June 29, 2013

Anglers –

The summer season has just begun and on the Eastern Pacific we have already seen the third named tropical storm, as this week Hurricane Cosme developed off the coast of Manzanillo, before heading on a westerly path, coming within 300 miles of Cabo San Lucas and quickly encountered cooler water causing it to dissipate, never did threaten land. We never did feel more than a few sprinkles of rain, though the ocean swells quickly rose up to fifteen feet high on Tuesday and Wednesday, before residing on Thursday and Friday. Local ports of Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Los Cabos were closed to all boating activities, red flag conditions, by late Thursday morning the ports were reopened for operations.

This latest storm system brought in more tropical and humid weather, high temperatures were staying in the 80s, mild for this time of year, thick marine haze, almost fog, has been hanging over the Southern Peninsula and Pacific breezes are keep conditions comfortable. Anglers had encountered turned over inshore water conditions prior to this recent storm, which stirred things up even more and it could be a while before the water cleans and warms back up. In the mean time more consistent action was being found offshore, in the direction of the warmer currents north of the Gordo Banks and towards Los Frailes. This is where sportfishing charters have been finding decent numbers of striped marlin, a few sailfish and dorado also on these same fishing grounds. Offshore trolling with lures, looking for signs of activity, seeing some marlin on the surface and taking blind strikes by a few larger sized dorado that are starting to move into the area, also a few wahoo in the mix. Dorado to over 40 pounds were accounted for, just there are no numbers to speak of yet, though if you happened to encounter any type of floating debris you could be in for a wide open bite. This is definitely the time of year where anything could happen on any given day.

The epic roosterfish action that had been happening close to shore has come to a standstill as the water temperatures fell, water turned greenish and baitfish scattered. There is warmer water near 80 degrees now on the offshore grounds towards the north. The inshore rock outcroppings from Cardon to Vinormama have produced some quality sized amberjack, weighing up to 80 pounds, these fish are striking on surface trolled live baits, preferably moonfish, mullet or caballito. Shallow water areas of less than 50 ft., these fish migrate close to shore during this early part of summer, searching for congregated baitfish, also these are the same rock piles that hold dogtooth snapper and various grouper, good luck keeping them away from the rocks after hooking up. These are fragile reefs, susceptible to heavy boat pressure, not an area where the entire fleet can successfully target, with increased tourism and local population there is added pressure, additionally there are many more spear fishermen targeting these easily accessible spots. This is now the peak season for this inshore fishery, within several weeks this action typically would start to shift onto the deeper, more spread out rocky structure, such as the Iman and San Luis Banks, these grounds are much larger and can handle more pressure.

The combined panga fleet launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of, 1 wahoo, 25 striped marlin, 13 dorado, 16 amberjack, 12 pargo colorado, 10 yellow snapper, 6 dogtooth snapper, 14 cabrilla, 15 jack crevalle, 5 hammerhead sharks, 4 sierra and 12 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

June 22, 2013

Anglers –

Well the official summer season has now started, though the weather patterns seem all mixed up and it still feels a bit like spring, with breezes off the ocean keeping conditions comfortable. Days have been mostly sunny, a mix of marine haze and some tropical cloud cover formation, high temperatures have been moderate, averaging in the upper 80s. The climate has been ideal, sure would be great if the entire summer was this mild. Great time to travel to Southern Baja now, airline tickets have been discounted and crowds are relatively light, perfect time to come have fun in the sun.

Ocean temperatures have stabilized from Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes, where water temperatures now ranged from 75 to 78 degrees. Swift currents have swept inshore and even though the water is warmer, it has turned over once again and is a murky greenish color through most of the inshore zone. Clean blue water has been spotty offshore, most often found 8 to 15 miles from shore. Swells are moderate now, variable winds have been predominately out of the Northeast and then switching directly out of the east, before turning from out of the south. Common pattern that affects the Southern Baja region each season during this transition period from the spring season into the tropical summer, by next month these Pacific air flows and marine moisture normally give way to the sultry tropical patterns.

Anglers continued to enjoy perhaps the best roosterfish action in the past ten years, with many trophy sized fish of over fifty pounds being accounted for. Trolling baitfish such as caballito, mullet and moonfish, which have been plentiful around the PLC marina jetties, have resulted in epic action for the past several weeks now. Just yesterday the action did taper way off, as the current switched and brought in green water along the coastal stretches where the roosterfish had been so plentiful, as conditions rebound we expect to see more of these jacks providing trills to anglers. We do encourage practicing the sport of catch and release on these particular gamefish, not renown for favorable eating qualities, but more so as an aggressive inshore adversary which sport anglers can only encounter in certain parts of the Pacific coast.

The marlin action improved this past week, as good numbers of striped marlin were found in the blue water, most of the time about 8 to 15 miles from shore, many charters were accounting for multiple billfish days, often up to five per boat, most all boats targeting the billfish accounted for one or two. The stripers were readily striking on lures, many reports of multiple hook ups, also striking trolled or cast baits. No consistent counts of dorado being reported, but these gamefish are scattered throughout the offshore blue water fishing grounds, bull dorado to 40 pounds were weighed in, this is the time of year where we normally can find larger sized dorado, but more often they are solitary fish or in small groups, unless you happen upon some floating debris which could be attracting large concentrations of dorado of all sizes.

Other action found close to shore included amberjack, dogtooth snapper, pompano, jack crevalle, cabrilla and pargo colorado. This action was best early in the morning and was hit or miss from day to day, but some quality sized fish were accounted for anglers while slow trolling live baits over shallow water rock outcroppings, often in only 30 or 40 feet of water, one 80 pound amberjack was accounted for, snapper to 40 pounds, of course many hook ups resulted in cut lines due to the close proximity of the sharp rock piles.

Last weekend the local Father’s Day Tournament based out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, saw 32 teams compete for three qualifying species, yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, first place fish was a 42 pound wahoo, runner up was a 40 pound dorado and there were no tuna accounted for. This week there were a few reports of fleets spotting tuna on the surface while trolling offshore waters, but these fish disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, also quite a bit more porpoise activity being reported offshore, this is always a favorable sign that we should start to see some more yellowfin move into the region.

The combined panga fleet launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 112 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of, 7 sailfish, 26 striped marlin, 15 dorado, 1 wahoo, 24 amberjack, 16 pargo colorado, 20 yellow snapper, 15 barred pargo, 14 dogtooth snapper, 19 cabrilla, 14 pompano, 8 sierra and 230 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

June 15, 2013

Anglers –

We are entering the last week of the spring season, crowds of tourists have been slightly lower than expected, as family’s are now going through school graduation events and planning their summer schedules. We expect to see more visitors arriving soon for summer vacation time.

There was a cooling trend of the weather this past week, we felt more Pacific air flow and strong ocean currents pushed cooler murky colored water into the Los Cabos area. This pattern helps to keep the climate very pleasant, most days the high temperatures reached the upper 80s and the nights are about perfect at 70 degrees. This transition period always produces rapidly changing up and down climate patterns, hot, cool, cloudy, windy, then ideal and very calm, we see fluctuating ocean currents sweeping through the area, anglers find fishing action varying daily, just like the weather. These patterns contributed to anglers not finding consistent offshore action, though there was excellent fishing found close to the shore and this is where the majority of sportfishing fleets have been concentrated in recent days.

Ocean conditions are now rebounding after turning over last weekend, we are now on a warming trend, water is still a bit off colored, ocean temperatures ranging from 66 degrees off of Cabo San Lucas to about 80 degrees near Los Frailes, off of San Jose del Cabo it is now in the low to mid 70s, this is an extreme variance for a 30 to 40 range.

Anglers targeting offshore action out of Los Cabos reported limited counts of striped marlin being found, not like it had been, with multiple billfish days being common. The East Cape area has reported much better numbers at this time for billfish, with lots of sailfish mixed in with the striped marlin. Not much activity being reported in the way of yellowfin tuna or dorado at this time, as conditions do eventually stabilize offshore we expect to see action break wide open.

In the mean time, with limited offshore action being found the majority of charters are targeting the epic roosterfish bite that is happening along much of coastline. This year the season for these prized gamefish began early and it has peaked this past week, as we saw the best action we have seen in many years for larger trophy sized fish, with big numbers of roosterfish in the 30 to 70 pound class reported every day. The roosters were striking on caballito and moonfish, slowly trolled along the beach stretches, just outside the breaker zone. With practically the entire fleet now targeting this bite, it will be interesting to see how long this fishery can remain productive, heavy boat pressure seems to result in negative impact.

Roosterfish are a migratory species, following their food source, they are members of the jack family, extremely powerful fighters, unpredictably acrobatic at times, reaching sizes up to 100 pounds and they are native to a limited range on the west coast of Pacific waters. Anglers travel from around the world to target these prized fighting gamefish. This is a unique fishery, very fragile and needs protection. This year with so many of numbers of roosterfish schooling in the area we have witnessed a over kill of these economically valuable sport fish, these fish are not known for the eating qualities, but rather for their powerful screaming runs and after these fish are landed they should always be released as carefully as possible. Local residents do really enjoy eating these dark fleshed jacks and this has created a profitable commercial market. Combined with a lack of other normal commercial species recently available, fleets have been exploiting this fishery to the limits, hauling in crate after crate of roosterfish to be shipped off to markets.

As ocean currents are warming again, we are seeing improved action over the inshore rocky structure for a mix of other species, such as pompano, cabrilla, amberjack, dogtooth snapper and pargo cororado, this action tapered way off during the recent water, but the past few days we have seen some amberjack to 65 pounds and quality snapper as well. Bait supplies have remained steady for caballito, moonfish, some mullet, but no sardinas are available. This available bait source is being netting in the marina channel.

The combined panga fleet launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of, 1 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 8 dorado, 31 amberjack, 18 pargo Colorado, 22 yellow snapper, 18 barred pargo, 22 dogtooth snapper, 20 cabrilla, 8 pompano, 12 sierra, 45 jack crevalle and 350 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric