November 13, 2010
The Los Cabos area is now bustling with visiting anglers who are enjoying pristine weather conditions, sunny days, reaching 85 degrees, early mornings are starting to become cooler, but as the sun rises conditions warm quickly. The northern winds are becoming more predominate, though have been moderate compared to the rough conditions of last Thursday and Friday during the WON Tuna Jackpot Event. Ocean currents are averaging 79 to 81 degrees, clean blue water still being found close to shore, there are only moderate swells and currents have weaken. Overall the conditions are ideal for the peak of the Fall Season.
With the increased crowds of anglers we always face the situation with issues such as; limited and scattered bait supplies, slow fishing license purchase process, increase angler pressure on the local hot spots, also more time consuming to have your fresh catch filleted. Despite these draw backs the majority of people are having a good time.
Local La Playita fleets have been fishing several main areas, from the Santa Maria, Cabeza de Ballena region where there has been a consistent bite close to shore for yellowfin tuna for anglers using live sardinas for bait, these fish ranged up to 25 pounds, a few dorado, sierra and wahoo were mixed in, as well as a handful of sailfish. The Gordo Banks has been the spot where a larger grade of yellowfin have been found, no monsters this week, average tuna from the Banks recently has been 30 to 60 pounds, a few fish close to 100 pounds were accounted for this past week. Seemed the time of day when the best action could be found varied day to day, some days very early was best and other times later in the day the tuna became much more active, never can tell, the added pressure seems to be an contributing factor, anglers reported success while using lighter and longer fluorocarbon leaders.
On the Iman Bank catches included yellowfin tuna, wahoo, amberjack, dogtooth snapper, rainbow runner, sailfish, dorado, sierra and bonito. There was the option of dropping larger baits near the bottom while the same time targeting tuna closer to the surface with sardinas. A handful of dogtooth snapper up to 35 pounds were landed, as well as amberjack the same size, of course there were many stories of break offs by large fish. Sierra were surprisingly found several miles offshore on the high spots, mixed in with small schools of wahoo that were attracted to the sardina food source. Every day a couple of wahoo were being landed on straight mono, no leader, while using sardinas.
Anglers wishing to target wahoo have headed towards the San Luis Bank, this has been the place now for the past two weeks where wahoo have been congregating and providing some thrills for anglers trolling various higher speed lures and rigged baits.
Trap hooked caballito, chihuil, moonfish, bolito and ballyhoo all worked, problem at times was obtaining enough of these larger baits. These wahoo also prove tricky to actual hook, fight and then successfully land, with their incredible bursts of speed and rapid change of direction, along with a very boney jaw, all makes the battle more cautious. Lures such as Rapalas, Yo-Zuris, Marauder and skirted lead heads all accounted for their share of strikes. Most wahoo that were brought to the scales weighed in the 20 to 35 pound class, with an occasional fish in the 40 to 50 pounds category. On November 21 the planned La Playita Wahoo Tournament is scheduled, a one day event with various jackpot categories, also the keys to a new VW Pick Up will be up for grabs in a separate raffle. This year all sizes of boats are invited to participate, sign up will be held the afternoon of Nov. 20 at the Panga docking area in La Playita, should be a fun event.
Mid week there was a impressive blue marlin landed by Carl Nelson, from California, it was hooked while trolling a medium sized Zuker clone near the Gordo Banks and officially weighed in at 648 pounds. This marlin succumbed during the two hour battle on fifty pound tackle and could not be released, the meat was distributed throughout the local fishing village.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 220 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for, 4 striped marlin, 12 sailfish, 138 wahoo, 112 dorado, 804 yellowfin tuna, 15 dogtooth snapper, 32 amberjack, 19 cabrilla, 38 rainbow runner, 24 sierra, 7 roosterfish and 25 hammerhead shark.
Good fishing, Eric