Anglers –
February 27, 2016
This past week conditions cooled off slightly over the previous week. Still plenty of warm sunshine for the moderate crowds of visitors, highs reaching into the mid 80’s, lows in the 50’s. North winds resided some, switched from the south at times. Currents were very strong at times, water was clear and blue within a mile of shore, water temperatures, ranged from 72 to 75 degrees, warmer currents found offshore.
Last weekend and through the start of this week we saw pelagic red crabs appear on the local fishing grounds, this created excitement, especially for the commercial fleets, these little crustaceans make excellent baits for red snapper, which is the bread and butter of the local commercial panga fleets. They were first seen on the Outer Gordo Bank, later on further north, but then current became swifter and these crabs did not come to the surface, which is the only way they can be caught, with nets when they are up top. So bottom action was the main deal this past week, even the sportfishing fleets were getting in on this action. A handful of nice amberjack to over 50 lb. were also accounted for, quite a few leopard group as well, a few of them over 20 lb. Many variety of snapper, the huachinango (true Pacific red snapper), yellow snapper, barred pargo, tijaretas, etc… Lots of triggerfish. Also one black sea bass of 45 b., a very rare catch for our area, this sea bass ate a red snapper that was being reeled in.
Very few dorado or wahoo, just an occasional fish or two being found. Inshore water where these fish had been holding cooled off, and we were dealing with a bright full moon. Striped marlin became very scattered, just a few fish being found, no larger concentrations. The schools of mackerel and sardinetas became more scattered this week as well. Most charters were using either strips of squid, caballito, ballyhoo, with some mackerel and sardinetas when available.
Little inshore action found, mainly smaller sized roosterfish and a few stray sierra. Not much inshore bait activity to attract numbers of gamefish at this time. Still no signs of any sardinas in the area.
Yellowfin tuna were limited to a few fish in the vicinity of Iman Bank or La Fortuna, these fish were hitting on striped squid, the ongoing sea lion problem continued, most of these inshore tuna were in the 15 to 25 lb. range, anglers were fortunate to land one or two. This whole winter we have had a bonus of finding yellowfin tuna, this during the season when we would normally not see many of these fish, this has been an odd year, with water temperatures being warmer than normal, has changed all of the normal migrations, even the whales are scarcer this season.
In recent days there have been a few yellowfin taken offshore of San Jose del Cabo, associated with rapidly moving schools of porpoise, these were a nicer grade of yellowfin, in the 100 to 150 lb. class, though only a few fish all together were landed, but it is encouraging that we are seeing this, could be the start of something more consistent.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black sea bass, 4 striped marlin, 4 wahoo, 40 yellowfin tuna, 5 dorado, 9 amberjack, 35 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 185 huachinango, 56 yellow snapper, 12 barred pargo,7 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 12 rainbow runner,14 parrot fish, 12 bonito, 15 hammerhead shark (released) and 110 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric