December 30, 2012

December 30, 2012
Anglers –

Crowds of holiday season vacationers were traveling to Los Cabos, the majority of tourists were family groups, people were not greeted with a white Christmas, instead they felt warm sunshine, with high temperatures close to 80 degrees, the only thing white about Christmas in Southern Baja, were the miles of pristine white sandy beaches for all to enjoy and with the annual whale migration now in full swing, viewing these giant mammals is just one of many outdoor activities to take advantage of while across the United States residents are enduring blizzard like conditions.

Ocean water temperatures are now in the 73 to 76 degree range, around average for this time period. There have been winds from the north, on and off, blowing 15 mph on some days, this created choppy seas and limited options for anglers traveling north, in the direction of Iman Bank. This is time when ocean currents change rapidly and along with the cooling trend, we also see ocean clarity become off colored, more greenish brown close to shore and blue water typically starts to swift further offshore. So it is another transition period, gamefish migrating different directions according to their preferred food source.

Schooling mackerel and sardinetas have been holding off of the San Jose del Cabo grounds, this has attracted greater numbers of striped marlin and dorado. These fish are being found mainly in an area from 3 to 6 miles offshore. Trolling lures, slow trolling baits and drift fishing while soaking baits deeper for the billfish all produced. Offshore winds made this area a bit rough earlier in the week, conditions settled later in the week.
Average sized striped marlin was in the 80 to 120 pound range. Dorado were weighing from 10 to 30 pounds, many anglers were easily catching their limits and releasing others. Of all species now, dorado have proved to be the most consistent catch, though striped marlin are also being found in good numbers now.

Along the shoreline sierra and smaller sized roosterfish are making up most of the action, best bet is to troll sardinas, these baitfish became scarcer this past week, as surf conditions, tidal swings and feeding schools of jacks made it more different for commercial netters to find supplies. Many charters were using larger sized baitfish, which were fine for offshore, but the best for inshore.

Yellowfin tuna were found offshore traveling with porpoise, but this hit or miss action was mainly an option for fleets out of Cabo San Lucas, out of San Jose del Cabo, the few tuna that were accounted for this past week were taken off of the Gordo Banks and weighed up to 130 pounds. Skipjack remain plentiful on these grounds, though water temperatures are dropping and the season for the cows is ending. Last season there were nice sized yellowfin tuna caught during the winter, during the first part of February, we will have to see what plays out this season.
Not much bottom action now, a few yellowtail up to 30 pound off of the bottom on the Gordo Banks. There were reports of commercial shrimp trawlers, which have been working in local waters recently, netting and then off loading and selling quantities of juvenile sized yellowtail, not good news for the future of the local fishery.

The overall highlight for the 2012 fishing season would have to be the incredible action that developed on the Gordo Banks and endured from September into December for the cow sized yellowfin tuna. The biggest fish we heard about from these grounds this season, weighed 372 lb. yellowfin, this catch occurred during the WON Tuna Jackpot and was the winning fish by a big margin, netting 232 K for local La Playita team “Estrella del Norte”.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 96 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
2 sailfish, 46 striped marlin, 9 wahoo,4 yellowtail, 485 dorado, 5 yellowfin tuna, 90 sierra, 36 roosterfish, 14 bonito, 6 amberjack, 12 cabrilla and 20 pargo.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 22, 2012

December 22, 2012
Anglers –

While much of the United States is now feeling the freezing chill of harsh winter weather, just 1,000 miles south of the border, in the Los Cabos area, holiday vacationers were being greeted with sunny skies and high temperatures of 80 degrees. The previous week had seen cooler days and persistent north winds, this contributed to dropping ocean water temperatures into the 75/76 degree range, strong currents swept in off colored water and the Fall to Winter ocean transition period was developing.

Baitfish options included mackerel, sardineta, sardina, moonfish, bolito and skipjack. Some anglers were also using pieces of giant squid, which were imported from La Paz or purchased at local super markets. Schools of mackerel are now shifting onto the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, this always attracts pursuing gamefish, such as striped marlin, dorado and wahoo. While anglers battled with rough seas on the offshore areas like Gordo Banks, on the inside off of Punta Gorda, Cardon and La Fortuna they found comfortable conditions and despite the off colored and not so favorable water, the fish seemed to bite just fine.

Most common species were dorado, hooked on trolled lures and various baitfish, sizes ranged from 5 to 40 pounds and many anglers were easily landing their two fish limits, while releasing additional fish. Wahoo also went on the bite in recent days, hot spot was off of Punta Gorda and live bait, especially mackerel, were taking aggressive strikes, sizes were averaging in the 15 to 30 pound class, many charters were accounting for 3,4,5 or more wahoo, this is the best it has been for a while. Depending on water conditions and the persistence of northern winds, will dictate on how long we might expect for this type of action to continue.

Yellowfin tuna action dropped way down, though at times, anglers who happened to be at the right place, did get into some quality action, areas closer to shore produced sporadic counts for yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound class, while on the Gordo Banks there were several larger sized tuna accounted for this past week, the largest that we heard of was a 226 lb. cow, taken once again by skipper Chame Pino on the super panga “Killer II”. This fish hit on fresh squid that had been brought down from La Paz, where the giant squid have been plentiful. There was problem drift fishing, very swift current due to windy choppy seas. Forecasts call for a few warmer days, this could be enough to produce a few more big tuna in the coming days.

Only a scattering of bottomfish action, a few pargo and cabrilla being the main catch, also some of the good eating bonito now showing, these are a completely different species than are the bonito found off of So. Cal., these toothy fighters prefer cooler waters, as do sierra, which are now being found in good numbers close to shore, where their favored food source of sardinas are schooling.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 95 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
9 striped marlin, 2 yellowtail, 505 dorado, 52 yellowfin tuna, 62 wahoo, 68 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 24 bonito, 28 misc. pargo species and 50 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric

December 15, 2012

December 15, 2012
Anglers –

Chilly conditions across the United States are making temperate destinations more popular, wintertime getaways which are in close proximity; this definitely makes Los Cabos high on the list. With the Holidays just a couple of weeks away not many people are actually traveling at this time, crowds are light, should start increasing next week. Weather patterns varied from the start of the week, with clear sunny days, winds out of the north and then later in the week we saw steady rainfall throughout most of the day on Thursday, as a cool front from the west/southwest, moved through the region towards the east. So roads will be a bit messy for a few days, no significant rainfall, maybe an inch or more, enough to clean the landscape.

Ocean water temperatures are now on a cooling trend, north winds accelerated this pattern, currents are ranging from 77 to 79 degrees, from Todo Santos on the Pacific, to Los Frailes in the Sea of Cortez, not much variance, still very favorable conditions for a variety of offshore game fish. Most consistent fishing action has been found within 10 miles of shore and more often than not anglers are finding action within a couple of miles. Productive fishing grounds have been off of Chileno, to the Gordo Banks, La Foruna, Iman and to Vinorama. Most abundant supplies of sardinas were found inshore near San Luis and the commercial pangeros were delivering the fresh bait to the grounds off La Fortuna. A few wahoo have been accounted for from this same area, trolling lures before the live bait arrives, also a few wahoo were landed incidentally while using direct monofilament while target yellowfin tuna. Still no consistent action on these elusive wahoo, we are hoping that we see a strong late run of these fish, before water temperatures plummet and send these pelagics on a southern migration.

Mackerel and sardineta schools are now moving into waters off of San Jose del Cabo, this is attracting an early run of striped marlin to this area, also good numbers of dorado following this same food source. Many dorado were in the 15 to 25 lb. class, they were found from close off the rocky points, to the open blue water and on the high spots, a larger percentage were caught on bait versus lures. Average sized striped marlin was in the 100 to 130 pound range, striking on lures and bait, anywhere from 3 to 10 miles from shore.

Most consistent yellowfin tuna action was for fish in the 15 to 40 pound range, being found from Iman to Vinorama, these fish are hitting on live sardinas while drift fishing, fly lining while freely chumming baitfish. Action would happen in flurries and the bite was tough earlier in the week due to the north wind. Anglers accounted for catches from 1 or 2 fish, up to a dozen, when weather and fish cooperated at the same time. There seem to be good numbers of tuna, doado and skipjack in this area, now late in the season, if the northerlies do not become too persistent this action could last into the New Year.

There were cow sized yellowfin tuna still hanging around the Gordo Banks, early in the week there were a handful of nice tuna accounted for and on Thursday, during the rain, there was a 213 pound yellowfin brought to gaff aboard the 26 ft. super panga “Killer II”, just one of perhaps twenty cow sized tuna that this same boat and skipper Chame Pino has accounted for during the past couple of months. These fish are striking more often recently on chunk bait from either skipjack or chihuil, both of which are now concentrated on the banks. More nice sized dorado are now being caught while chunking for tuna, also a few bottom dwellers. Not many of these big tuna are wanting to bite baited hooks, though with the heavy presence of baitfish and light angling pressure, anything could happen on any given day, these big tuna continue to be in the area and they are feeding machines, that is the bottom line, would be nice to see another Gordo Banks 300 pound yellowfin tuna before the end of 2012.

The annual migration of whales is now in full swing, as many sightings of both humpback and grey whales are being reported daily.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 91 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
11 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 4 yellowtail, 460 dorado, 224 yellowfin tuna, 26 wahoo, 10 amberjack, 54 sierra, 14 roosterfish, 24 mixed pargo species and 350 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric