June 27, 2021

This past week we saw a wide variety of weather patterns swept through the Southern Baja region. As we continued to have moderate crowds of tourists arriving as summer vacation periods are now in full swing. Last weekend, namely on Sunday, Father’s Day, we had a major south wind blast through the entire region, gusts to over 30 mph, this was a one day event, many charter boats did go out, catching a variety of fish, though everyone got wet and bounced around wildly before safely returning to port. This major blow really turned over the water, on Monday water temperatures had dropped some ten degrees or more, also turning greenish. This shocked the fish, bait also scattered and all around action was slim pickings. Though on Tuesday conditions began to quickly rebound with a calm ocean lasting through the rest of the week. Though over the weekend everyone was closely following the development and projected path of Hurricane Enrique. Looks as though this system will pass very close to the tip of Baja, though as it arrives is supposed to weaken some into a TS and depression. We surely will see stormy seas with high swells and a high chance of some rain. High probability of Port Closure, possibly on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, though overall we are not expecting any major damage from Enrique. Of course these storms are always unpredictable, we will be glad when it passes through and we get back to our normal schedules.

After water settled, clarity and water temperature rebounded, we saw the yellowfin tuna bite pick up, this was a early bite on the grounds near Vinorama, within a couple miles of shore, for yellowfin in the 10 to 40 lb. class. Striking on sardinas early in the morning, then as sun rose higher the action would stop, some charters reporting up to ten tuna. We heard of some other tuna action found far offshore, over 25 miles, associated with porpoise, this was more of a private boat deal. This tuna action was probably the highlight of the weekend, important to get an early start.

No wahoo to speak of, though we were seeing a scattering of dorado, mixed sizes, including bulls up to 30 lb., though no big numbers, just a couple fish here and there. Actually some charters ran into schools of baby sized dorado, all catch and release. Billfish action was also scattered, more small sized striped marlin, we are talking very tiny, as small as 40 lb.,up to 70 lb., a few sailfish in the mix as well.

As far as catching numbers of good eating fish, the best bet continued to be off the shallow water structure, a great variety of fish were accounted for, triggerfish, pompano, island jack, surgeon fish, red, yellow and rose snapper, barred pargo, bonito, amberjack, leopard grouper and more. One very impressive amberjack of 90 lb. was weighed in. Along the shore there were more jack crevalle than roosterfish, though we are now seeing more roosterfish show up. The few sierra that are still hanging around have big monsters for the most part, a few pushing the 13 to 15 lb. mark.

Good Fishing, Eric

June 20, 2021

Happy Fathers’ Day

Again this week we are seeing increasing crowds of tourists arriving for the first wave of summer vacations. We are now officially starting the summer season, the climate has been steadily warming, as is normal for this time of year, but overall conditions have still been bearable, with some afternoon Pacific breezes prevailing. With distance Tropical Storm Dolores developing below Manzanillo on the mainland we felt a bit more humidity, more cloud cover and larger ocean swells, but nothing more, as anglers for the most part were finding favorable ocean conditions, particularly in the direction north of Punta Gorda. South winds picked up late weekend, which also contributed to pushing in cooler greenish currents in the same direction. Ocean temperature has ranged in the 74 to 80 degree range.

Bait netters are finding sardinas, caballito and mullet all near the marina area now, they are also offering slabs of squid and ballyhoo, so bait has remained plentiful. The majority of local sportfishing charters are fishing on the grounds from Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis and north to Vinorama, with offshore billfish action continuing to be found near the 1150 or 95 spots. Striped marlin were spread out, also being found within a few miles of shore, depending on currents on a particular day, also a couple of sailfish accounted for, as well a small sized blue marlin and mid-week there was a swordfish brought in by a trip of commercial pangeros, smaller sized, about 130 lb., but impressive anyway.

Yellowfin tuna action was hit or miss, continually fluctuating water conditions making the action sporadic. Best chances in recent days has been north near Vinorama, close to shore, 100 to 200 ft. of water, early bite on sardinas or striped squid, a smaller grade of fish 12 to 25 lb., though earlier in the week other schools of tuna encountered had yellowfin to 30 to 70 lb.

Dorado were even less numerous than were the tuna, some days we are seeing a few dorado up to 20 lb. in the mix, but other days we are not seeing them, once conditions do stabilize more, we surely will seeing more schooling dorado show on local grounds. Not much at all going on with wahoo either, early in the week there were reports of wahoo seen free swimming and a couple of hook ups, but as the week progressed nothing more.

Most consistent fishery now continues to be concentrating on the bottom rocky structure, from as shallow as 50 ft., to depths of 200 ft. A wide variety of species are being landed, while anglers are using yo-yo style jigs and bait, mainly sardinas. A few impressive amberjack to over 50 lb., leopard grouper to 20 lb., yellow snapper, red snapper, rose snapper, pompano, bonito, barred pargo, triggerfish, island jack and even had a batch of blackfin jack, which are not a very common local catch. All of these fish are excellent eating, including the local Mexican Bonito, which is unlike its California relative.

Along the shoreline there are more hog sized jack crevalle than there are roosterfish, as roosters are running a bit later than usual this season. We are still seeing some quality sized sierra along the shore, though not as many now as water is warming, the sierra eventually move out. Shore anglers have had some impressive catches recently, including snook to over 40 lb. and tripletail, those these anglers are dedicated and put in their time, but they know that this is now peak season for the better shore action.

Good Fishing, Eric

June 13, 2021

There seemed to be an increase of vacationers arriving in Los Cabos this past week, with school semesters now ending for summer, this gives families a chance to travel. Weather has remained comfortable, not unbearably hot yet, clear sunny days with highs in the upper 80s, a bit tropical, as there are now two tropical systems developing, one of them TS Carlos, these are far south and off to the west and are not forecast to impact Southern Baja at all. Perhaps we will see some increased ocean swells later next week and increased humidity. Local ocean temperature is in the 78 to 80 degree range, winds have been at times from the north and then from the south, but have not been too much an issue for anglers, mostly picking up later in the day, as ocean conditions have been favorable throughout the week.

Marina bait vendors have fond good supplies of healthy sized sardinas, as well as some caballito and mullet, with other options of slabs of squid and ballyhoo. Off shore fishing has been centered near the 95 and 1150 spots, mainly for striped marlin, but also a few dorado and yellowfin tuna being found as well. The majority of the inshore and bottom action has been in the direction of the La Fortuna, Cardon, Iman, San Luis and Vinorama. On the San Luis grounds there were tuna being hooked into every day, though the fish were finicky, some days better than others, anglers were fortunate to land one or two, some had four or five, also more sea lions and sharks making a presence. Most of the yellowfin we saw ranged in the 20 to 60 lb. size, though there was one 234 lb. tuna landed Friday from these same grounds. The best bet was to drift fish with sardinas, squid or slow trolled caballito or bolito, if you happen to jig one of those candy baits up.

We are still seeing very few dorado, last week we saw more, though this week there were wahoo starting to show up in the fish counts, most of these were hooked into while drifting for tuna, on sardinas, lucky with no leaders, others also hit on rapala type trolling lures. Sizes up to 30 lb., at least we are seeing a few of the ‘hoo, it has been a while.

With surface action still a bit spotty many charters are concentrating their efforts closer to shore over the rocky high spots or trolling right along the beach stretches. Roosterfish action has been slow to get going, considering this is now peak season and will be for the next month. Everything has been a different, slow to get going this season. We did see some roosters this week, one that was close to 50 lb. There were more jack crevalle than anything else close to shore, though there was still quite a few sierra hanging out in the warmer waters.

Off the bottom, in depths ranging from 60 to 200 feet, we saw a wide variety of species, even had one 20 lb. California sheepshead, as well as yellowtail, amberjack, fortune jack, bonito, black skipjack, pompano, island jack, surgeonfish, yellow snapper, red snapper, spotted rose snapper, barred pargo, leopard grouper, broomtail and pinto cabrilla and of course triggerfish, a couple of which were monsters. Most charters were coming in with an average of a dozen fish. Many of the smaller cabrilla and snapper are being released, which is a good thing, that we do strongly recommend.

Good Fishing, Eric