Anglers –
June 16, 2018

Last week we witnessed the season’s first hurricane develop, named Aletta, gaining category 4 strength, this system moved far to the west and never impacted the Los Cabos Region. Quickly forming Hurricane Bud directly followed Aletta, this storm also reaching category four status as it followed a path directly for land fall at Cabo San Lucas. Fortunately there was strong sheer and cooler currents that contributed to weakening rapidly to a moderate Tropical Storm. Starting Wednesday night and all day through Thursday, TS Bud did pack a powerful punch, as there was a deluge of rainfall dumped, up to six inches or more in isolated areas throughout the Southern Baja. Wind gust to over 60 mph were experienced and quite a bit of flooding occurred in the lower plateau arroyo areas. Some areas lost electricity and water services, but these were mostly restored within 24 hours. There will be some drying out from this storm, but overall we felt fortunate and did enjoy the much needed rainfall, look for the scorched desert mountainous landscape to turn lush green within days.

This turned out to be a shortened week for sportfishing, moderate crowds of anglers were in town, but we were only able to launch Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, before Red Flag conditions closed all Port Operations. There were scores of world class surfers in San Jose Del Cabo for the International Pro Event annually held at Costa Azul and even this contest had to be postponed due to heavy storm swell conditions of up to fifteen to twenty feet.

This week started out much the same for anglers, with the striped marlin action being the most consistent bite being found, this was near the Iman and Desteladera Banks where large schools of batfish congregated on these same grounds, mainly sardineta, with a small percentage of mackerel mixed in. This frenzy had kept the billfish on these grounds for a couple of weeks now. Fleets were arriving in big numbers from all directions to get in on the action. Sizes of the striped marlin ranged from 60 lb. to 150 lb. These fish were striking best on bait, either while slow trolling or drifting. Though by Tuesday the bait schools seemed to all but vanish and it proved much harder to find the stripers, though many were hooked into, they appeared to be spreading out in search of their food supply. We also heard more stories of sea lion and shark factors.

We saw no yellowfin tuna, dorado or wahoo action to speak much about. A handful of small football sized tuna were found while open water trolling, there were also scattered reports of tuna being encountered with moving porpoise further offshore of Cabo San Lucas, mainly smaller fish and proving to be hit or miss. Before the storm arrived there was a flurry of missed wahoo strikes on trolled lures reported, some lost right near gaff. Dorado were absent as well. Maybe this new storm surge has pushed in a new group of gamefish, with weather now settling we will find out this coming week, could take some days for water temperatures to warm back up.

The week started off with sporadic shallow water bottom catches, increasing swells and currents made this option more difficult, though a few quality specimens were accounted for, including one 60 lb. Broomtail grouper, as well as barred pargo to a 15 lb. and leopard grouper to over 20 lb. A mix of yellow snapper, pompano and surgeonfish rounded out the structure bite. Inshore there were limited number of roosterfish found, changing daily, maybe we will see a later than normal season on these gamefish. Early this week though we did have charters that released roosterfish that were in the 75 lb. range. These were found near el Cardon. Some nice sized amberjack were seen close to shore on these same grounds, only to have hook ups lost to the rocks. We look for the next few weeks to bring big opportunities for roosterfish, dogtooth snapper and amberjack.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 28 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 22 striped marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 13 yellow snapper, 7 surgeon fish, 18 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 2 amberjack, 11 roosterfish, 1 broomtail grouper, 12 barred pargo, 8 pompano,18 jack crevalle, 5 sierra and 25 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
June 9, 2018

Tropical storm season has arrived this week with the formation of Hurricane Aletta, which presently is tracking some three hundred miles off to the west of Manzanillo and forecast to continue on a more north westerly path. This is a major storm, predicted to reach category four strength before encountered cooler ocean conditions where it will quickly weaken. This first storm of the season is not threatening the Los Cabos region by making any land fall, but we are feeling higher humidity and most notably seeing larger ocean swells build to over ten feet throughout the weekend. We are more preoccupied now watching closely the formation of a second system right behind Aletta which is forecast to move directly in the direction of the Southern Baja California Peninsula, so all eyes will be closely watching this and preparing accordingly.

This week started off with winds out of the south pushing back in cooler Pacific currents in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and to Los Frailes. Inshore water turned greenish and cooled off into the low 70s, this in turn shut down most of the inshore and shallow water structure fishing, though outside of the Iman Bank and to the north, water temperatures were warmer, in the 74 to 76 degree range and also cleaner. Here on the Desteladera Bank is where the best action of the week was found, huge concentrations of baitfish, including sardineta, mackerel, chihuil, skipjack and bolito were found, this in turn made for very good striped marlin action, many charters accounted for three, four or more billfish per morning. Sizes of these fish were impressive, not all the smaller sized striped marlin we were becoming more used to seeing, this week many of the fish hooked into were in the 100 to 140 lb. class. Sportfishing fleets were arriving from all directions to get in on this frenzy.

The yellowfin tuna action faded out completely as the ocean currents changed last Sunday, same with the dorado, very few of these fish were seen. Not much going on presently besides the marlin action. Strong currents made it tougher to target bottom species, though there was some sporadic success found for the anglers that did target the bottom structure, most common species were yellow snapper, leopard grouper, surgeon fish, barred pargo, triggerfish, with a few amberjack and pompano also encountered.

With surf action now heavy, also cooler green water covering the first couple miles inshore, this has made inshore action come to a standstill. We are still seeing large schools of mullet, particularly now inside of the marina, so we do expect to see some of the larger roosterfish, dogtooth snapper and amberjack to arrive once conditions settle down. So far the roosterfish season has gotten off to a slow start, spotty action and not as many large size fish as we would normally expect to see, it is still early in the month, so a lot and change in a matter of a week or two this time of year.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 62 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 84 striped marlin, (majority released), 5 dorado, 6 yellowfin tuna, 32 yellow snapper, 12 surgeon fish, 14 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 10 huachinango (red snapper), 7 amberjack, 6 roosterfish, 1 sculpin, 7 barred pargo, 5 pompano,12 jack crevalle, 11 sierra and 60 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
June 2, 2018

This week we again saw more numbers of tourists arriving, many of these being family groups. Weather was ideal, progressively becoming warmer, but still in the comfortable range, highs in the mid to upper 80s. Ocean swells were light, winds minimal and fishing action also showed all around improvement. Ocean temperatures were ranging in the upper 70’s in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and to the north, this is also where the most consistent fishing action has been found

Supplies of sardinas have remained sufficient, though it is the time of year when these smaller baitfish migrate out of the area, so that could happen very soon. Sizeable schools of mullet are now in the area, as well as caballito. Offshore more bait activity was also found, chihuil, skipjack, sardineta and even some mackerel.

The striped marlin bite that had scattered last week was now again going strong on the Desteladera Bank, this is where concentrations of baitfish are congregated. Charters are reporting multiple chances for stripers daily, mainly while drift fishing baits, but also trolling. Sizes ranged from 70 lb. up to about 130 lb.

After being dead for nearly a week the yellowfin tuna were once again found, having moved from La Fortuna and Iman Bank to the Vinorama area, a long ride north for local fleets, though these yellowfin were located within one mile of shore. Striking best on sardinas, either slow trolling or drifting. Lots of black skipjack on these same grounds as well, recently not too bad for sea lion or shark issues. The tuna found on these grounds were ranging from about 15 lb. up to 70 lb., also proved to be finicky, striking best on 30 to 40 lb. leaders, so you must play out these larger fish for up to an hour to land them. Charters were accounted for up to five fish per boat, though the majority were fortunate to land one or two.

A few more dorado seen this week, though very spread out and most of these were under ten pounds, this Sunday is the local annual Dorado Tournament, we will see how that plays out. No wahoo to speak about yet.

Inshore action was mainly for roosterfish and jack crevalle, most of the roosters were in the 15 lb. to 25 lb. range, though a few much larger were accounted for, We expect the largest roosterfish to appear in the next three weeks.

Other action included a mix of shallow water structure species, more pompano were seen, as well as yellow snapper, amberjack, leopard grouper and others.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 76 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 32 striped marlin, (majority released), 28 dorado, 2 yellowtail, 78 yellowfin tuna, 44 yellow snapper, 28 surgeon fish, 1 sculpin, 18 spotted rose snapper, 25 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 13 huachinango (red snapper), 12 amberjack, 11 barred pargo, 1 pargo colorado. 21 pompano, 46 roosterfish, 16 jack crevalle, 8 sierra, 12 flag cabrilla, 5 Island jack and 150 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric