HAPPY NEW YEAR’S !

December 31, 2011

This is now family time in Los Cabos, as scores of vacationers have been arriving in search of warmer Holiday Season sunshine. Conditions are now very comfortable considering that it is winter time, mostly clear sunny days, with highs reaching the mid to upper 70s. Northern winds have resided in recent days and anglers have been enjoying calm ocean conditions. Water temperatures have ranged from 70 to 73 degrees. Clarity has varied from area to area, splotches of clean blue water and in other spots there were dirty green currents sweeping through.

Live bait supplies rebounded some from the past report, sardinas, mackerel and sardinetas have been readily available from the commercial fleet, at times anglers were able to jig up their own mackerel and scaly sardinetas, these baits were the bait of choice for targeting offshore species, particular striped marlin. The marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo slowed down, but charters out of the Cabo San Lucas were finding more stripers on the Pacific fishing grounds.

Anglers trolling the waters off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas were finding very good action for yellowfin tuna, the region some 5 to 20 miles off of the Old Light House saw more concentrations of these fish. Yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 50 pound class were found traveling with porpoise, a few much larger tuna were accounted for, including at least one that weighed over two hundred pounds. Anglers out of San Jose del Cabo did not find much tuna action at all, we only heard of a handful of yellowfin caught, there was one 60 pound tuna landed off of the Gordo Banks on Thursday, maybe with settling conditions something will develop on this high spot, recently there have been either skipjack or dorado and some hungry sea lions.

The most common catch out of San Jose this past week was dorado, anglers found good numbers of these fish close to shore, the grounds from Punta Gorda to Cardon have been most productive. Trolling lures to find the schools and then drifting with live bait was most affective. Charters were catching limits most days and releasing other fish, sizes averaging 5 to 15 pounds. Smaller sized schools were encountered, often just outside the surf zone, later in the day birds could be seen circling above a few feeding dorado, anglers had to move quickly and cast their baits into this activity, this was occurring near the marina jetty area on a daily basis recently.

Anglers also started to do more scouting out for action off of the bottom rock piles, so far while using yo-yo jigs they found mixed results for a few leopard grouper, pargo and small yellowtail, we do expect to start seeing a seasonal swift in current and more numbers of these cooler waters species to move onto the shallow rocky structure.

Inshore there were scattered reports of limited numbers of roosterfish and sierra, most of these smaller sized, but a fun option, especially if offshore waters become too choppy. This action should become more prevalent as we progress though winter and into spring time.

Whales are arriving in force, now on their annual winter migration, they will be feeding and calving in local waters for the next few months.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 66 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 52 sierra, 14 roosterfish, 2 wahoo, 5 yellowtail, 226 dorado, 5 yellowfin tuna, 18 bonito, 11 cabrilla and 14 pargo.

Good Fishing, Eric

 

December 25, 2011

Christmas time is here, everyone is now busy preparing for family events. Families have been arriving in Los Cabos to enjoy the holiday season, escaping the cold temperatures to the north. With winter time now having officially started local weather has also cooled off, though the highs are still pleasantly in the 70s, but with early morning lows down into the 50s, vacationers do need to remember to dress accordingly.

Ocean conditions changed rapidly this week, as currents moved in from the north and dropped water temperatures from 70/76 degrees down to 69/72 degrees. Cooling water is usually associated with greener off colored currents, and this has been the situation at this time, most areas off of San Jose del Cabo are now off colored, towards Cabo San Lucas there has been cleaner blue water, but this has not meant that this has been where the best action for anglers has been found.

With the rapidly changing conditions the fishing action has become more scattered as well. Earlier in the week there was some great striped marlin action found off of San Jose del Cabo, this is where schools of baitfish such as mackerel, sardinetas, chihuil and skipjack were congregated, attracting both billfish and dorado within several miles of shore. Fleets from all directions were concentrated on this spot, marlin were hooked while soaking baits down deep, trolling on the surface, as well as casting into feeding frenzies on the surface, which often occurred mid day and into the afternoon. As the greener cooler currents swept in, this bite slowed way down accordingly. The northern winds also kicked up, which is usually the pattern at this time of year, two or three days of wind, then a couple of days of calmer conditions, before repeating the same cycle.

On the Gordo Banks anglers found more skipjack than anything else, also plenty of problems with hungry sea lions, no yellowfin tuna to talk about this week, as dorado and striped marlin were the main surface species now being encountered. Not much in the way of bottom action, but we do expect to start scouting out more of the structure prospects in the coming weeks for some fire cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack and snapper. Along the shoreline anglers were now finding sierra and roosterfish, but this action varied from day to day, and depended on the availability of live sardinas. Dorado were also found at times right in the surf zone, there were even a reports of dorado up to 15 lbs. being landed by surf anglers near Punta Gorda, this is the time when dorado can be found closer to shore, where more baitfish are concentrated. Most of the roosterfish now being hooked into are juvenile sized, with a handful of them reaching up to 15 pounds.

A handful of wahoo were taken this past week, but most of these fish were more the sized of sierra, strange to see such smaller sized ‘hoo, wonder where their parents are? Probably heading south by now.

We are now transitioning into winter time type fishing action, typically we find quite a wide variety of species, maybe not as large as in the warmer months, but there can be great light tackle sport and most of the fish are of the good eating variety. We will anticipate improved inshore action, the time that more numbers of yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin should continue to dominate offshore.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 65 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 27 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 172 dorado, 9 wahoo, 12 pargo, 15 bonito, 250 black skipjack, 34 roosterfish and 18 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

 

 

December 17, 2011

Crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area are now light, with the official start of winter next week, cooler temperatures from the north are reminding us that even in Southern Baja we do have seasons. A cold front has moved in this week and kept high temperatures below the 75 degree mark, more cloud cover associated with this front, but no rainfall to speak about. Winds have been averaging 10 to 15 mph from the north, less than they were at the start of the month. Water temperatures dropped into the 70 to 76 degree range, cooler off colored greenish currents are pushing in a southern direction from Los Frailes.

With the lighter crowds this past week, the supply and demand situation for the available bait has improved. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches by the commercial netters, but with their limited market now, not every day are they looking for the sardinas, with the easier to find caballito continuing to be found inside the marina jetty area. The schools of mackerel which had been found off of San Jose del Cabo the past couple of weeks seemed to have vanished in recent days, perhaps something to do with the full moon phase or local shrimp trawling operations. At present time schools of mackerel have returned off of San Jose del Cabo and there has been a very good striped marlin bites as well, three to found miles offshore, billfish were balling up bait and feeding on the surface.

Off of San Jose del Cabo there has not been any consistent yellowfin tuna action found, besides maybe a few fish early in the week taken off of the Gordo Banks, these tuna were in the 60 to 70 pound class, other fish were seen breezing on the surface, but they were not interested in biting. As cooler off colored water moved in there were reports of no tuna even being seen on these banks. There have been reports of football sized yellowfin tuna being encountered traveling with porpoise off of Cabo San Lucas, more often 10 miles of further from shore, but this has been spotty and there have been more consistent catches of striped marlin and dorado on the Pacific. Some charter boats were releasing as many as three or four stripers in one morning. Marlin are also being found in the direction of the Gordo Banks, but not in the same numbers as on the Pacific. Trolling lures and various baits all were accounting for marlin strikes, fish were averaging 80 to 130 pounds.

For the fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos, their mainstay has been for dorado, these fish were found in good numbers throughout the week, Particularly from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, most charters were catching limits and releasing other fish as well, lures and bait are working equally well. Sizes ranged up to 25 pounds, average dorado was 10 to 12 pounds.

Strong currents made it difficult to concentrate on any bottom action, but we expect to do more of this as winter conditions settle in. Sierra are making a stronger showing now along the inshore stretches, this action should become steady during the coming months. Roosterfish continue to be found while trolling baits closer to shore, most of these fish are now weighing less than ten pounds, a handful of large specimens, though they are strong fighters and fun sport on light tackle.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 53 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:

14 striped marlin, 285 dorado, 6 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 36 roosterfish, 12 bonito and 44 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric