December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Another Christmas Season has crept up on us, this past week everyone has been very busy preparing for family events. Weather conditions were extremely harsh across the United States, freezing snow and ice, to flooding rains on the West Coast. Meanwhile in Los Cabos the temperatures have cooled with the official start of winter, but skies remain mostly sunny and high temperatures are reaching into the upper 70s, though early mornings were down in the mid 50s, crispy desert chill, visitors do need to remember their jackets.

Water conditions changed dramatically this past week, dropping off from an average of 75/76 degrees down to a low of 69 degrees, before now rebounding up to 72 degrees. Currents were strong and pushed in greener cooler water which scattered gamefish accordingly. The great bite for quality sized yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks came to a complete halt , as most charters were now concentrating closer to shore for a mix of sierra and other reef dwellers. Some yellowfin were being found further offshore moving with porpoise, but this was some 15 to 25 miles offshore and it was hit or miss for mostly smaller sized tuna. Striped marlin action was very slow as well, with the baitfish scattered the marlin seem to be holding down deep and not concentrated on any spot.

The wind has been light to moderate recently and anglers enjoyed comfortable conditions for the most part. Supplies of sardinas have rebounded some, as there is now less pressure from light crowds, schools of these baitfish have now been located off the local beaches from Punta Gorda to Palmilla and Chileno, most days the bait was plentiful and of good size. Best all around action in recent days was found directly off of Palmilla Point, using a mix of yo-yo’s, rapalas and sardinas anglers were finding quite a variety fo species, not large fish, but fun action on lighter tackle. There were huge schools of skipjack up to 10 pounds, mixed in there were some finicky yellowfin tuna that would disappear as fast as they would first come up, showing best a bit later in the morning, preferring the live bait, some did hit on lures as well. These tuna weighed 10 to 20 pounds, some boats having as many as 6 to 10 fish. A few medium sized dorado were also roaming this inshore area and off the bottom there were some fire cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack and snapper, most of these in the 5 to 10 pound range. Sierra were now moving in along the entire coastline, concentrated near areas holding baitfish, some of these sierra were larger 5 to 8 pound fish.

So we are now moving into our normal winter time type fishing, there can be good variety, typically the fish are not as large as in warmer months, but there can be many types of great eating species accounted for. We look for action to improve inshore, more yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin action should improve steadily offshore.

The year of 2010 turned out to be what most anglers would have to say is World Class. There were significant numbers of yellowin tuna brought in that were in the cow and super cow categories and the local bite for black and blue marlin was perhaps the best it has been for a dozen years. Wahoo action was spread out through the entire calendar year, not just in the fall when they normally bite most consistently. La Playita fleets found epic bottom action while drift fishing with Pacific moonfish, landing monster sized amberjack and dogtooth snapper on a fairly regular basis. At a point midsummer anglers found these same 20 to 70 pound fish directly off of the marina channel entrance, mainly locals capitalized on this opportunity during the late afternoon hours during the long days of July.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 21 dorado, 3 wahoo, 112 yellowfin tuna, 22 pargo, 8 cabrilla, 28 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 18 bonito, 188 black skipjack and 144 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 18, 2010

The official start of the winter season is next week, while much of the United States is enduring freezing temperatures the light crowds of tourists now visiting the Los Cabos area have been enjoying clear sunny skies with highs near 80 degrees. Cooler marine moisture dropped early morning into the mid 50s. Water temperatures are progressively cooling now ranging from 70 to 76 throughout the region. Greener cooler currents are pushing in a southern direction from Vinorama. The Gordo Banks area has had the most favorable conditions in recent days and this is where much of the sport fishing fleet has been concentrated.

With the lighter crowds this past week, this help the supply and demand situation for the available bait. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches by the commercial netters, also on most days there has been fresh dead brined sardinas available at the dock early in the a.m. Mackerel and caballito have been very limited.

Last year during this same time frame anglers were catching quality sized yellowfin tuna and that is also what is happening this past week. Tuna to over 200 pounds are being hooked into while drift fishing on the Gordo Banks. Average yellowfin was in the 30 to 80 pound class, but much larger fish are on these same fishing grounds, at least two tuna over 200 pounds were taken in the past several days. Using a combination of live and dead sardinas proved most productive, leaders of 40 to 60 were preferred, as these fish were shy do to all of the natural food sources now in the area, due to these light leaders many of the larger fish were lost. The action for the smaller grade of yellowfin off of Iman and Punta Gorda has tapered off since a good start beginning the week. Now the best action has definitely been around the Inner Gordo Bank. Late week it was common for charter to have two or three tuna in the 70 to 90 pound class per morning.

Dorado were showing up in the daily fish counts more frequently, more of these fish were found trolling within a couple miles of shore and many anglers found their two fish limit in a hurry, with sizes averaging 10 to 20 pounds.

Wahoo were becoming more scattered in the cooling waters, each day a few of these fish were being landed, most of them from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, with sardinas and yo-yo jigs accounting for the majority. We did hear of an occasional wahoo striking on Rapala or skirted lure as well.

Early this last week a couple of black marlin were hooked into while slow trolling live chihuil on the Gordo Banks, on estimated 350 pound black was lost after a three hour battle by a group of anglers on the super panga “Killer II” and another black that was hooked up at the same time was landed by local pangero Hugo Pino, it weighed in the 450 pound range. The lack of mackerel locally made it tough to find any concentrations of striped marlin, only some fish here and there. A couple of larger sharks seen, mako and one tiger were seen on tuna grounds, several hooked fish were bitten by sharks and there was also a very large sea lion that was a major nuisance.

Sierra and smaller sized roosterfish were moving inshore in greater concentrations, this should produce consistent light tackle action for the coming months.

Limited action reported off the bottom, a few amberjack, pargo and cabrilla, current has been swift, this makes it that more difficult to work the bottom spots. 

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 51 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 5 striped marlín, 112 dorado, 16 wahoo, 139 yellowfin tuna, 16 pargo, 12 cabrilla, 9 amberjack, 26 roosterfish and 24 sierra.

December 11, 2010

Los Cabos is greeting visitors with warm sunny skies, this while much of the United States is enduring freezing early winter temperatures. Daytime highs in Cabo were near 80 degrees, with lows in the upper 50s. Breezes were moderate and blew prominently from the north, this kept ocean conditions comfortable for anglers out of San Jose del Cabo. Water temperature were slowly dropping, now averaging a still favorable 74 to 76 degrees through much of the Southern Baja Region.

There was a sharp decline in the numbers of tourists arriving in recent days, this can be expected, as people have other priorities and are now gearing up for Christmas. More whales are migrate in to local coastal waters, as these mammals arrive to enjoy the sub tropic conditions for the next several months. For the anglers that were here to fish, they found the fishing action to be a bit more spotty and scattered, but with persistence and patience there was a variety of quality game fish found on the local fishing grounds. The majority of the action was found from Chileno to Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank.

The bait situation was limited, on most days there were caballito and sardinas available. Schools of sardinas were found close to shore off of Palmilla and towards Vinorama, though they varied in size and quantity. Obtaining the sardinas was necessary for targeting the yellowfin tuna that were schooling close to shore off of Chileno and Punta Gorda, these fish ranged up to 30 pounds and fly lining with sardinas was most successful. There was a larger grade of yellowfin holding on the Gordo Banks, most of these tuna ranged in the 30 to 60 pound class, tuna to over100 pounds were landed in recent days, and larger fish were seen at times breaking the surface. The fish seemed a bit finicky due to all of the natural food fish now on these fishing grounds. Using lighter fluorocarbon leaders, with combinations of live and dead baits did result in hook ups. You had to put in a good effort, but many charters did have two or more fish in their box.

Dorado became more scarce again this past week, only an occasional do-do encountered, more of them were found within a couple of miles to shore and weighed less than 20 pounds.. Wahoo action slowed as well, not many were hooked on trolled lures, but slow trolling with various baits did result in some scattered action, some wahoo were also striking on chrome patterned yo-yo style jigs, this while anglers were targeting yellowfin tuna and chumming with their limited supply of bait. Recently it has paid off to purchase extra bait.

Bottom fishing produced a mix of cabrilla, rainbow runners, pargo and amberjack, though no big numbers, strong currents were running on and off, hard to always find favorable conditions to drift over the rock piles. A handful of yellowtail were landed by the La Playita fleet, so we should see more of these jacks arriving with the cooler waters.

Anglers have been starting to troll coastal stretches and are finding some smaller sized roosterfish, jack crevalle and sierra, most of these fish were hooked on sardinas and weighed ten pounds or less, can be fun action for children. Sierra were schooling off of the San Jose hotel zone and have been striking well on hoochies or rapalas early in the morning.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 65 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 1 black marlin, 19 wahoo, 136 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 9 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 2 yellowtail, 18 rainbow runner, 28 roosterfish and 38 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric