February 6, 2022

Start of a new month, this one is always known for being particularly unpredictable as to what the weather will do. Typically is the coolest time of year and we saw some of that already as we recorded a seasonal low temperature of 50 degree one early morning, days have been sunny and highs were up to about 74 degrees, which feels cool for this area, but compared to much of North America is quite pleasant, very comfortable. Crowds of tourists are light now, as political issues, covid threats, etc…all  are contributing factors for not as many visitors as we would normally expect.
Ocean temperatures are now ranging 70 to 73 degrees through most of the region, green cooler water is found further north past Punta Gorda. Bait supplies remained steady for caballito, ballyhoo and also some mackerel, though still no good word of anyone finding a new source of sardinas. Most local fishing action has ranged from Red Hill, Santa Maria, and north to La Fortuna and Iman. 

Striped marlin action continues to be the most productive action found on a daily basis, spread out through a wide zone, mainly striped marlin averaging 70 to 120 lb. though a couple of larger blue marlin have been landed near Cabo San Lucas in the last couple of weeks,so you never know what might strike on a given day. Marlin are striking lures, as well as slow trolled or drifted baitfish.

Dorado rebounded some last week but now again have become more scattered, though we are seeing some everyday, most boats have had chances at one or two, sizes ranged to over 20 lb. Everyone is still talking about one large bull of 25 kilos that was taken off of the Gordo Banks by a local commercial pangero. Only a couple of wahoo reported, smaller sized fish, though there still is a chance at hooking into one of these speedsters.

Bottom action had started to show better signs of improvement, as some nice cabrilla, snapper and amberjack were found off the high spots. Though in recent days this bite came to a standstill, as bonito was the main fish taken from these areas. The pelagic red crabs which had been showing on the surface have not been found again and the commercial fleet is waiting for more to be found so that they can get back into the snapper action.

Along the shore line there were sierra and roosterfish, mostly smaller sized juveniles, but fun sport on light tackle. Please remember to always release these roosterfish, which are prized gamefish and not known to be good eating, much better to let them grow and help reproduce depleted stocks.

Good Fishing, Eric

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