Anglers –

July 7, 2017

We did see larger crowds of tourists arriving for the July 4 th holiday week. The weather remained very comfortable, though we are now seeing progressively warmer days, we saw daytime high temperatures range from 85 to 95 degrees. Mostly clear sunny skies, scattered tropical clouds, increased humidity, though no new tropical storms at this time and the crazy southern winds have let up some, so ocean conditions were more favorable. Water temperatures were back up to 78 degrees late in the week, though clarity was still greenish within five miles of shore, but with each passing day it is cleaning up some, a slow process.

Live bait supplies remained plentiful for caballito and mullet, very limited amounts of sardinas were also found. The mullet had become more scattered in the cooler water, but now have moved back into the Puerto Los Cabos channel area in large schools, where jack crevalle and roosterfish have also been seen feeding, we heard of at least one 25 lb. class snook that was also landed from the beach by a local angler.

Local charters have found the most consistent action from Iman to San Luis Banks. This is where there was quality action for huachinango (red snapper) being landed daily, while drift fishing over the high spots and working yo-yo style jigs, same areas produced a handful of amberjack, leopard grouper and Eastern Pacific bonito, the good eating variety. Yellowfin tuna of 30 lb.to 70 lb. are lurking on these same grounds, but not many are being landed, an average of a few a day for the combined fleet, most of these were taken on baits such as live caballito. Later in the week charters also reported finding yellowfin tuna in the 5 to 15 lb. class scattered on the outer perimeter of these same banks, striking on smaller sized hoochie skirted lures. As the water conditions continue to improve we expect the all-around action to break wide open.

There were reports of schooling dogtooth snapper seen, not wanting to bite, as well as larger sized amberjack, this is now the time when both of these prized gamefish can become most active close to shore, look for this to happen possible in the coming week, just a matter of water cleaning up slightly and warming up another couple of degrees.
Roosterfish and jack crevalle have become more active again, most of the roosters we saw were in the 15 to 20 lb. range, surely there are some much larger fish patrolling the shorelines.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 7 dorado, 9 amberjack, 55 bonito, 22 yellow snapper, 5 barred pargo, 82 yellowfin tuna, 15 leopard grouper, 1 yellowtail, 280 huachinango, 35 jack crevalle, 13 roosterfish and 34 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

July 1, 2017
Through another month, we now begin the first of the three true summer months. Up until now we have felt relatively mild heat, a bit cooler than normal throughout June. These conditions feel great for local residents, as we know that soon enough we will endurance much warmer and humid times. Last week Hurricane Dora formed and passed as a category one storm about 250 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, locally there were some limited isolated rain squalls, did not amount to much at all though, as this system quickly weakened as it passed over cooler Pacific waters.

We did feel some south winds, but much less and lighter than the previous week. Though the ocean conditions remains turned over, as slack currents are delaying the time it takes for conditions to rebound. Water temperature is back up into the 74 degree range in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and Los Frailes, out to about 10 to 15 miles the water is green, slowly clearing, offshore the water is cleaner and up into the upper 70 degree range. Though better fishing action is still be found closer inshore near the Iman to San Luis Banks, charters that scouted grounds further offshore did not reports much, some scattered yellowfin tuna early in the week for charters out of Cabo San Lucas, but that action dissipated later in the week. Not much being reported for billfish action, some striped marlin being seen, but very few actual hook ups.

Bait supplies remained steady for caballito and mullet, not much else now, even bolito on the fishing grounds vanished, as conditions eventually recover we do expect the offshore grounds to attract the baitfish schools and more gamefish following. In the meantime fleets found that the most productive action was off the bottom, mainly on yo-yo type jigs for red snapper and a few amberjack. The snapper, or huachinango were found mainly on the San Luis bank, best bite was early in the day and these excellent eating fish averaged 4 to 10 lb. We saw a few amberjack off these same grounds, weight from 10 to 30 lb.

Only a few small sized dorado reported in recent days and a couple of reported missed wahoo strikes. There were some quality sized yellowfin tuna hooked into on the grounds from Iman to San Luis, anglers drift fishing or slow trolling various baits had opportunities when putting in enough time, there was one yellowfin close to 100 lb. landed mid-week, other days we would see a few tuna in the 40 to 70 lb. class for all charters combined. A few smaller football sized tuna were also hooked into on yo-yo jigs or trolled hoochies, but numbers were light. Though with this grade of yellowfin schooling in the green water, over the bottom structure we do expect for the bite to become much more consistent as the clarity of the water improves. Crazy now how the action is still better closer to shore where the water clarity is greener, rather than further offshore in the blue water. The deal is that there is more baitfish close to shore than further out, the fish do need to follow their food supply.

For the charters that did try inshore areas for roosterfish, they did find some activity, though these fish were more scattered due to off-colored, cooler conditions, as well as the swells increasing earlier in the week due to the passing of Hurricane Dora.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 dorado, 8 amberjack, 28 bonito, 18 yellow snapper, 7 barred pargo, 29 yellowfin tuna, 9 leopard grouper, 1 dogtooth snapper, 1 broomtail grouper, 235 huachinango, 10 jack crevalle, 12 roosterfish, 3 sierra and 28 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric