November 27, 2011

The Thanksgiving Holiday marks the last really busy week before the normal slack period building towards the Christmas and New Year’s Holiday season. Visitors are enjoying near perfect weather conditions, mostly sunny days with highs near 80 degrees. Ocean temperatures are still averaging 79 to 82 degrees, which is at least a couple of degrees warmer that at this same period last year. Winds have become more predominant from the north, but on most days have been switching to blowing out of the east, then from the south. There was a late season Hurricane that formed off of the Southern Mexican coast this past week, named Kenneth, this system was powerful, packing winds up to 145 mph, but never passed closer than 700 miles from Cabo San Lucas, some outer bands of clouds were visible and ocean swells are predicted to range up to five ft. through the weekend. With the new moon phase, tides are now very extreme, minus tides in the afternoon.

In recent days there have been reports of mackerel and sardinetas being found locally, off of the San Jose del Cabo area, this always open up options, typically for striped marlin, dorado and wahoo. While more striped marlin are now appearing, there are still chances of hooking into a late season blue or black marlin, also some sailfish being found closer to shore.

Dorado action was now being found from off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas to Red Hill , Punta Gorda and the Iman Bank. The bite was not consistent from day to day, some days more fish were found in one area, while on the next day they were not necessarily in the same spot. Average sizes of dorado ranged 5 to 20 pounds. They were striking on various small to medium sized lures and different live baitfish. Caballito, sardinas and now some mackerel and made up the bait options, though sardinas remain limited in quantities, schools now seem to be migrating towards the beaches near Vinorama, which is where they usually congregate during this time.

With clean warm blue water now found close to shore, most fleets are finding more fish in close proximity of shore. Surprisingly quite a few roosterfish along the beaches now, also the season’s first sierra schools are arriving, along with some tough jack crevalle.

Yellowfin tuna action has continued to taper off from the first week of the month, still some tuna in the area of Gordo Banks to Iman Bank, limited supplies of sardinas, as well as breezy conditions through the first part of the week made this even a tougher situation, lots of chum is now needed to entice the tuna in feeding mood. Some very aggressive pesky sea lions are also causing havoc on certain fishing grounds, not even giving anglers a chance to keep a bait fish in the water. A handful of 100 pound class yellowfin were landed this week from the Gordo Banks, a few 20 to 50 pound tuna were scattered over other fishing grounds, but no significant numbers of tuna this past week. Dorado were the more active species throughout the entire week.

Wahoo remained elusive, they are definitely in the area though, everyday a few of these fish were being landed, striking more often on caballito or chihuil. Now there is the new option of mackerel and sardinetas, proven to be candy baits for wahoo. Of course when specifically targeting wahoo it is always good to have your personal array of Rapalas and skirted trolling heads as well. Also the time of year when wahoo will hit the chrome patterned yo-yo jigs that are cast into chummed waters.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 182 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 10 sailfish, 34 wahoo, 30 yellowfin tuna, 510 dorado, 9 dogtooth snapper, 15 cabrilla, 28 jack crevalle, 84 roosterfish and 34 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

 

 

November 19, 2011

Sizable crowds continue to arrive in Southern Baja, ideal weather patterns now prevalent, mostly sunny days, highs reaching the low 80s. Early in the week there was one nighttime rain flurry, did not account for much, besides making the roads muddy. Winds were strong out of the north, first real blow of the season, later in the week conditions settled. This is the time of year where day to day, weather patterns can change rapidly. Water temperatures are now averaging 79 to 81 degrees, cooling trend should continue through winter.

Anglers found limited bait options and supplies, live caballito and sardinas. Ballyhoo were available, being rigging for trolling. On the fishing grounds pangeros were catching chihuil and skipjack, using these for targeting larger gamefish. The week started off with steady action for wahoo, the best area seemed to be around the Iman Bank, anglers reported many strikes, while trolling live baits and various lures, average strike to actual landing ratio, was not high. Some charters did report multiple fish in the box, sizes ranged from 20 to 60 pounds.

The same fishing grounds of Iman produced scattered numbers of dorado, sailfish, striped marlin and some yellowfin tuna. Lots of live sardinas were necessary in order to entice the yellowfin tuna into feeding on the surface. Most action was found near the surface, not much going off the bottom now, more triggerfish than anything else.

The yellowfin tuna bite steadily slackened off since the first week of the month, but this week we did see the action get hot on the Gordo Banks, especially on Wednesday. At least six tuna in the 200 pound class were accounted for and one super cow over 300 pounds was landed. This monstrous yellowfin was weighed in unofficially, with discrepancies ranging from 365 pounds, up to 378 pounds, depending on which story you believe. This fish was taken from a 22 ft. panga by legendary La Playita pangero Hugo Pino, his son and long time friend from Greece, angler Apostolo Poulos. On Saturday, the father son team of John and Jordan Williamson, from California and South Carolina respectably, battled for three hours on eighty pound tackle a 249 pound yellowfin tuna while fishing with Gordo Banks skipper Chame Pino.

After a good day all around on Wednesday, the very next day, Thursday, anglers found very scarce fishing action, in all directions, there were very few fish accounted for. Hard to say, conditions seemed favorable, bait schools were plentiful, winds and currents minimal, just the fish did not want to cooperate.

Anglers were now finding some close to shore action for sierra and medium sized roosterfish. Trolling with live baits, hoochies and rapalas all worked, this inshore action will peak in the coming months.

Billfish is now in between main seasons, no significant numbers, but it is the time when sailfish, black, blue and striped marlin are all found in local waters. This week there were several large marlin hook ups reported from the Gordo Banks, extended battles resulting in broken lines.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 178 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for, 1 blue marlin, 7 striped marlin, 17 sailfish, 66 wahoo, 205 dorado, 84 yellowfin tuna, 6 dogtooth snapper, 4 yellowtail, 24 pargo, 36 triggerfish, 25 bonito, 9 pompano, 38 sierra, 28 roosterfish and 10 hammerhead shark.

Good Fishing, Eric

 

 

November 5, 2011

The Los Cabos area is now bustling with tourists, they have been enjoying pristine weather conditions and this week visitors are being entertained by the main event of the annual WON Jackpot Tuna Tournament. Scores of sportfishing teams will be in search of the cow sized yellowfin that could win them a big pay day.

In recent weeks the ocean water temperatures had warmed back up to 85/86 degrees, but now it is to back down in to the 82/83 degrees. This season the water temperatures have averaged higher than normal, this created different migration patterns for baitfish and the gamefish alike. Overall the Fall Season has not been producing as consistent catches as would normally be expected. We do anticipate as conditions normalize the action will become steadier. Winds have become more predominant from the north and should maintain this pattern through winter.

Out of San Jose del Cabo there were bait shortage issues, with anglers having to travel out of their way and patiently wait in order to purchase very limited quantities of sardinas. Schools of sardinas were now congregated mainly on the beaches close to Cabo San Lucas. We should start to see more caballito and then mackerel before too long.

Yellowfin tuna have been schooling now for a couple of months on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks to Iman Bank, these concentrations of fish have proved to be exceptionally hook shy this season, perhaps it has to do with warmer waters, abundance of food sources found at deeper depths, hard to say exactly what the reason is? One thing for sure, is that the fish are on the grounds, making good showings on the surface and everyday there have been numbers of tuna landed. The fish coming from the Iman area are weighing 20 to 40 pounds on an average and the fish found on the Gordo Banks are mainly starting at about 80 pounds, ranging up to cow sizes. Slow trolling with various baits, chihuil, bolito, skipjack produced strikes, as did drift fishing with dead and live sardinas and chunk baits. The key was consistent chumming, light leaders and being ready when the opportunities were there, lots of patience needed.

Dorado action was a bit more spread out, but once schools were encountered, anglers could put several in the box in a hurry. Most of the dorado found recently were weighing in the 5 to 15 pound range, with a percentage of larger bulls reported. Wahoo are showings signs of coming to life, as they became more active in recent days, anglers reported strikes while slow trolling trap hooked baits and on the high speed troll with various lures, areas from Santa Maria, Red Hill, towards Punta Gorda and Iman all reported ‘hoo strikes. Wahoo to over fifty pounds were landed, we do believe we are going to have a great run of late season wahoo, from what we have seen the fish are larger sized this year.

Billfish opportunities included sailfish, striped, blue and black marlin, typically this is the end of the big black and blue season and the migration of striped marlin will be moving back with the cooling currents. At this time, with warmer water temperatures, you could hook any given species any day. This week there was a 340 pound black marlin caught by Dennis Powell from the Lake Tahoe area while fishing with local pangero Chame Pino. There was a larger blue marlin lost the next day from the same area, there were quite a few sailfish reported and some striped marlin found surprisingly close to shore. A handful of early season whales also reportedly seen in local waters.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 192 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for: 1 black marlin, 8 striped marlin, 18 sailfish, 17 wahoo, 242 dorado, 94 yellowfin tuna, 9 dogtooth snapper, 9 amberjack, 16 cabrilla, 8 yellowtail, 8 rainbow runner, 12 hammerhead shark and 8 pompano

Good Fishing, Eric