March 27, 2022

Anglers –

This being the first official week of spring season, you can definitely feel the change in climate, progressively feeling a warming trend with each passing day, not so chilly early in the morning either. Basically the perfect time of year, as far as all around weather. Very busy week locally, with the final weekend of the traditional fiestas and carnival, highlighting with off road races Sunday. Despite all of the crowds, not a high percentage of serious anglers now visiting, should pick up coming month, as typically this is a more popular time frame.

Bait concentrations have scattered offshore, in the marina area, caballito had vanished the previous week and are now just starting to be found in limited numbers, still no word on sardinas, other options were slabs of squid, ballyhoo, as well as mackerel  being imported from Cabo San Luis. Ocean conditions were greenish up to about ten miles offshore, water temperature ranging from 70 to 74 degrees degrees through most of the zone, warmest areas found further offshore. Winds are now becoming much less of a factor, swells remain light.

Anglers were concentrating efforts over the various rocky high spots from Red Hill, Gordo Banks, Iman and San Luis banks. Most consistent area was near San Luis, more Pacific bonito than anything else, while mainly jigging off the bottom. Though there was a mix of other species as well, most notable were some amberjack to 40 lb., red snapper, yellow snapper, barred pargo, whitefish, triggerfish, a couple of yellowtail and others. A couple of impressive broomtail grouper to 60 pounds were also accounted for. We saw a couple of wahoo as well and a scattering of dorado, a few of them over 30 lb.

So overall despite there not being huge numbers of fish, there was quite a variety seen. On Friday there was at least one yellowfin tuna in the 50 lb. class brought in, other tuna were seen breezing the surface near San Luis Bank, but quickly vanished. This was an encouraging sign, it has been a long time since we have seen any action for these yellowfin, we are hoping something develops on this.

Marlin action was more spread out now, also further offshore where blue water has been found, the huge bait concentrations on the Gordo Banks has spread out now.

Not much being reported close to shore, very few sierra this season, some smaller sized roosterfish, but more jack crevalle than anything else.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 20, 2022

This week marks the official start of spring season, weather conditions are perfect now, with clear sunny skies and high temperatures of 80 degrees, moderate crowds of tourists, making this an ideal time to visit. Very busy times in downtown San Jose del Cabo, as this is the week of the annual traditional fiestas. With carnival set up in town and many other outdoor activities and contests scheduled.

Winds were moderate all week, mainly just increasing later in the day. Ocean temperature is now averaging 70 to 72 degrees, warmer areas found further offshore. Swells were very slight and the full moon period created high tidal movement. During the week along the inshore zone, from San Jose del Cabo and further north, the water conditions turned over, as a green colored current pushed in and made finding any dorado or wahoo impossible.

Early in the week we saw some quality dorado to over 30 lb. accounted for, only a couple fish here and there, but very nice sized, particularly for this time frame. As the week progressed the availability for live bait vanished, over the weekend in local PLC Marina no bait was even found. 

The caballito in the marina area disappeared, the mackerel and chihuil which were found on the Gordo Banks for the past few weeks also disappeared. Hopefully this is just a full moon deal and we will see bait sources rebound shortly. Ballyhoo remained another option.

Mid-week we saw a thick marine layer fog swept in and visibility closed out to zero in zones towards the north, always a dangerous deal. Bottom fishing showed some better signs, highlight being a handful of 30 lb. plus yellowtail taken off the Gordo Banks, we also saw a few amberjack, up to 40 lb., also a mix of leopard grouper, red snapper, barred pargo and more of the Pacific bonito  than anything else, especially productive was the San Luis Bank.

The striped marlin action continued to dominate offshore action, though as baitfish schools became scattered, so did these billfish.  The marlin action has been going red hot now since early December.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 13, 2022  

We are starting to see the first wave of spring breakers arriving into the Los Cabos area, again quite a few tourists now, but not a high percentage of these are serious anglers. Weather was a bit cooler this week, relatively by local standards, still the skies were clear and sunny, with highs most days reaching close to 75 degrees, early morning lows were down in the mid 50s. North winds increased through the later part of the week, creating rough ocean conditions and water temperature was now averaging 70 to 73 degrees. Greenish currents swept through the inshore zone.

Anglers were using mainly caballito and ballyhoo for bait, with some mackerel also found on offshore grounds, still no sardina activity to report. Sportfishing fleets were searching out all directions, most local fleets concentrated on the grounds from Red Hill/Palmilla and north to La Fortuna and Iman.

The highlight offshore has been the continued strong bite for striped marlin, with the Outer Gordo Banks being one of the top producers. Though striped marlin are being found throughout the region, concentrated more where bait schools were found. These billfish are striking lures well, but even more so on dropped back or trolled baits.
Dorado were scarcer in the cooler off colored conditions, though everyday we are seeing some of these prized gamefish accounted for, just not in the numbers we saw during previous weeks. Same deal for wahoo, that action that had been so good a couple of weeks ago, considering it was not the normal season for these pelagics, now has stalled out as water color turned over on the inshore grounds where these fish had been holding.

Bottom action just has not done much up to this point, windy, rougher conditions did not help. Though some days there were some decent caches produced, most notably were leopard grouper, red snapper, amberjack and bonito, but no significant numbers or size.

Whales continued to be seen in good numbers, as well as sea lions, manta rays, porpoise and turtles, all adding to the all around adventure.

Inshore we have not seen much, very few sierra so far this season, some small sized roosterfish, but the highlight has been some hog sized jack crevalle.

Good Fishing, Eric