December 25, 2022 

Busy times now for all local families, preparing for the Holiday Season, enduring all of the season’s traditional fiestas, posadas and more. Only moderate numbers of anglers in town now, though quite a few vacationing families are arriving, taking advantage of the ideal winter time climate. Clear sunny skies, with 80 degree highs.

With ocean water temperatures now ranging 75 to 77 degrees, we are still seeing some excellent action for some of the most popular pelagic gamefish species, with main target species now being dorado, yellowfin tuna and wahoo, some fortunate anglers are catching a gram slam of all three of these fish during one morning outing. 

Center of activity has been in close proximity, from Cardon, La Fortuna and off of Punta Gorda.

Live bait became scarce this past week, with the main bait now being used either ballyhoo or slabs of squid. Some anglers have been able to obtain chihuil, but as usual that is never a guarantee.

The yellowfin tuna have mostly come from the Cardon area, within a mile or two of shore, while drift fishing with strips of squid. Sizes ranged from 20 to 70 lb. Some charters accounted for up to four tuna. Bite varied a bit everyday, depending on currents etc…though overall this was the best yellowfin action we have seen in the past month.

Dorado continue to be the most common fish being hooked up, limits and additional releases being a common deal, sizes were mostly under ten pounds, but some exceptions of larger bulls up to 15 lb., striking mainly on trolled ballyhoo.

Wahoo are still around in good numbers, but are more finicky, as there continues to an unprecedented amount of spear fishing chasing these same fish on the grounds where rod and reel anglers are also concentrated. Best chances for the wahoo was on slow trolled trap hooked live baits, but bait was tougher to find recently. A percentage of wahoo were striking on rapalas and ballyhoo, as well as on cast and retrieved yo-yo style jigs. Again like the tuna, some of the more fortunate anglers were able to land up to four wahoo on one trip. with other hook ups lost as well. Average size for the wahoo was 20 to 30, but we saw fish to over 40 b. as well.

Not much billfish action on the San Jose del Cabo grounds now, as the main mass of striped marlin is still on the Pacific grounds. Also not much inshore or bottom action going on either. Though more and more whales are now arriving, as well as porpoise, sea lions and turtles, all providing extra entertainment for boat goers.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 18, 2022 

One week before Christmas and as usual we saw slightly less tourists arriving, a lull before the Holiday Season rush. A cold front also pushed in the past few days, we saw low temperatures down into 58 degree range and highs reached only 76 degrees, as skies were cloudy at times early before sun came through later in the day. Winds were predominately from the north most of the week, laying down some over the weekend.

Ocean swells were very slight, water temperature slowing cooling, now averaging 77 to 78 degrees. Bait supplies have been somewhat limited past couple of weeks, though we have seen schooling caballito rebound some, supplies of ballyhoo and slabs of squid have been fairly steady. Still no reports of sardinas being found within range of local commercial pangeros.

The most productive action recently was found between Cardon and Punta Gorda, all within a couple miles of shore. This is where good numbers of dorado up to 15 lb. were found, as well as wahoo and yellowfin tuna. Wahoo were a bit more elusive this past week, spooky from spear gun pressure as well as normal boat traffic, though some nice wahoo were accounted for, we saw a couple of very impressive fish in the 60 to 70 lb. class. Though average wahoo were in the 20 to 40 lb. range. The ‘hoo were striking on trolled baits, as well as rapalas and at times on cast jigs.

Yellowfin tuna action has been very spotty for the past month now, though this week we saw more tuna action than during previous weeks. Mainly near Cardon, but also on Iman and even close off of Punta Gorda. A couple of charters were lucky and accounted for as many as four yellowfin in a morning. We saw weights up to 70 lb., with average tuna landed being in the 20 to 60 lb. class. Not a consistent bite though, one day we saw a handful and the next we would see one. They hit mainly on the strips of squid, but a few were taken on baits rigged for wahoo, such as ballyhoo or caballito. Some charters have been able to chum up their own chihuil baits, which can be candy at times for wahoo, but also a lot of fishing time can be used up to try to obtain them.

Marlin bite is red hot on the Pacific but we are only seeing a few scattered striped marlin on local grounds off of San Jose del Cabo. Inshore there have been a few sierra and smaller roosterfish found, but other than that not much going on. Same for off the bottom, a few bonito and triggerfish and a handful of leopard grouper. 

Typically  this is the time of year where we start to see improved action off the shallow rock piles. Though with the dorado and wahoo biting, most anglers are opting to target them.

Good Fishing, Eric

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GORDO BANKS PANGAS

December 11, 2022 

Good crowds of tourists continue to arrive in Los Cabos, greeted by great weather, clear sunny skies, with highs near 85 degrees. We had patterns of north winds through much of the week, but anglers did well fishing closer to shore in the more protected calmer waters. Ocean swells now very slight and water temperature is averaging about 78 degrees. 

Over the recent full moon the schools of caballito seemed to have vanished from inside the marina channel area, so the fleet was now relying more on ballyhoo and if possible catching their own chihuil on the Inner Gordo Banks. Around the corner on the Pacific there are large schools of mackerel and wide open striped marlin action, but that activity has not shifted in the direction of San Jose del Cabo yet. Later this month we expect that these schooling mackerel will migrate into the direction of the Sea of Cortez as they always do, everything is a bit different this season with the ocean temperature being warmer than normal.

Most popular fishing grounds recently have been from Punta Gorda, Cardon and Iman Bank. This is where anglers have been finding good numbers of dorado while trolling lures and various baits. We even saw a few dorado in the 30 lb. range, though most of these do-do’s were in the 6 to 15 lb. class. Wahoo were a main target species as well on these same grounds. Everyday we are seeing varying numbers of wahoo brought in, sizes ranging up to 40 lb.. Some fortunate anglers landed as many as four during a morning outing, though most charters were doing well to find one or maybe two. Of course as is usual more wahoo were hooked up and lost than were actually landed. Oftentimes these ‘hoo were acting very finicky, following the slow trolled baits closely but not wanting to strike the baits. The fresh live chihuil seemed to be their favorite. Others did strike on the rigged ballyhoo, as well as on trolled rapalas of skirted lead heads.

Yellowfin tuna action just was not going on now, we saw a couple of tuna caught this week, incidental catches on the same wahoo and dorado grounds. Would be nice if we saw schools of sardinas rebound, those are always a favored baitfish for chumming and enticing the tuna to feed. With water conditions still so favorable we are optimistic for the fishing to remain steady into the new year.

Only scattered billfish now on our local grounds, as the main action for the stripers is now over on the Pacific. Also not much at all going on off the bottom of along the beach stretches.

Good Fishing, Eric–