July 27, 2013

Anglers –

Weather patterns have stabilized this past week and conditions are feeling more like we would expect during mid summer season. Tropical cloud cover is forming over the mountainous areas in the afternoon, that is always a sign that summer season is progressing normally, increased humidity with high temperatures in the 90s. Winds were moderate, has shifted from the north, east and the southwest, ocean water temperatures are now in the 80 to 84 degree range, from Cabo San Lucas to Los Frailes. Clean blue water is now being found as close as several miles from shore. There is presently Tropical Storm Flossie located far off to the west, appears to be heading in the direction of the Hawaiian Islands, and is forecast to weaken as it does. No other storm systems are forming on the horizon at this time.

During the recent full moon baitfish such as caballito became harder to find, moonfish were plentiful, though they are not the best offshore baitfish. Lots of ballyhoo now schooling on the offshore grounds, occasionally these baitfish were chased into meat balls and pushed to the surface by feeding porpoise. There were more encounters in recent days of yellowfin tuna found traveling offshore with porpoise, most days this action was found 20 or more miles offshore and the tuna were more often than not of the football sized variety, 5 to 15 pounds, though a local La Playita pangero did account for one 40 pound fish, so that was encouraging, there were reports of larger yellowfin tuna being seen in the swells. The East Cape area has been seeing some larger sized tuna, the East Cape Bisbee Tournament now has a 192 pound yellowfin tuna leading the tuna jackpot category, with a 46 lb. dorado also at the top board, so far no qualifying marlin over 300 pounds have been landed. Though on Wednesday there was a black marlin in the 500 pound class that was caught off of a sportfishing charter trolling outside of San Jose del Cabo, however they were not participating in the ongoing tournament.

Good numbers of striped marlin now spread out throughout the region, most commonly found 5 to 15 miles from shore, striking on lures and various rigged baitfish, sizes averaged in the 70 to 120 pound range, a few sailfish were mixed in. An occasional wahoo is striking on the same marlin type lures on the offshore grounds, traveling through the blue water, one wahoo weighed 65 lb., it was taken off a La Playita panga. Many charters accounted for multiple billfish days, two or three fish was not uncommon. Dorado were being found most days just as random single fish, some trophy sized catches to over 45 pounds were weighed in, no significant numbers of these fish.

Inshore action was mainly for late season roosterfish, the action has tapered way off compared to previous weeks, which is the normal pattern for late July, but there were still some larger roosters to over 50 pounds accounted for, some boats accounting for up to a half a dozen big fish. The inshore amberjack action that had been so good, has come to a standstill and the deeper rock piles where we would normally be concentrating on, have been harder to fish due to a very strong current sweeping through, when this does slack we expect to find some better opportunities for the spots around La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis Banks. One local panga charter accounted for a 57 lb. dogtooth snapper on Thursday, angler Jason Shipman was trolling bait inshore, near Vinorama.

Shore anglers have reported a handful of very impressive snook catches in recent days, they were all reportedly hooked into near the Puerto Los Cabos Marina and Estuary area, fish up to 46 lb. were caught, also several other in the 20 to 30 pound range. These fish were taken on available baitfish and on cast and retrieved jigs. One was actually caught from a panga while trolling a bait for roosterfish, all others were from the beach.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 69 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 snook, 5 wahoo, 29 yellowfin tuna, 32 dorado, 48 striped marlin, 7 sailfish, 4 dogtooth snapper, 7 amberjack, 15 jack crevalle, 7 broomtail grouper, 15 cabrilla and 86 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

July 20, 2013

Anglers –

Moderate crowds are now arriving in the Los Cabos area, as summer weather patterns continue to be more unpredictable than usual. No new tropical storms have developed at this time and the conditions are feeling more tropical, with scattered cloud cover and isolated showers on Thursday, as clouds blew moisture in from the east. This cloud front and associated breeze helped keep the climate very comfortable, high temperatures were around 90 degrees. Ocean currents have been strong and constantly shifting, ocean water temperature is around the 70 degree mark on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, while towards the Gordo Banks and north there has been water temperatures up to 80 degrees or more.

The majority of sportfishing fleets now are fishing in the direction of the warmer blue water. Winds were shifting from out of the north, east to west and offshore waters were choppy at times. Striped marlin action turned on, on the grounds from the 95 spot, the 1150, Gordo Banks and north to Desteladera, multiple catches per day was common, stripers weighing up to 130 lb. were striking on the normal array of lures, readily hitting trolled or dropped back live baits.

Some scattered reports of yellowfin tuna being found traveling with porpoise, most of this action was found 10 to 20 miles from shore and the tuna have been smaller sized footballs. No larger sized yellowfin tuna are now being reported in local waters, though with 80 degree blue water now present, anything could happen on any given day. An occasional wahoo was being reported, most of these fish have been single fish, striking on lures in open offshore water.

There was a dorado frenzy found midweek in the vicinity of some buoys that were set in an area 10 to 12 miles offshore of the Cardon to La Fortuna area. Anglers who were fortunate to get in on this action will remember it for a long time, wide open action, as neon streaks of flashing blue, green and yellow could be seen all around, the fish were averaging in the 30 to 50 pound class. These fish were striking on any type of baitfish thrown in the water. Of course word travels quickly and the whole fleet arrived on the scene and the dorado became more weary in the coming days, first boats arriving in the morning hooked up, after that it was very scratchy.

Inshore action continues to produce roosterfish to 50 pounds or more, this is usually the later part of the season for them, this year we have experienced the best roosterfish bite as we have seen in the past decade, simply for the sheer numbers of big roosterfish found throughout the region. The amberjack action that had been going strong in recent weeks while trolling surface baits over inshore rock piles, seem to have faded out and now anglers are starting to find more action off of the deeper areas, such as the Iman Bank, San Luis Bank and La Fortuna reefs, with depths ranging from 100 to 180 feet. A mix of grouper, cabrilla, snapper, amberjack and other species can be found on these grounds. Techniques include, drift fishing with various whole and cut baits off of the bottom and using yo-yo style jigs, bounced and rapidly retrieved off of the high spots.

The supplies of baitfish in the PLC marina area continue to be plentiful for caballito, mullet and moonfish. We should start to see more offshore schooling batifish, such as bolito and small skipjack, move onto the local fishing grounds, this always seems to attract more predators, these make great live baits for the larger sized pelagic gamefish.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 69 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 wahoo, 19 yellowfin tuna, 78 dorado, 27 striped marlin, 13 sailfish, 5 dogtooth snapper, 12 hauchinango (red snapper), 18 amberjack, 33 jack crevalle, 9 broomtail grouper, 25 leopard grouper and 135 roosterfish (majority released).

 Good fishing, Eric