Anglers –
July 16, 2016

With the majority of school sessions now out for summer vacation we have seen an increase in tourists arriving, they are being greeted by tropical weather conditions, though we did not receive any rain this past week, we have seen an increase in cloud activity, this is the time of year when we often have thunderstorms develop later in the afternoon over the mountainous regions just to the north of the airport. In the past ten days there has been a series of tropical storms that have developed off to the southwest of the Southern Baja peninsula, first Hurricanes Celia and Darby and presently there is another tropical depression that is forecast to gain strength and become Hurricane Estelle. So far all of these systems have headed far enough off to the west that they have had no impact on land, only some moderate increase in ocean swells, some threatening thundershowers possibly in isolate areas and winds out of the south, increasing later in the day.

Water temperatures have rapidly warmed back up into 78 to 83 degrees range, strong currents continue to push in greenish water closer to shore, though within several miles of shore we are seeing much cleaner water. Bait supplies of caballito and moonfish are remaining sufficient in the marina channel area, offshore there are opportunities at finding skipjack, bolito, as well as smaller sized yellowfin tuna, all of which can be used for baits targeting larger gamefish.

We did not hear much going on with offshore porpoise and tuna activity this past week, though this is something that can occur at any given time this time of year. We have been finding a smaller grade of yellowfin tuna in the area from Iman to San Luis Banks, tuna in the 8 to 20 lb. class have been striking on a variety of medium sized trolling lures, as well as few of these yellowfin striking on yo-yo jigs or trolled baits. This has not been a wide open bite by any means, most charters averaging two to four tuna in their combined catch. The same grounds have produced a mix of pargo and snapper species, a handful of cabrilla and amberjack. Other options were closer to the shoreline, where anglers continue to find decent numbers of roosterfish, ranging in sizes from 10 lb., to over 60 lb. Also chances at dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado and amberjack as well, this action was found while slow trolling or drift fishing available baits. Amberjack to 75 lb. were accounted for, also a handful of quality leopard grouper to 20 lb. Early in the morning anglers found decent action on yo-yo jigs, bonito, cabrilla, huachinango, yellow snapper and others, all excellent eating table fare.

Only a scattering of dorado being reported, most of these further offshore where boats are targeting billfish, a mix of striped marlin and a few blue marlin. Most of the dorado we did see were smaller sized, less than 15 lb. A few wahoo were found just north of Vinorama, even though the water was greenish on these inshore grounds, apparently there must be something attracting the wahoo to this one small area. With the offshore fishing being more scattered, most panga charters are doing better to target the variety of species being encountered closer to shore, best spots have been from Cardon to Vinorama, within three miles of shore.

Conditions continue to be a bit sporadic, we expect later in the month conditions will stabilize and we will see more consistent action on the pelagic gamefish, such as dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish, black and blue marlin.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 71 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 17 dogtooth snapper, 85 yellowfin tuna, 36 bonito, 6 dorado, 4 wahoo, 19 amberjack, 28 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 6 pargo colorado, 23 huachinango (red snapper), 10 yellow snapper, 6 barred pargo, 12 jack crevalle, 3 snook and 42 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric