August 10, 2013

Anglers –

As the summer climate has progressively heated up, so has the offshore fishing action, as anglers are finding a mix of billfish, dorado, yellowfin tuna and even a few wahoo. Weather patterns have settled down, there was a tropical squall that moved in from the east last Sunday, bring some scattered rain showers and some eye opening lightening. There has been very little wind recently, some scattered clouds, very warm and humid. There are a series of tropical storm system now tracking on distant westerly paths, the coming weeks is when historically these storms can form in much closer proximity and threaten land, so we will be monitoring forecasts carefully.

Bait supplies for caballito, mullet and moonfish remained sufficient, though they are not as numerous as earlier in the summer. More bolito are now schooling on the fishing grounds and are being using for offshore trolling baits. The bolito are readily striking on small hoochies early in the day, but as the sun rose higher in the sky these great baitfish became hard to catch. There has been a long absence of schooling sardinas for the La Playita panga fleets, this past week the sardinas have been starting to move in along the beach stretch just to the north of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Jetty, not in sufficient quantity to supply the fleets, but at least this is encouraging we are seeing these baitfish back in our area. Some locals have been able to net these sardinas from the beach and are using them to catch some very impressive sized snook, quite a few of these normally elusive fish have been landed, weighing in the 20 to 45 lb. class. One snook estimated to be at least 60 pounds was landed, this could have been a new IGFA world record, as the all tackle record for snook is now listed at 58 lb., those these local anglers just hauled the catch off to their home, not wishing to go through all of the record applications, etc…

Anglers are finding good numbers of late season roosterfish early in the day right in the vicinity of the PLC Marina Channel, still some roosters to 50 pounds in this area, striking on slow trolled live bait. Not much action found off the bottom rock piles now, there has been a persistent strong current running and this appears to be slacking up some now, in recent days some nice huachinango were being hooked into on yo-yo jigs on rock pile near San Luis Bank.

Most consistent gamefish action is now being found offshore, anywhere from 3 to 15 miles out, has varied from day to day, earlier in the week the best bite was found off of San Luis, then later in the week that action slowed and the bite was better straight out front of San Jose del Cabo and towards the Gordo Banks. Striped marlin, blue marlin, sailfish, dorado, yellowfin tuna and a handful of wahoo were all being found. Anglers used a combination of trolling lures and various baitfish, including slabs from giant squid, which were being sold at the dock area in the morning.

Most of the yellowfin being encountered were on the grounds from Iman to Vinormama, not associated with porpoise, blind strikes while trolling hoochies, cedar plugs and small feathers, sizes averaged 8 to 15 lb. Dorado ranged from small juvenile fish to trophy sized bulls, close to 50 pounds. Scattered action, some charters reported never seeing any dorado, while others accounted for 3,4,5 of more very impressive fish. Billfish were also hit or miss, though some incredible action was encountered, one cruiser charter out of La Playita accounted for two blue marlin, a striped marlin and sailfish, as well as tuna and dorado all in one morning.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 85 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 blue marlin, 9 sailfish, 28 striped marlin, 96 yellowfin tuna, 110 dorado, 3 wahoo, 38 roosterfish, 15 jack crevalle, , 22 huachinango (red snapper) and 13 cabrilla.

Good fishing, Eric

August 3, 2013

Anglers –

With the start of a new month we have finally seen more stable weather patterns and the summer season is now feeling more like we would expect, increased tropical humidity and warmer days. The next couple of months is when forecasters will closely monitor the progress of any low pressure areas, which can that quickly form into tropical storms. At this time there is Hurricane Gil which is now far off to the west and there are no other new systems developing that appear to threaten land. Ocean water temperatures are now averaging 80 to 85 degrees and clean blue water is moving within a couple of miles of shore, winds have resided and conditions are very favorable for offshore gamefish action.

Moderate crowds of anglers are now taking advantage of the much improved ocean conditions, no more having to travel far offshore to find blue water. The fishing grounds from Palmilla to the Gordo Banks, from 3 to 8 miles offshore have been consistent this past week for billfish, dorado and yellowfin tuna. Besides good numbers of striped marlin, were some sailfish, blue and black marlin. Schooling bolito and skipjack are now congregating on these same grounds and are attracting the normal variety of pelagic gamefish. Angles found action while trolling with lures and various baits. Yellowfin tuna were found throughout this area, much of the time without any presence of porpoise activity, these tuna were ranging in the 8 to 15 lb. class, striking mainly on smaller hoochies type lures, this is the first time this season where the tuna have made a presence in close proximity offshore of San Jose del Cabo. Dorado are increasing in numbers as well, with many charters accounted for several dorado per day, weights ranged to over 40 pounds, anglers now have a good chance at hooking into a trophy sized bull now.

There were some larger sized yellowfin reportedly seen breezing on the surface, but only the smaller football models are striking recently, we do expect something to develop for the larger yellowfin as the season progresses.

The commercial pangero fleet continues to find supplies of baitfish in the Puerto Los Cabos Marina channel, caballito, mullet and moonfish are all available. Though with the added pressure of having to supply the Cabo San Lucas fleet as well as local fleets, this bait source has become less plentiful. It is a good thing that we are now seeing quantities of other baitfish appearing on the fishing grounds. Migration patterns have been running behind schedule this season, nice to see things get back on track.

Inshore action has tapered off, though there is still some quality roosterfish striking early in the day in the vicinity of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina jetties. Not much bottom action being found now, strong currents had been a contributing factor in not finding any consistent bite off of the normally productive rock piles found north of Punta Gorda. Though August is a month known more for offshore surface activity, rather than bottom or inshore, it is a time when anglers can find dogtooth snapper, amberjack and grouper on these high spots where other surface pelagic are being targeted.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 77 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 blue marlin, 1 black marlin,11 sailfish, 70 striped marlin, 82 yellowfin tuna, 68 dorado, 84 roosterfish, 18 jack crevalle, 5 amberjack, 3 dogtooth snapper, 10 yellow snapper, 12 huachinango (red snapper) and 12 cabrilla.

Good fishing, Eric