May 30, 2021

Los Cabos is busy, with the International Airport seeing large crowds of tourists arriving, strange deal is that the a high percentage of these visitors are not anglers, so local sportfishing fleets are only moderately busy. Weather is now great, clear skies with highs of about 90 degrees, there are a couple of tropical low pressure areas hundreds of miles to the south now brewing, but neither are forecast to develop into much or to impact the Southern Baja Peninsula. Swells have been increasing, as is normal for this time of year, we are seeing lots of surfers, winds were laid down for most of the week, though over the weekend the breeze from the south did pick up some. Ocean water temperature has been in the 76 to 80 degree range in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and further north.

Anglers are now relying on sardinas, caballito and mullet for their bait options, offshore options for billfish have also included ballyhoo. There has been good action found offshore near the 95 and 1150 spots, main catch has been striped marlin, though a few dorado and yellowfin tuna are being found near these same grounds. The striped marlin are striking on a mix of lures and various baitfish.

Water clarity has been clearing up closer to shore and this week there were some yellowfin tuna found around the Iman Bank, not a lot of fish, but a handful were accounted for, weights ranged up to 100 lb.  So we do anticipate this tuna bite to become more consistent as weather continues to stabilize as we near summer season. Other options for tuna has been further offshore, 30 to 50 miles out, finding pods of porpoise and tuna have been moving amongst them, though this option was out of range for normal charters.

Still the most consistent action overall has been coming from the rocky high spots closer to shore, where anglers were using a mix of yo-yo jigs and baits to find a wide variety of quality eating bottom species. Most common fish were the bonito, red and yellow snapper, leopard grouper, amberjack, spotted rose snapper, surgeon fish, pompano and triggerfish.

Along the shoreline some nice sized late season sierra are still being found, along with jack crevalle and some roosterfish, even though we are seeing more mullet moving into local waters, we have not seen a large run of roosterfish as of yet, that is normally something we have more the second half of the month of June.

Good Fishing, Eric

May 23, 2021

As we continue progressing through the later weeks of the spring season we are enjoying ideal weather conditions, sunny skies with high temperatures ranging in the upper 80s to about 90 degrees. Winds have still been a bit more of a factor than we would expect during this time frame and ocean swells have increased as they normal do this month, which also in turn brings crowds of surfers to the region. Ocean temperature in the direction towards San Jose del Cabo and further north has been in the 76 to 78 degree range, while the Pacific has been cooler, at 68 to 70 degrees.

We are still seeing limited numbers of anglers, probably more surfers in town than fishermen. There have been good supplies of both sardina and caballito, a few mullet and moonfish mixed in. We do expect to see the main migration of mullet to move in soon, as this is the time of year, this will also bring in the run of larger sized roosterfish.

This past week we saw the billfish action become more scattered, as offshore wind did not help this out. Most local charter boats were concentrated on inshore areas and on the high spots to the north, near San Luis and La Fortuna. This is where anglers found an assortment of bottom species while drift fishing with yo-yo jigs and various baitfish. Most common fish they were hooking into were red snapper, yellow snapper, spotted rose snapper, bonita, amberjack, leopard grouper, pompano and triggerfish. Some of these amberjack were well over 40 pounds. Most boats were bringing in about a dozen fish in combination, all very good eating.

Only a few yellowfin tuna seen during the week, one weighed in at 83 lb. Same deal with dorado, only a scattering of these fish were brought in, a couple of these were over 20 lb.

Closer to shore there were still decent number of sierra and they were nicer sized specimens, ranging 5 to 12 lb. Also good numbers of jack crevalle and the season’s first wave of roosterfish starting to appear, the roosters using peak in our area later in June.

Good Fishing, Eric

May 16, 2021

With each passing day now it has started to feel more like summer, since last week when the season’s first tropical storm developed to the southwest of Southern Baja, the weather changed just like that, humidity increased and daytime high temperatures were reaching 90 plus degrees. Wind patterns are now switching as well, still a bit unpredictable, though much less persistent compared to how they had been. Ocean water temperatures jumped up to 78 degrees and clean blue water was now being found within several miles of shore. So just as predicted, conditions can change very quickly this time of year. We are still only seeing limited numbers of visiting anglers, though it is now a great time to visit, while weather is still comfortable, crowds are light and fishing action is improving.

Supplies of sardinas and caballito have been plentiful and anglers are using yo-yo jigs and some surface trolling lures. Most of the fishing now has been going on from La Fortuna, San Luis and towards Vinorama, this is where a wide variety of fish have been found. The most consistent bite has been off the rock structure, anywhere from 80 to 200 feet deep. Using jigs and various baits, anglers found quality action for species such as red snapper (huachinango), barred pargo, yellow snapper, amberjack, bonito, pompano, surgeonfish, cabrilla, grouper and others. All of these fish were excellent table fare. Some of the more impressive catches were amberjack to 50 pounds and grouper to over 30 lb. and some trophy sized red snapper close to 15 pounds.

We only saw a handful of yellowfin tuna this week, smaller sized, also we did see a few nice dorado starting to appear in the warmer waters. There were other reports of some tuna being found associated with porpoise much further offshore, though these fish were not within our normal range yet. Still good numbers of striped marlin being found from the 95 to 1150 spots, striking lures and dropped back baits. There were reports of wahoo seen free swimming on same grounds where bottom fish were being targeted, though they were not interested in striking, we did hear of some spear fishermen killing as many as five wahoo in one outing, so they are definitely in the area. Sure wish they would control the spear fishing limits more, seems like one fish per species would be more appropriate, no more three fish in total, in the meantime these spear guys are using the same fishing permits as do rod and reel anglers, that does not make any sense.

Inshore there has continued to be action for quality sized sierra, though with the warming water this action did taper off some. There were roosterfish moving in though, some fish up to 40 pounds were seen, also some very large jack crevalle. Action for surf fishermen seemed to be picking up as well and heard of at least one snook being landed.

Good Fishing, Eric