Anglers –
November 21, 2015
With all of the major local gamefish tournaments now over we will see the crowds of visiting anglers lighten up, as people are now preparing for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays which are rapidly approaching. The weather this week was dominated by the persistent northeast winds, which picked up at the start of the week and never really laid down all week. This created choppy seas and limited options for fleets launching out of San Jose del Cabo, though twenty miles to the south, out of Cabo San Lucas, the seas were much calmer, in areas which were more protected from north winds, though action was still sporadic.
Tropical Storm Rick developed more than several hundred miles off to the west of the Baja Peninsula and is forecast to stay far offshore and not cause any impact on land. Overall we are feeling a cooling trend, though daytime temperatures were reaching 85 degrees. Ocean temperatures dropped a couple of degrees as well, most areas are now averaging 82 degrees, some spots of 83/84 degrees, this trend should continue, maybe the cooling currents will help normalize pre-El Nino currents for bait and gamefish migrations.
Action proved to be more spread out and less productive this past week, there were some quality fish accounted for, though numbers were down, no particular place was hot, wind was a major factor on the grounds from the Gordo Banks and to the north. Schools of yellowfin tuna up to 100 pounds were seen surfacing while traveling with porpoise, but conditions were not favorable for chasing these rapidly moving schools and not many of these tuna were landed. A handful of fish in the 40 to 80 pounds were accounted for, some striking on strips of squids, other on live chihuil. Still no resource for sardinas, there have been caballito and ballyhoo available as other options. Perhaps cooling currents and less angling pressure will allow the sardinas to move within our range, which would be a great bait to have at this time.
The wahoo were not as active this past week either, though on Monday there was a 69 lb. wahoo landed out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, this trophy sized ‘hoo hit on a live skipjack, was part of an explosive double hook up, which resulted in one nice wahoo landed and another one lost. Wahoo were spread out throughout the area, though better chances still seem to be north of Punta Gorda. Dorado action slowed was down in recent days, though these fish are still in the area, the majority of charters finding maybe one or two, or at least having a chance or two.
Billfish was spread out, though there did seem to be increased numbers of striped marlin in local waters now, also some sailfish and at least one blue was landed for the panga fleet out of Puerto Los Cabos. When the wind does reside there should be better opportunities found.
More sierra are moving in with the cooling waters, these smaller sized gamefish will provide bonus inshore action, especially when we start seeing schools of sardinas move back into the region. It will not be long until the annual migration of whales arrive for their winter visit to their most southern calving and feeding grounds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 138 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 14 striped marlin, 12 sailfish, 66 yellowfin tuna, 13 wahoo, 96 dorado, 12 sierra, 14 rainbow runner, 76 misc. pargo species, 12 cabrilla, 14 bonito and 50 triggerfish
Good fishing, Eric