Very busy weekend locally, most of all small businesses were shut down and families were swarming and filling up all of the various local beaches. With limited numbers of charter captains even available there were not a lot of charters heading out the past few days, this next week we will see more anglers ready to go.
Earlier in the week there was more north wind that contributed to pushing in greenish waters. These turned over conditions shut down the surface action, particularly the wahoo that had been biting last week. Water temperatures were in the 71 to 73 degree range. So we are back in the seasonal transition period as is normal for this month. Anglers are searching the various rock piles for a variety of bottom species.
Highlights were a handful of nice leopard grouper and amberjack, up to 30 lb., as well as bonito, fortune jack, island jack, pompano, barred pargo and others. All very good eating fish. Anglers were using a combination of bait and yo-yo style jigs. Sardinas became scarce again, there were limited supplies of caballito, jacks, as well ballyhoo and slabs of squid.
The lack of sardinas put a damper on the inshore sierra action for the time being. Perhaps the baitfish moved further from shore during the recent full moon phase, we are hoping that this next week these schooling baitfish reappear. We greatly rely on the sardinas for this time of year for the inshore and shallow water structure fishing.
The whale migration is nearing the end now, the final few weeks before these mammals begin their migration north back to their summer feeding grounds off of Alaska.
As we have seen in recent weeks, fluctuating numbers of spring break crowds are arriving in Los Cabos. This coming week is when the local spring break officially starts, ending on April 9. Next weekend beach crowds will be at heaviest times for the entire year, as many local families go on extended beach camping trips and many of the smaller businesses in town will be completely closed down.
Weather patterns have been very pleasant, 85 degree highs, with morning cloud cover burning off, and a lot of sunshine. Some on and off north wind, which can still be expected for this winter to spring transition period. Ocean swells were minimal and water temperatures were in the 72 to 73 degree range.
Anglers have found a mix of bait available, sardinas, caballito, slabs of squid and ballyhoo being most common. Trying to jig up some chihuil was another hit or miss option off of the Gordo Banks. Most local fleets are now fishing areas from Punta Gorda,, Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. All around the action was scattered and no particular species was being found in big numbers, with exception perhaps the Mexican white bonito.
Highlight of the week were the wahoo that anglers hooked into while trolling closer to Punta Gorda or Cardon. Not the normal season for these highly prized pelagics, but it proves that you can never really know what might happen. These fish normally prefer warmer waters, bite was sporadic day to day and slow trolling live bait was the best bet, particularly the elusive chihuil. We saw one monster wahoo of 79 lb. landed and several others over 50 lb., so of the handful that were brought in they were of impressive size.
A few dorado up to 15 lb. were also accounted for and a couple of scattered striped marlin, but overall offshore surface action was limited, unless you were lucky enough to be in the right spot when one of these wahoo was ready to strike. Yellowfin tuna action was pretty much dead this past week.
Off the bottom there was a mix of various pargo, snapper, grouper, amberjack, but by far most prevalent were the bonito, striking on yo-yo jigs over the rocky high spots, sizes averaging 3 to 8 lb.
Inshore there was good action found for both sierra and smaller sized roosterfish, along the local hotel zones was where much of this action was found, while using live sardinas for bait.
