February 23, 2013
Anglers –

Much of the same patterns continue into the last week of February, light crowds of tourists, cool mornings with scattered cloud cover, days warming to 75 degrees, persistent northerly winds up to 15 mph are now showing signs of residing and big numbers of whales remain in the region. Will not be long now before springtime arrives, always a favorite time to visit and enjoy ideal weather conditions and the world class sportfishing opportunities. Ocean currents are now averaging 69 to 71 degrees and clarity has been fair, considering the temperature.

Schools of mackerel seem to have scattered from the San Jose del Cabo grounds, where caballito baitfish have taken their place and sardinas continue to be netted off the beaches near the San Luis and Vinorama. Local fleets have been finding a variety of action from Punta Gorda, La Fortuna, Iman and to Vinorama. Sierra have provided the majority of action close to shore, mostly smaller sized, some reaching up to 3 or 4 pounds. Roosterfish have been encountered close to shore, just to the north of the PLC Marina Jetties, some of these fish reaching 10 pounds. Dorado have been harder to find in recent days, often being found later on when the sun warms the ocean surface some, no big schools, just a few fish here or there, average sizes ranged from 5 to 15 lb. Bottom action produced limited results on pargo, cabrilla, amberjack and triggerfish. Juvenile sized yellowtail are being found on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, but no yellows reported off of Palmilla or other grounds yet. We do anticipate much improved action off the rock piles as weather transitions towards the spring season.

Striped marlin have been most numerous on the Golden Gate Bank and other Pacific grounds, the billfish are starting to shift in the direction off of San Jose as well, this migration occurs each season, all species of fish follow their preferred food source.

Yellowfin tuna were being found offshore of Cabo San Lucas, traveling with porpoise, charters that did encounter this activity reported fast action for football sized tuna. This week the Gordo Banks produced a handful of larger grade yellowfin, up to about 120 pounds, only a few numbers of these tuna were landed, but it proves they are still schooling in the area, these are the first tuna heard about on the local banks in several weeks, all of the hook ups were taken while drift fishing with chunks of skipjack, which have been very plentiful throughout the area. Encouraging to see that these fish are hanging around this late in the season, maybe they will never even leave this year.

On an extreme personal negative side, it would be hard for me not to mention that this past Saturday night our newest fleet boat, a 26 ft. Regulator, was stolen right from our panga dock area in La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina. At his time the boat has not been found anywhere and investigators believe that the twin Yamaha outboards were removed quickly at sea and then the boat was shuttled and sunk offshore. This has been the operational history followed by thieves off of the East Cape region in recent times, stealing the motors and sinking the boats. This is the first of this type of crime to occur in Puerto Los Cabos Marina and hopefully these organized pirates can be arrested and brought to justice so that no one suffers the same consequences as we have. As in many similar incidents it just so happens that there were commercial shrimp boats anchored off of the Marina for several days prior and on the same night that our boat vanished, the shrimp boats also were gone, quite a coincidence, does not require being a trained detective to solve this case.

This week the combined panga fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 59 charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 7 yellowfin tuna, 126 dorado, 325 sierra, 38 roosterfish, 12 jack crevalle, 5 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 24 yellow snapper, 24 huachinango (red snapper), 12 barred pargo, 3 dogtooth snapper and 22 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

February 16, 2013
Anglers –

There continue to be lighter than normal crowds of tourists now visiting the Los Cabos area. This is a normal scenario for the month of February, cooler weather patterns, persistent winds, predominately from the north, unpredictably shifting out of the south. Air temperature ranged from lows of 50 degrees to highs in the lower 70s, most sunny skies, after some early morning cloud cover. Many travelers do not seem to realize that there are seasons in this tropical paradise as well, by spring break time the conditions will be rapidly warming, but for another few weeks we can expect similar forecasts.

With the recent cold front, ocean water temperatures plummeted down to 68 degrees and there was no significant warmer break found for a long distance, 15 to 20 miles offshore there are areas of 70 degree currents. Despite this rapid drop in water temperature, there were quite a few dorado remaining in the region, currents changed so fast, apparently these gamefish could not reach any warm areas, isolated in cold water, with nowhere to go. On Wednesday the charters fishing the normal fishing grounds from Red Hill to Vinorama found almost summer like numbers of dorado, some boats reported catching and releasing as many as 20 fish, impressive sizes up to 25 pounds. By Thursday this action had slowed, as ocean currents cooled by several degrees over night, though a handful of charters did account for five or six dorado, which for winter time has to be considered good.

Yellowfin tuna action was none existent in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, though on the Pacific Banks there were scattered reports of yellowfin tuna to 30 pounds being found offshore. Striped marlin are being encountered spread out throughout the area, with main concentrations now found on the Golden Gate Bank. There remain abundant schools of mackerel and other baitfish found on the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, we expect the billfish action will shift in this direction as the weather returns to a warming trend.

Sierra remain the most common species being found close to shore, striking on a variety of smaller sized lures, as well as on live bait. Sierra are being hooked into by shore fisherman as well, this bite is best at first light in the morning. Roosterfish activity seemed to slow down in the cooler water, but there were some very strong 25 pound jack crevalle patrolling the beach stretches, these fish will test light tackle enthusiasts to the limits.

Other action included a variety of structure species, various pargo specimens, a few amberjack, cabrilla and triggerfish. Still no yellowtail to report, conditions are now just right for these jacks to migrate on to the local grounds. Lots of baitfish to attract larger fish now, even though the ocean is cold for local standards, the color is decent, not that dirty green color we can see at times. Bottom options have remained limited at this time, migration patterns seem to be running behind usual schedules.

The whales are definitely still in the area, putting on quite a show, we are seeing more juveniles this season, soon these whales will begin to migrate north. We have heard that there is a huge run of giant squid off of the East Cape area, the whole community is now out fishing at night for these, since there are practically no anglers in that area now, this is the only fishing going on, reports of over one ton of squid per panga each night has been reported, commercial value is not high, so you need to load the boat to the railings to make much profit.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 59 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 265 dorado, 6 roosterfish, 24 jack crevalle, 9 amberjack, 15 cabrilla, 12 bonito, 20 pargo (various species) and 420 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

February 10, 2013
Anglers –

This is now a great time for people to escape the cold weather and travel to Southern Baja, where there has been plenty of warm sunshine, with high temperatures of 75 degrees, variable winds, predominately from the north, light ocean swells, perfect climate to take advantage of the many available outdoor activity, whether it be golf, sailing, tennis, hiking, snorkeling, scuba diving, surfing, beach combing, whale watching and of course sport fishing. All of these things to keep you occupied, they even offer camel rides and on the extreme side, you can rent off road race vehicles and head off into the open desert.

The whale season is now peaking, as these mammals can be spotted all along the coastal regions, on both sides of the Peninsula. All mariners must be especially cautious as they navigate crafts through these same waters. Local ocean temperatures were averaging 70 to 73 degrees, with warmer currents found outside near the 1000 fathom line. Water clarity has been variable, particularly near shore where water was greenish. Conditions further offshore were cleaner and baitfish schools continued to hold on local grounds. Mackerel, sardinetas and sardinas have all been available, the sardinas are being netting off the beaches north of Punta Gorda.

The most consistent offshore action has been for striped marlin, off of the Pacific Banks, where charters were accounting for multiple catch and releases, up into the double digits. The stripers were also off of Chileno, Santa Maria and in recent days more marlin were found within several miles straight off of San Jose del Cabo. The stripers were coming up on trolling lures and also readily striking baits, sizes ranged up to 130 lb. Most people have now heard about the 987 lb. blue marlin that was landed out of Cabo San Lucas on Super Bowl Sunday, an epic battle for four senior anglers, these gentleman were just out to catch a few medium sized tuna for dinner, proves that you never know when that monster will strike.

The panga charters have been catching big numbers of sierra, as these inshore speedsters have been dominating the early morning action. Anglers had fast action while using hoochies, rapalas, casting jigs and live sardinas, did not take long to limit out. It was much harder to find other cooperative fish, some dorado are still in the area, despite cooler conditions, majority of the do-do’s were smaller sized, scattered and there was no consistent area from day to day, some fish were found close to shore, while others were offshore on the same marlin grounds. Several nicer sized dorado to 25 pounds were accounted for, most charters were doing well is they had a few dorado in the mix.

Quite few roosterfish were reported, they were even taken on the fly, the majority were smaller sized juveniles, need to be cautious releasing these fish, we did hear of roosterfish up to 25 pounds being landed.

Anglers had to deal with an invasion of too many needlefish on the same grounds where they were trying to find dorado and sierra, this can be frustrating, having to constant retie leaders and pin on new fresh baits. Sea lions caused havoc on other spots, always another factor to deal with, hard work to locate and then hook fish to have them be robbed by the pesky lobos.

Searching out various rock piles has produced only minimal results for mainly pargo and cabrilla, only a few yellowtail heard about, great conditions for these jacks to move in, this is the start of their preferred season. As days progress towards spring, this warming trend typically means more consistent fishing action, for inshore offshore and bottom species.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 73 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 17 striped marlin, 6 yellowfin tuna, 82 dorado, 28 roosterfish, 8 jack crevalle, 5 amberjack, 2 yellowtail, 17 cabrilla, 16 bonito, 28 pargo (various species) and 550 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric