Anglers –
November 25, 2017

Still very busy with visiting tourists now in Los Cabos, many of them here enjoying their Thanksgiving holidays and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, as the weather is pristine, clear sunny skies with temperatures averaging 85 degrees. Following this week we normally see a bit of slack time as far as numbers of tourists arriving, as people get back to work and school, then start preparing for the Christmas Holiday Season.

Early in the week there was persistent north wind creating rough conditions on the grounds to the north of Punta Gorda, but late in the week they resided and ocean conditions were great. Water temperature is now right around 80 degrees, this keeps prospects very favorable for the coming weeks. Bait supplies remained fairly steady for sardinas, now schooling near Palmilla beaches and further south, though on a few days they did become a bit more limited due to the extra heavy pressure during this holiday week. Other bait options continued to be slabs of squid, ballyhoo and the more elusive chihuil, which was the candy bait being used for targeting the highly sought after wahoo. Water was very clean and blue now, almost too clean on offshore high spots, as fish can also become more finicky at times when there is an abundance of natural food source and the water is crystal clear.

Though for most anglers they did report good success, most common species being the yellowfin tuna, there continued to be good action for the smaller sized tuna off of Palmilla Point, hitting mainly on the sardinas and ranging in sizes of 10 to 20 plus lb. The action for the larger grade yellowfin that had been happening on San Luis and Iman Banks, slowed way down this week, as more of the smaller tuna to 20 lb. also moved in on these grounds. Most likely the larger fish are still hanging around, but just have not wanted to compete with all of these smaller tuna. Dorado were scattered, not being being found in any particular area, best chances were on the same grounds where the tuna were schooling, we did see a few dorado up to 20 lb., which is nicer sized than we had been seeing, reports of more dorado were coming from the Pacific.

The wahoo action on closer by spots was very limited, just an occasional fish, though near Vinorama there has been an excellent bite on these speedsters. The deal was to first go and catch the bait of choice, chihuil, either on the Inner Gordo Banks or at times on Iman. Not all charters are even prepared to do this, this is more of a panga deal than cruiser, they are spooky mackerel sized baits that are chummed up and caught one at a time on very light leader. Some boats were landing over five nice wahoo and loosing many other strikes, sizes increased throughout the week, as several specimens over 50 lb. and one of 64 lb. were weighed in. We are looking forward when these fish move within closer range, as they should do soon as the heavy boat pressure lightens up.

Not much in the way of local billfish action out of San Jose del Cabo, though on the Pacific they were reported more striped marlin, though many were smaller sized juvenile fish. Still a chance of hooking into a black or blue marlin, with the warmer water and all of the skipjack and yellowfin tuna to keep them interested.

Not much bottom action reported, though we saw a few more exotics this week, besides the prevalent triggerfish, there were a few amberjack, island jack, cabrilla and various pargo. Every day we are seeing a handful of sierra in the mix, look for this inshore action to take off soon as the water temperature cools off.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 142 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 1 blue marlin,107 wahoo, 24 sierra, 925 yellowfin tuna, 55 dorado, 13 amberjack, 11 yellow snapper, 18 huachinango, 8 island jack, 4 barred pargo, 18 Eastern Pacific bonito, 90 white skipjack, 8 cabrilla and 95 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
November 18, 2017

The crazy busy fall season is going to start lightening up in the next week, though this past week was very busy. Visiting anglers were enjoying clear sunny skies, with high temperatures in the upper 80s, still warmer than usual for this late in the fall. Winds were picking up from the north, though more so later in the morning, most fishing action now was concentrated from the Gordo Banks to San Luis Banks and the spots in between. Ocean water temperatures were still holding in the 83 to 84 degree range, several degrees warmer than usual, so we are anticipating having good action throughout the month of December as well.

Despite continued heavy pressure the supplies of sardinas have been holding up, being netted along the beach stretches from Palmilla and further south, this meant a bit of back tracking or waiting near the marina entrance, but at least this preferred bait was obtainable, anglers also continue to use slabs of squid as well. Most consistent action this week was for the yellowfin tuna on the Iman and San Luis Banks, wide open action on tuna in the 10 to 20 lb. class, also other areas where a handful of yellowfin in the 70 to 100 lb. range were being landed. The Gordo Banks slowed down, but was still the place to look for the possible largest of tuna, though this week we only heard of a couple of fish in the 150 lb. range, none over 200 or 300 lb. that we found out about. A few black marlin still hanging around in the warmer currents as well, with all of the tuna around, plenty of food source for the marlin. Lots of natural food on the banks as well, this can make the larger tuna more finicky. Most days charters were returning early, plugged with tuna, the majority the smaller grade, but still nice fish.

