Anglers –
March 7, 2015
We are seeing fairly good sized crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area now, though not a great percentage of these people were interested in sportfishing. So fleets were not all that busy, though with the new month arriving, we all know that spring break is just around the corner and even greater numbers of visitors will be arriving. This time frame is a time of transition, when we start to have warmer days, up into 80s, scattered cloud cover at times, fluctuating winds, often picking up stronger later in the day. Can feel like late spring one day and then be a bit cooler the next, even feeling a bit wintry early in the morning.
Every season can be a little different, it does feel like the worst of the north winds are now over, we have seen signs of marine cloud layer developing, cooler ocean currents meeting with warmer land masses can cause this. Throughout most of the region ocean temperatures are averaging 74 degrees, up to 76 degrees outside of Cabo San Lucas, near the Jaime Bank. This is still several degrees warmer than what we normally might expect to have at this time. Baitfish migration, as well as striped marlin action seems to be affected. No mackerel or sardinetas now being found, these are one of the main food sources for the striped marlin. No concentrations of squid either, so if there is not the sustainable food source, the fish will scattered and be on the move, searching. Water clarity had been good for the most part.
Sardinas continue to be found schooling close to shore near Vinorama, a long run for the bait suppliers, not worth their while unless a certain numbers of charters are going to need this resource, on other days the low tides and increased swell activity made it a tough go for netting any of these baitfish, which were in close proximity to the rocky outcroppings. The majority of days though the sardinas were available, other option were caballito.
The all-around fishing action was less consistent this past week constantly changing conditions have things a bit unsettled, we are optimistic conditions will begin to stabilize soon and this should help put things back on the right track. Most local charters are fishing areas from the Gordo Banks, to Cardon, La Fortuna and as far as Vinorama.
Inshore sierra action became more hit of miss, this had been a sure bet bite in previous weeks. A few smaller sized roosterfish were found close to shore as well, particularly near Punta Gorda and the La Laguna area. These jacks were striking best on slow trolled bait, same for the sierra. Bottom action had been showing some promising signs, with more red snapper, yellow snapper, cabrilla and even some nice amberjack and yellowtail. But, then as weather changed the bite all dropped off, best bet now is either close to shore or over the various rock piles. No surface action now for yellowfin tuna or dorado, only a handful of small dorado being encountered. The Eastern Pacific bonito had been a mainstay recently, providing the most consistent action, with some bonito to over 10 pounds being accoutered for. This bite dropped off to a standstill and all we can do is wait for things to improve.
Off of Cerralvo Island towards the East Cape. We had heard of reports of out of season wahoo activity, the same things happened for one super panga out of La Playita earlier in the week, one boat landed six wahoo up to 25 pounds from an area just north of Vinorama, this was an isolated incident, as no one else reported getting into the action, which was kind of a fluke and also out of normal range for local charter fleets. Of course the next day these wahoo did not decided to bite. It just proves that anything can possibly happen on any given day.
Still many whales in the area, as these mammals have been entertaining people that are based on land and ones boats.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 67 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 6 yellowtail, 6 wahoo, 21 dorado, 34 sierra, 120 Eastern Pacific bonito, 11 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 15 huachinango, 24 roosterfish, 22 yellow snapper, 1 thrasher shark and 45 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric