Anglers –
November 28, 2015

This year of 2015 will be remembered for all of the rebuilding efforts created from Hurricane Odile devastation in September of 2014. This year there was record early forming hurricanes in May and now the Los Cabos area has just dogged a major hit by one of the latest Hurricanes to ever form in the Eastern Pacific. This storm named Sandra, follows Rick of last week, which never impacted land, though Sandra strengthened to a category four storm and appeared to be on a collision course with the Southern Baja, but the system was pushed away by strong shear, which also caused Sandra to weaken rapidly and pass far enough to the south to not cause any local damage. Los Cabos ports were closed for at least Friday and part of Saturday, by Sunday sportfishing fleets do expect to be back operating as normal. Swells increased to 10/12 feet, though wind never amounted to much and rainfall was not significant either.

We are now just winding down from our busy fall season, there always is a slack period after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, family priority shift directions. Though this past week was busy with visitors. The week started off with persistent north winds limited options for anglers and making the overall action more spread out, by mid-week, the conditions calmed before the storm and we saw improved fishing action. The most common catches were wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dorado, sailfish and striped marlin, also some roosterfish found near shore. For the most part there were no large numbers of any particular species, though there were some quality fish being accounted for, many days charters would just account for two, three or four fish in combination, though there were dorado to 25 lb., wahoo to 50 lb. and tuna to 80 lb. all accounted for.

Dorado were harder to find compared to previous week, though wahoo became more active around the Iman Bank, early in the morning was best and you had to capitalize and make the best of the chances that you did have. Trolling with caballito, chihuil and various lures all produced wahoo strikes. Dorado were found scattered, no hot spot, though we did hear of more numbers of dorado found on the Pacific. Ocean Temperatures were ranging 79 to 82 degrees through most of the region. Still no reports of any new resource for sardinas, tuna action would be more consistent if this bait was available, most tuna are still be taken on strips of squid. The Inner Gordo Bank produced yellowfin tuna over 80 lb. and some days schooling tuna to 100 lb. could be seen surfacing, but were very finicky to bite any offerings. The action for tuna found under the porpoise became more sporadic, but was still an options when anglers found themselves in the right place at the right time.

More striped marlin appeared on local grounds, not always in the mood to bite, as they can be near full moon. There were two black marlin reportedly landed from private boats out of Puerto Lo Cabos Marina and there was a blue marlin landed from a panga that was estimated to weigh close to 500 lb., this blue was hooked on a trolled caballito late in the afternoon about five miles off of Red Hill and was not landed and brought back to the docks until midnight. With the warm waters there are still quite a few sailfish in the area for this late in the year, most of these in the 40 to 80 lb. class.

Not much off the bottom now besides triggerfish, small cabrilla and pargo, also a few bonito. A few charters reports good success on roosterfish while slow trolling caballito near Punta Gorda, surprising to see roosterfish at this time, some of them to 20 lbs. Lots of barracuda keeping anglers busy off the marina dock area, also a few sierra showing up.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 89 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 black marlin, 1 blue marlin, 15 sailfish, 19 striped marlin, 90 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 39 wahoo, 13 sierra,, 35 misc. pargo species, 14 cabrilla, 22 bonito, 28 roosterfish and 44 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
November 21, 2015

With all of the major local gamefish tournaments now over we will see the crowds of visiting anglers lighten up, as people are now preparing for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays which are rapidly approaching. The weather this week was dominated by the persistent northeast winds, which picked up at the start of the week and never really laid down all week. This created choppy seas and limited options for fleets launching out of San Jose del Cabo, though twenty miles to the south, out of Cabo San Lucas, the seas were much calmer, in areas which were more protected from north winds, though action was still sporadic.

Tropical Storm Rick developed more than several hundred miles off to the west of the Baja Peninsula and is forecast to stay far offshore and not cause any impact on land. Overall we are feeling a cooling trend, though daytime temperatures were reaching 85 degrees. Ocean temperatures dropped a couple of degrees as well, most areas are now averaging 82 degrees, some spots of 83/84 degrees, this trend should continue, maybe the cooling currents will help normalize pre-El Nino currents for bait and gamefish migrations.

Action proved to be more spread out and less productive this past week, there were some quality fish accounted for, though numbers were down, no particular place was hot, wind was a major factor on the grounds from the Gordo Banks and to the north. Schools of yellowfin tuna up to 100 pounds were seen surfacing while traveling with porpoise, but conditions were not favorable for chasing these rapidly moving schools and not many of these tuna were landed. A handful of fish in the 40 to 80 pounds were accounted for, some striking on strips of squids, other on live chihuil. Still no resource for sardinas, there have been caballito and ballyhoo available as other options. Perhaps cooling currents and less angling pressure will allow the sardinas to move within our range, which would be a great bait to have at this time.

The wahoo were not as active this past week either, though on Monday there was a 69 lb. wahoo landed out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, this trophy sized ‘hoo hit on a live skipjack, was part of an explosive double hook up, which resulted in one nice wahoo landed and another one lost. Wahoo were spread out throughout the area, though better chances still seem to be north of Punta Gorda. Dorado action slowed was down in recent days, though these fish are still in the area, the majority of charters finding maybe one or two, or at least having a chance or two.

Billfish was spread out, though there did seem to be increased numbers of striped marlin in local waters now, also some sailfish and at least one blue was landed for the panga fleet out of Puerto Los Cabos. When the wind does reside there should be better opportunities found.

More sierra are moving in with the cooling waters, these smaller sized gamefish will provide bonus inshore action, especially when we start seeing schools of sardinas move back into the region. It will not be long until the annual migration of whales arrive for their winter visit to their most southern calving and feeding grounds.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 138 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 14 striped marlin, 12 sailfish, 66 yellowfin tuna, 13 wahoo, 96 dorado, 12 sierra, 14 rainbow runner, 76 misc. pargo species, 12 cabrilla, 14 bonito and 50 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
November 14, 2015

Large crowds of visiting anglers continue to arrive in Los Cabos, as we now enter the second half of November, when the busy fall season comes to an end. Weather patterns are shifting to predominately northern winds, ranging up to 25 miles per hour mid-week and these winds were basically relentless for most of this past week. Skies were mostly clear, with high temperatures nearing 90 degrees, we do expect that we will be feeling cooler weather arrive by this coming week. Hard to say what these northern winds will do, normal pattern are several days of winds, then a couple calmer days, before repeating the same cycle. This does not mean that sportfishing operations come to halt, it does sometimes make for changing plans accordingly and trying to fish in areas more protected if possible. Ocean water temperatures are now at 84 degrees throughout the entire lower Baja zone, no real temperatures breaks found. Swells have been moderate, choppy ocean conditions found to the north due to gusting winds.

There are still no sardinas available locally, strips of squid continue to be used for targeting yellowfin tuna, ballyhoo are now being sold in the marina area, these have been working for dorado and chances at billfish or wahoo, also available have been live caballito. Other options when weather allowed was to try and catch your own chihuil off of the high spots. We expect to see schools of sardinas move back within range as water cools and heavy pressure resides.

The all-around fishing action was more limited this past week, mainly due to windy conditions which limited where charters could comfortably fish. The yellowfin tuna found associated with porpoise activity in the vicinity of and north of the Gordo Banks, became less frequent as to when and if at all the porpoise were even encountered, though some charters who concentrated on this and stuck with it did account for yellowfin tuna in the 40 to 70 lb. class, all of these fish hit on strips of squid. Other tuna action was found closer to shore, off of Punta Gorda and now in recent days reports of improved tuna action for a smaller grade of fish off of the Santa Maria area. All this action was also found using strips of squid, as there are no sardinas in the entire area now, with sardinas available this action would definitely be wide open.

Dorado action was producing nice quality fish in the 15 to 25 lb. range, some even larger. No huge numbers, but most charters were finding one or two, or as many as six, the majority were nice sized fish. Striking on various baits, particularly on rigged ballyhoo early in the day, as the sun rose, the action was more sporadic. Off of the Red Hill and Palmilla area there was good early morning action through most of the week, we heard of quality dorado action off of Cabo San Lucas as well. Also some reports of a handful of 200 lb. class yellowfin tuna being accounted for off of the Pacific banks, have not heard of any real large tuna off of the San Jose del Cabo grounds this past week.

There were some sailfish and striped marlin on the same grounds as were the dorado and tuna, no big numbers, but everyday some of these billfish were being hooked into. Wahoo action dropped off this past week, baitfish schools were more scattered after the choppy seas, Iman Bank had been where the wahoo were lurking, these fishing grounds were rough most of the week, hopefully conditions will settle down in time for this weekend’s annual wahoo event out of La Playita.

Bottom action included triggerfish, various pargo and snapper species, an occasional leopard grouper or rainbow runner.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 152 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 17 sailfish marlin, 18 striped marlin, 168 yellowfin tuna, 12 sierra, 14 rainbow runners, 15 huachinango (red snapper), 155 dorado, 18 wahoo, 16 yellow snapper, 95 triggerfish, 18 barred pargo, 8 bonito, 10 cabrilla and 6 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric