Anglers –

June 29, 2019

We are now just beginning the summer season, we are seeing many families arriving on vacation, as school sessions are now on break and it is a great time to travel. Weather patterns are progressively warming, daytime highs near 90 degrees, mostly sunny skies, some early morning marine cloud cover, quickly burning off. Winds are been fairly light, strong currents pushing in the out, ocean temperatures now in the 80 degree range towards San Jose del Cabo, clarity still fluctuating some due to unpredictable currents. The season first named tropical storm Alvin, is now far off to the west of the Baja Peninsula, not causing any impact on land at all, if anything just increased the heat and humidity a bit.

Anglers found similar bait choices, caballito, moonfish, ballyhoo and slabs of squid being the main deal. For the past week now the most consistent action was centered around the Iman Bank, this is where yellowfin tuna were schooling, though catching these tuna was not easy, best chances were earlier in the morning, drift fishing with strips of squid, as well as a few fish striking slowly trolled caballito. Anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these yellowfin, sizes ranged from 20 to 80 lb. The tuna are hanging around these high spots, but are finicky, with heavier boat pressure, as well as all of the natural food source on these same grounds. So far we have not heard of any reports of tuna being found on the Gordo Banks, it is the time of year coming up when we would normally seeing some of the larger yellowfin make an appearance on these famous grounds.

Billfish action seems to be more scattered as well, majority of the striped marlin are now on their migration north, following their preferred mackerel food source towards So. Calif. Waters. Still early in the season, though we will start to see more chances for the warmer water species, such as black, blue marlin and sailfish. Tis week we know of at least blue marlin that was lost after a four a hour battle on a smaller sized panga, this fish was estimated to be about 400 lb. Only an occasional dorado now being found, some closer to shore, other in open offshore waters, weights up to 25 lb., though again, no significant numbers at all, mostly just single scattered fish.

So far we have not seen the massive schools of mullet that will move in during this time frame, but nevertheless there has been some good roosterfish action found while trolling various live baits closer to shoreline, more jack crevalle as well, though many roosterfish were accounted for, averaging 20 to 30 lb., some larger. Not much being said about dogtooth snapper, this is the same peak season for these brutes as well, just a little behind schedule this season.

Off of the bottom structure there has been a mix of quality eating species found, though no big numbers at all, the Mexican bonito are still around, but not as many now that water is so warm, also some red snapper, triggerfish, cabrilla, highlight was an occasional amberjack, a couple of these weighed in the 50 to 75 lb. range. Also a handful of decent broomtail grouper to over 30 lb. The local shore anglers reported a couple of nice snook and corvina the past week off of the el Faro region of La Playita, Baitfish concentrating along that stretch attract some quality fish this time of year.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 88 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 11 dorado, 42 yellowfin tuna, 3 broomtail grouper, 15 leopard grouper, 155 Mexican bonito, 52 red snapper, 8 yellow snapper, 19 amberjack, 28 roosterfish, 32 jack crevalle and 85 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

Anglers –

June 22, 2019

Well the summer season is now officially here, local weather patterns are steadily warming, some scattered morning cloud cover, quickly burning off as the sun rises higher into the sky, daytime highs reaching 90 degrees. We noticed more crowds of family vacationers arriving, taking advantage of early summer vacation time. Winds were lighter, mainly picking up from the south later in the day. Ocean water temperatures has quickly rebounded back near the 80 degree mark in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and further north. Also clarity is much cleaner on these same grounds in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, while the Pacific still remains greenish and much cooler.

In and around the marina area the bait vendors are finding caballito, mullet and some moonfish, other bait options has been strips of squid and ballyhoo, as well as some bolito and smaller sized black skipjack on the offshore fishing grounds. Anglers are also using yo-yo style jigs for a mix of some bottom action.

Sportfishing fleets are mainly concentrating on the grounds from the Iman to San Luis Bank, not much found on the scouting trips to the Gordo Banks, besides shark and a few billfish. The more productive action has been switching back and forth daily, some days San Luis, others on the Iman. Drift fishing for yellowfin tuna with strips of squid, as well as slow trolling live baits, has resulting in yellowfin tuna catches, fish ranged in sizes from 15 lb. to 80 lb. No big numbers, most boats were having at least a chance or two, some charters landing as many as three or four tuna, the best action seemed to be earlier in the morning.

These same grounds were producing an occasional dorado, a few nicer sized bulls over 25 lb. were accounted for, but only a scattered fish or two, at least we are seeing these prized fighting and popular gamefish present in local waters, they had been absent for a long time during the cooler winter and spring seasons.

The same areas where these surface species are being encountered, there have been options off the bottom while drift fishing with various baits and using the yo-yo style jigs. There were a few variety of grouper, pompano, amberjack, red snapper, yellow snapper, bonito and others on these rocky high spots. All of these being excellent table fare.

All along the beach stretches now is a great time for slowing baits for roosterfish, now the peak season for these gamefish, good chances at hooking into fish over 40 lb., even to 50 and 60 lb. Remember that this species is known for their prized fighting capabilities, not for eating quality, these fishing should always be released, care should be taken while taking a quick photo for documentation of the catch before releasing.

Striped marlin are scattered throughout the area now, right around the Iman bank and towards the Gordo Banks, no huge concentrations, but if you are interested in catching one of these fish, the odds are fairly high now that you find opportunity. Most of the stripers are now averaging 70 to 120 lb. Will not be long until we start seeing the larger blue and black marlin showing up in the warmer summer currents.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 78 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 14 striped, 9 dorado, 48 yellowfin tuna, 3 dogtooth snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 4 African pompano, 180 Mexican bonito, 34 red snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 13 amberjack, 44 roosterfish, 14 jack crevalle and 70 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

Anglers –

June 15, 2019

With the official start to the summer season set to start next weekend we continue to see fluctuating crowds of visiting anglers, last week we had increased numbers now this week we see fewer people arriving. Weather is progressively heating up, high temperatures into the lower 90’s. Later in the week we saw more marine cloudy and overcast conditions. While Pacifica waters are still cool, in the upper 60’s, off of San Jose del Cabo the ocean reached 80 degrees, swirling winds were unpredictable, earlier in the week we felt breezes predominately from the north, laying down mid-week, then later in the week it was the south wind that really kicked up, actually blowing conditions out on Friday and contributed in pushing in colder greenish Pacific water, ocean temperatures dropped to 70 degrees overnight. Now as weather settles conditions will rebound quickly.

The fishing action last week was very encouraging, as we saw more numbers of yellowfin tuna, continued quality action for striped marlin, a few dorado finally showing up, as well as options inshore for roosterfish and for a mix of quality eating bottom species. This week with weather patterns a bit more unstable we had much more scattered overall action, changing from day to day, but the tuna action and marlin proved more elusive and even bottom produced minimal. There were some highlights though, with anglers catching and release trophy sized 50 lb. roosterfish, even landing a couple of wahoo, dorado, sailfish and striped marlin and an occasional nice sized amberjack or red snapper. A lot of variety in the area, though no particular species was overly numerous.

With warmer currents the local bait vendors were finding more caballito, as well as moonfish, ballyhoo and slabs of squid were also available. Inside the Puerto Los Cabos Marina channel we saw mass schools of jack crevalle breaking into a feeding frenzy and local anglers got into this action, chasing these 25 lb. jacks around the docks and jetties.

The action on the San Luis Bank for the Mexican bonito and red snapper while working the yo-yo jigs proved much more difficult in recent days, the weather did not help at times, the tuna had been hitting early in the week on trolled caballito and strips of squid, yellowfin ranging from 20 to 80 b., but this action came to a standstill later in the week.

This transition period can often be like this, sometimes it is not until mid-July before conditions really stabilize and we finally have more consistent day to day action.

These next couple of weeks is when we historically see some of the largest sized roosterfish of the season. We expect to see mass migration of mullet baitfish to move in any time, this in turn brings in more of these inshore gamefish.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 70 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 1 sailfish, 7 dorado, 2 wahoo, 7 striped marlin, 19 yellowfin tuna, 2 dogtooth snapper, 11 leopard grouper, 98 Mexican bonito, 32 red snapper, 14 amberjack, 24 roosterfish, 22 jack crevalle, 4 yellow snapper and 70 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric