu hooks in 4/0-6/0 size. Don’t forget plastic baits like Optimum’s Bad Bubba Shad swimbaits and Dep’s Sakamata Shads. We’ve been here twice, and I’m already looking forward to a return adventure.
