Anglers –

November 29, 2014

Vacationers were arriving in Los Cabos by good numbers for the Thanksgiving Holiday week. Warm sunshine likely attracting people, as very frigid winery conditions are now sweeping across much of the United States. Locally the early mornings have been cooler, but as the soon rises the days have warmed up quickly, with high temperatures now about 85 degrees.

Ocean water temperature has remained 80 degrees throughout the region. This week we felt the first really strong north winds, Tuesday the gusty conditions started and lasted for three days. These conditions limited options for anglers and created murkier inshore water conditions. The winds have settled down now and forecasts look favorable for the weekend.

Schools of sardinas are being found along beach stretches near Red Hill and towards Chileno. This has been the bait of choice for the all-around action now being found. Tougher ocean conditions contributed to more limited fishing action. Yellowfin tuna were found in schools close to shore, from Santa Marina to Punta Gorda and La Fortuna, mixed with skipjack, coming up to the live sardinas, striking best on lighter line. No big numbers though, the yellowfin were finicky at times, readily coming up for the chum, but not wanting to strike the baiting hooks.

Dorado were scattered in smaller sized schools, the majority of these fish were smaller in size, but some dorado up to 20 pounds were accounted for. Wahoo remain in the area and should be around for a while, with the water temperatures still holding at 80 degrees. Though the wahoo have proved more elusive for the past couple of weeks now, these fish are being encountered on the same grounds as are the tuna and dorado, ranging in sizes up to 40 pounds, striking on bait, yo-yo jigs and at times on Rapalas. Trolling with skipjack, ballyhoo, chihuil and sardina have been the various baitfish options.

We have started to see more structure species in the mix, such as amberjack, pargo, cabrilla and pompano, calmer weather is more suited for targeting these species. Sierra are moving in along the shoreline now in greater numbers and the season’s first whale migration are starting to arrive to their Southern Baja feeding and calving grounds.

Billfish action has been limited, the striped marlin schools are still on the Pacific grounds to the north, at least one 350 lb. class black marlin was reportedly caught and released early in the week from the Outer Gordo Bank area, this was on a private boat launching out of Puerto Los Cabos.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 135 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:

15 wahoo, 155 yellowfin tuna, 84 dorado, 20 bonito, 180 skipjack, 15 cabrilla, 14 amberjack, 16 pompano, 68 sierra, 12 jack crevalle, 28 pargo, 2 yellowtail and 5 dogtooth snapper.

Good fishing, Eric