Anglers –
August 28, 2016

Light crowds of tourists visiting at this time, weather patterns continue to be very tropical, hot and humid, chances of thundershowers forecast throughout the week, though we did not see much rainfall, except on Tuesday afternoon, when a major electrical storm passed through the area, vicious thunder and lightning strikes, which left most of the region without power for a couple of hours, two inches or more of rain fell in a matter of 30 minutes, then skies cleared back up just like that. The latest Tropical Strom Lester is far off to the west, having no impact on land, though the ocean swell did pick up some, as we saw surf over two meters high pounding the shoreline. Winds have been light for the most part and just this morning we felt that slight hint of fall season in the air, as early morning was slightly cooler than it has been for the past couple of months. Water temperature is ranging from 80 to 85 degrees, coolest area right close to shore off of Cabo San Lucas.

Anglers have been using strips of squid and live caballito for bait, also some skipjack and bolito being caught on the fishing grounds and being rigged for larger gamefish baits as well. The Gordo Banks have been producing some of the larger fish as usual, though numbers of actually fish landed from these grounds are low, a handful of black marlin hook ups, one yellowfin tuna caught by a local pangeros estimated at 280 lb. earlier in the week, another later in the week at 130 lb. Lots of sharks again biting on these same banks. Anglers used larger whole baits or drift fished with strips of squid. Clean blue water, lots of natural food source as well, stronger than usual currents running, these can be factors why the bite is not what we would expect for this time of year, of course this can change, just as fast as the weather can.

The action around the Iman Bank has been a bit more productive and chance at more variety. This is where anglers are hooking into some yellowfin tuna that have been averaging 20 to 40 lb., most of these have come on strips of squid, again no numbers, anglers lucky to land one or two of these tuna.

A handful of dorado are being accounted for, but not in any quantity, most of these fish have not been larger than 15 lb. Striking on trolled lures and various baits, no particular location, scattered throughout the area. Very few reports of wahoo that we heard of, they can become more dormant when water temperatures reach the mid-80s. Not much bottom action found this past week either, more triggerfish than anything else, swift current makes it hard to effectively fish the structure. We did hear of one 80 lb. class amberjack, when currents slack we do expect to see more options off the bottom, time of year we can see some quality grouper and dogtooth snapper.

Not much inshore action now, more jack crevalle than anything else. Surf conditions are up now, this scatters baitfish schools, normal pattern for late August.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 52 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 33 yellowfin tuna, 36 dorado, 2 wahoo, 8 rainbow runner, 13 huachinango, 12 yellow snapper, 4 surgeonfish, 48 triggerfish, 3 amberjack and 8 jack crevalle.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 20, 2016

With school sessions now set to start the new fall semester, we have seen lighter crowds of tourists arriving. With all around fish reports not being up to normal expectations we are not seeing any large numbers of anglers arriving either. Tropical weather conditions continue, this past week was calm, warm, humid, with plenty of sunshine, now we have the latest Tropical Storm Kay swirling off the lower Peninsula a couple of hundred miles to the west, bringing scattered rainfall, but no port closures at this time, looks like we will see same patterns through much of next week. When forecasts call for 80% chance at rain, often this refers to isolated areas, clouds that pass through relatively quickly and do not account to much of a problem. We are not expected any high winds or swells to develop from TS Kay. Tidal swings have been high now due to the full moon phase, also this bright moon did not seem to help the fishing action much either.

The week started off with decent catches for a combination of dorado, yellowfin tuna, billfish and assorted structure species, but as the week progressed, action became more spread out and not as productive, hard to pinpoint a particular reason for this, considering ocean conditions seemed favorable, though there were strong current that were running, varying from day to day, also very warm water, averaging 85 degrees, lots of natural food source on the fishing grounds and then the bright full moon, all these can be combined factors for the slack in action.

Bait suppliers have been offering live caballito and also more slabs of giant squid are being used again, for drift fishing and targeting the tuna, more bolito and skipjack on the grounds are now being used as larger trolling baits. Other options included using yo-yo jigs early in the day over the rocky areas. No particular spot has been really consistent recently, though best chances overall have centered around the Iman Bank, though on the Gordo Banks a handful of larger gamefish, including a couple of yellowfin tuna in the 200 lb. class, as well as black and blue marlin to 300 lb., though overall the Gordo Banks have been quiet, just an occasional hook up reported, but this is the place where the largest fish have been produced.

Early in the week we saw a couple of days of good dorado action, mostly for smaller sized fish, with a handful of fish in the 15 to 20 lb. range accounted for, but this was the most significant dorado action we had seen all summer long. A few wahoo in the area, found in open offshore waters while charters are mainly targeted billfish, Dorado were found off of Red Hill and towards the north of Punta Gorda. Not much inshore action now reported, or even targeted, as this is the time when this action normally phases out for the season, Some local shore anglers did report a few nice sized snook, as well as triple tail, an elusive summer time catch, more active normally in the evening.

On the Iman Bank anglers had chances at hooking into yellowfin tuna while using strips of squid, fish to 50 lb. were landed off of these grounds, larger fish reportedly lost. Though bite has not been consistent at all, was best early in the week, then became much more hit or miss. These same areas produced some cabrilla, broomtail grouper, yellow snapper, barred pargo and dogtooth snapper, not big numbers, but some nice quality fish were accounted for. We are optimistic that the action should improve as this full moon fades, this is the month when we normally find excellent action, especially for quality yellowfin tuna.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 54 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 5 striped marlin, 4 wahoo, 19 yellowfin tuna, 46 dorado, 14 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 6 broomtail grouper, 2 pargo colorado,8 huachinango (red snapper), 4 dogtooth snapper,18 yellow snapper, 2 amberjack and 9 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 13, 2016

This past weekend we were bracing for possible impact from the latest Tropical Storm Javier, the system ended up following a path further off to the west, just offshore of Todo Santos and paralleling the Baja Peninsula. There was some isolated heavy rainfall, only minimal flooding was reported, and winds were not too high, up to about 30/40 mph. The local Ports were closed for all activity on Monday and Tuesday as a precaution, as storm surge and swells picked up to about ten feet. The storm quickly passed and Ports were reopened Wednesday morning so that sportfishing operations could resume business as normal.

Right before this latest storm developed the fishing action to the north of Punta Gorda around Iman to San Luis Banks was showing signs of improvement, as the nicer grade of yellowfin tuna started to bite. Then after the passing of the storm the ocean was a bit stirred up on Wednesday and the bite was off, now as conditions steadily improve the action is picking up again. Anglers were using chunks of squid, other available baits, as well as yo-yo jigs and tuna up near 100 lb. were accounted for, no huge numbers, but some charters were landing several nice tuna. Other catches included dorado, wahoo and various snapper and grouper species. The billfish bite also improved, with blue and striped marlin both being found on the same local fishing grounds. We expect this all around action to continue to improve, as long as the weather holds as it is at this time.

As is the normal pattern, inshore action for jack crevalle and roosterfish diminishes at this time, still a chance at finding limited action while trolling baits outside the surf zone, but nothing like it had been earlier in the summer. More bolito baitfish are now being found schooling on the fishing grounds and these always make a great bait option. In the marina area the main live bait being offered is caballito and once again slabs of squid are being used for drift fishing the yellowfin tuna. Only an occasional dorado being found, a few up to 15 lb., same for wahoo, only an occasional fish actually landed, though these fish are in the area, they do commonly become more sluggish when water temperatures are average above 85 degrees, as they are now.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 blue marlin, 8 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 69 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 4 amberjack, 10 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 2 broomtail grouper, 5 pargo colorado,18 huachinango (red snapper), 10 yellow snapper and 4 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric