San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

February 27, 2011

Anglers –

With the first slight hint of spring weather being felt in Southern Baja, visiting anglers found very pleasant conditions, mostly clear and sunny days, highs averaging 75 degrees. Swells were minimal, shifting currents, swift at times, water temperatures ranged from 68 to 72 degrees, warmer spots in the direction of the Sea of Cortez , ten to fifteen miles offshore of San Jose del Cabo. Winds have been variable, most prominent from the south, 8 to 14 mph. Schools of sardinas are presently most abundant off the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda to Vinorama, these baitfish have been available on a daily basis from the commercial panga fleet out of La Playita.

There was less bottom action found this past week, currents were a factor and the fact the schools of yellowtail were scattered, there were a wide variety of species being accounted for, just the numbers of total fish in the box was not as high as in previous weeks. Amberjack, yellowtail, cabrilla, grouper, pargo, skipjack and bonito were the most common species now being found off the rock piles, drifting over depths ranging from 100 to 160 ft. Most charters were targeting a combination of action, jigging off the bottom, trolling various surface plugs and lures, as well as drift fishing with sardinas.

With the water temperatures holding in the low 70s off of the San Jose del Cabo area, there has been improved trolling action, a few wahoo were even landed, a scattering of dorado and along the shoreline there were roosterfish and sierra found. Yellowfin tuna were encountered at times traveling with schools of porpoise, this was 3 to 20 miles offshore, matter of encountering the activity, boats that first found the tuna had the best chance, fish would go down as traffic arrived.

The yellowfin tuna action which has been keeping anglers happily busy on the Inner Gordo Banks for the past two weeks has continued, but has become a bit tougher by the day recently, not for a lack of fish, as hundreds of yellowfin tuna could be seen breezing on the surface, in all directions of the bank, just these fish were not that aggressive towards feeding on sardinas, having a taste for red crabs, preferring to gorge on these morsels which were now abundant in the depths on these grounds. Anglers that targeted these tuna, which averaged 15 to 50 pounds, have accounted for average catches ranging from zero tuna, with only skipjack, up to three or four quality sized tuna. The fish were line shy, spooky towards heavy leaders, anglers had best hook up ration on 20, 30 or 40 pound leaders.

Not much marlin activity on the Gordo Banks in recent days, as compared to last week when many stripers were being hooked up on smaller sardina baitfish, there was a 400 pound class blue marlin that struck a trolled petrolero lure, the out of season blue was landed and released from this area last weekend off of a private sportfisher. Water  was a bit more off colored on the banks and this back side of the full moon phase never seems to a favored period. Mackerel schools need to move into the zone, this will improve the billfish situation.

After having left for a week or so, groups of sea lions moved back onto the Gordo Banks and played havoc on anglers concentrating on the yellowfin bite. These sea lions were hungry, aggressively eating all of the sardina baits they could, then rapidly attacking any hooked fish and making anglers odds that much more difficult.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 67 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 wahoo, 2 striped marlin, 4 mako shark, 18 dorado, 88 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 42 sierra, 24 roosterfish, 14 pargo, 12 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 22 yellowtail and 18 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

February 19, 2011

Anglers –

Crowds of tourists increased this past week, as the weather conditions warmed up, we enjoyed clear sunny days that reached 80 degrees and with light winds this made for great conditions offshore for visiting anglers. Ocean water conditions averaged 69 to 71 degrees throughout most of the area, with a warmer current of 73 to 74 degree area 12 to 15 miles offshore of San Jose del Cabo.

As the waters on the local fishing grounds warmed a few degrees in the past ten days, this apparently helped improve the all around fishing action. Definitely the most talked about bite has been the yellowfin tuna out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina, which were now schooling on the Inner Gordo Banks. Word spread quickly as charters were catching an average of two to six tuna per morning while drift fishing with live and dead bait. With as many as fifty charter boats congregating on this spot it made for heavy pressure and the yellowfin were finicky. Anglers using lighter leaders of 30 to 40 lb. reported the best success. As much bait as possible was needed to help entice these fish into a feeding frenzy where they could be fooled into striking the hooked bait. With limited supplies of sardinas and high demand, this made for a bait supply situation, in fact San Jose del Cabo charters were traveling some twenty miles north , near Vinormama, in order to obtain limited amounts of sardinas. But these baitfish were necessary in order to catch these tuna, which were averaging in weight from 15 to 50 pounds, with larger species to over one hundred pounds seen feeding in recent days.

Could be time to break out some heavier tackle and try chunk fishing with cut skipjack, one pangero told a story of hooking into a monster tuna on Thursday while chumming and chunking with fresh skipjack, I guess the gear he was using was simply not stout enough and they never had a chance at slowing the cow.

In recent days there were increased numbers of striped marlin encountered, everyday there were handful of these billfish hooked into while anglers were targeting the tuna with sardinas, these fish ranged from 100 to 120 lb. One incredible catch of an 80 pound wahoo was accounted for on Thursday by an angler using only a sardina for bait and mono leader, no wire, this also occurred on the Inner Gordo Bank.

Earlier in the week there was good action found for yellowtail, amberjack and a few other bottom species. The area of Cardon was consistent for anglers using sardinas and yo-yo jigs in depths ranging from 120 to 160 feet. The amberjack were mostly in the 15 to 25 pound class, yellowtail average 6 to 10 pounds, but almost every day we saw a one or two thirty pound plus class yellowtail mixed in with the smaller schoolies. Strong currents continue to make bottom fishing a difficult and at times unpractical option, as at times it became so swift over these rock piles that it was not easy to reach bottom and then even harder to avoid snagging rocks and losing gear.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 75 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 6 mako shark, 8 dorado,166 yellowfin tuna, 22 Mexican bonito, 32 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 5 wahoo, 28 huachinago, 28 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 142 yellowtail and 15 yellow snapper.

Good fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

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