San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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February 13, 2011

Anglers –

It appears the coldest weather has now past, recent days have been mostly sunny, at times moderate cloud cover, overall conditions were on a warming trend compared to last week. Winds were still unpredictable, most of the time coming from the north, at times swinging out of the south. Ocean water temperatures raised a couple of degrees this week, now averaging 69 to 72 degrees, warmest areas now near the 95 spot, outside of Chileno.

Finding any sufficient supply of sardinas became difficult this past week, minimal supplies of this bait source were netted near Palmilla, hardly enough to have the needed chum for possibly chumming up the yellowfin tuna that have been schooling off of Santa Maria, these tuna were in the 15 to 25 pound class, but were very finicky and lots of bait was needed to have the best opportunities.

The most consistent fishing action has been closer to shore, over rocky structure, typically in depths ranging from 100 to 150 feet. Anglers used a combination of sardina, red crabs (when available) and yo-yo style iron jigs to catch a wide range of species, including red snapper (huachinango), cabrilla (leopard grouper), amberjack, yellowtail, yellow snapper, triggerfish, bonito, black skipjack and shark. These fish were all great eating species, averaging less than ten pounds, but also a few larger fish to over 20 pounds were accounted for. On an average morning charter groups could expect to catch three, four or five different types of fish and anywhere from 5 to 15 total landed.  

Stretches close to shore were holding sierra, roosterfish and at time yellowtail. Slow trolling with sardinas was the most productive method of finding action, though anglers also reported success on hoochies and Rapalas.

Pelagic red crabs are being found on the local fishing grounds, this has been more of a commercial pangero deal than sportfishing.  Each day these pelagic crabs are found on the surface, varies daily as to exactly where. These small crustaceans are what the red snapper are being caught on, pretty much exclusively since this is what these true red snapper now have a taste for.

Striped marlin activity has been scattered, though anglers wishing to target these billfish have had an average of a couple opportunities per day on stripers ranging up to 120 pounds, much of this action was found 8 to 15 miles off of the Palmilla to Chileno region. Strikes came on trolled lures, rigged ballyhoo and dropped back baits. We expect as water temperatures raise some and attract more offshore bait species, such as mackerel, sardinetas and flying fish, we will see improved action offshore.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 44 charters for the past week, with anglers reported a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 22 bonito, 15 amberjack, 22 cabrilla, 183 yellowtail, 114 huachinago (red snapper), 46 sierra, 32 roosterfish,14 dorado, 44 yellowfin tuna, 26 triggerfish, 3 mako shark, 1 wahoo and 45 black skipjack.  

Good fishing, Eric