Dorado continued to be harder to come by, only a sporadic fish or two being found, most all under 15 lb., an occasional exception close to 20 lb. The wahoo action has not really broken open yet, though we have had ta aste of some decent action, and some boats were fortunate to get lucky and land as many as four in one morning, though other boats were searching hard and felt lucky if they landed one. Best chances for the wahoo seemed to be on the ground from the Iman Bank and to Vinorama. The wahoo were striking on various rapalas, lures and baits. We are hoping that as crowds lighten up some, the wahoo will become more active, with the warmer water hanging around the prospects remain high for the next few weeks.

Not really the time frame now when there is a lot of bottom action going on, though there were a few amberjack, pargo, bonito, cabrilla being accounted for, more triggerfish than anything else. A few more sierra starting to appear, even though the water is still warm, in the next month we should see some better inshore action happening, perhaps more off the bottom as well.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 210 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 black marlin, 1 yellowtail corvina, 78 wahoo, 28 sierra, 1650 yellowfin tuna, 78 dorado, 9 amberjack, 12 yellow snapper, 28 huachinango, 25 Eastern Pacific bonito, 82 white skipjack, 10 cabrilla and 110 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
November 11, 2017

Peak season now for the panga fleets out of San Jose del Cabo, this Sunday is the annual Wahoo Tournament, which also coincides with the sanctioned Iron Man event in Los Cabos, many roads will be closed off and patience will be needed to navigate in any direction. It can always be a challenge this time of year, as everyone seems to want to visit and go fishing all on the same dates. Another couple of weeks and things will settle back down to more ordinary schedules.

Ocean temperatures are now in the 81 to 84 degrees range, still a few degrees higher than normal for this time frame. Early in the week we felt the season’s first real consistent wind patterns from the north develop, this made for much tougher fishing conditions in the direction of the Gordo Banks, Iman and San Luis Banks. Many charters opted to fish in the direction of Cabo San Lucas, in calmer waters, catching good number of fish, though the grade of yellowfin tuna were smaller, off of Palmilla Point there was a hot bite for football sized tuna, with a few dorado and wahoo mixed in. Bait netters were still finding sardinas, despite the heavy pressure, the bait schools were now mainly concentrated around Palmilla beaches. Other bait options included some caballito, ballyhoo, slabs of squid and chihuil.

Last weekend the Los Cabos WON Tuna Jackpot was held and local La Playita team “Estrella del Norte” with team captain James Rosenwald and mate/angler Adrian Miranda who caught the winning 338 lb. yellowfin tuna, taking home a cool quarter of a million dollars for their efforts, congratulations to them. In tune up for the event last week, on Tuesday, a 323 lb. yellowfin tuna was caught from the panga Killer II with skipper Chame Pino, in last week’s report we mistaken did not mention the angler who actually landed that fish, this was local Los Cabos resident Jack Dudenhoeffer. This week we had several other cow sized tuna landed, including Michael Aviani’s 220 lb., Miguel Angeles with a 234 lb. tuna and Walter Korbler with a 221 lb fish, all of these taken off of the Gordo Banks.

Targeting the larger sized tuna required lots of patience and stockpiling larger quantities of bait, sardinas, squid and chunks of skipjack were all used, the majority of the largest tuna were hooked on either chunk of skipjack or strips of squid. There were also nice sized tuna to over 100 lb. landed while fishing the San Luis Bank, though that was tough through much of the week due to north winds, no big numbers of these larger fish, but some anglers did account for one, two and even three in one morning. Winds are contributed to currents pushing in greenish Pacific water. Most common sized tuna being caught were more in the 7 to 15 lb. class, these hit mostly of the sardinas, with Iman Bank and Palmilla Point being hot spot on particular days.

Dorado were much more scattered than the tuna, limited numbers of these fish were accounted for, more juvenile sized, an occasional fish to 15 lb. This is traditionally the peak time for targeting wahoo, so far the action has been random, not consistent day to day, but for anglers specifically targeting these gamefish, they were having multiple chances and landed as many as four per boat, though most felt fortunate having one wahoo in the fish box. They were hitting on both trolled lures, such as Rapalas and also on trap hooked baits, caballito and chihuil. With the water temperature still holding warm, we expect to have wahoo in the area through next month as well. Heavy pressure recently and wahoo can prove to be one species that becomes more elusive when large congregations of boats are zooming around there preferred feeding grounds.

Not much going off the bottom now, or close to shore, that usually picks up as water temperatures drop some. A few sierra were caught this past week, also miscellaneous pargo, snapper, but more triggerfish than anything else.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 270 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 black marlin, 58 wahoo, 14 sierra, 920 yellowfin tuna, 72 dorado, 3 amberjack, 1 yellowtail, 14 yellow snapper, 18 huachinango, 22 Eastern Pacific bonito, 65 white skipjack, 13 cabrilla, 3 barred pargo and 140 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric