Anglers –
September 25, 2016
Although we are now officially into the first week of the Fall season we are feeling very tropical weather in the Los Cabos area. This is always the time of year when weather patterns can be very unpredictable, as well as very humid. The landscape is now lush green from significant rainfall the past month. The most recent Tropical Storm Paine stayed far off to the west, paralleling the Pacific coast of Baja before it dissipated, there was no significant impact on land. Presently we are having some isolated local thunderstorms threaten, mainly in the afternoon, though this has not amounted to much of anything. We are also closely monitoring a new low pressure system developing off to the west, which is forecast to slowly gain strength, most likely become Tropical Storm Roslyn and move in the direction of Southern Baja, precise track is not yet determined.
On Monday the red flag was posted early in the morning, closing the Port, presumably as a precaution, even though the day turned out to be calm, with no rain or high swells at all. Most scheduled charters were forced to cancel this day, only after the Port reopened at about 10:00 a.m. did a handful of boats go out. The remainder of the week sportfishing fleets operated normally, seas were calm most days, late in the week we had some wind pick up later in the day, threatening tropical clouds, but did not rain on the fishing grounds. Ocean swells increased, but were moderate and overall conditions were very favorable considering what time of year it is. Most of the fishing action now is centered on the grounds from the Gordo Banks to San Luis.
The bait now be used consisted of caballito, slabs of squid and various skipjack, bolito and chihuil, which were being found on the fishing grounds themselves. The yellowfin tuna bite definitely improved, anglers found various grades of tuna, ranging from football sized, many fish in the 20 to 50 lb. class, a handful to over 100 lb. and even at least a couple of super cows of over 300 lb. that were caught by local anglers fishing on the Gordo Banks later in the day after the crowds lightened up. Drift fishing with strips and chunks of various baits was the technique now being used. Action came in spurts, sometimes early, other times late, lots of pressure on these areas now, since this is where the only real bite is now being found. Individual charters accounted for a couple of tuna per morning, up to ten or more.
Yellowfin tuna was definitely the most common species being targeted with success now, only a scattering of bottomfish, a few amberjack, grouper, rainbow runner, triggerfish and various snapper/pargo being encountered, this action is on the same grounds as are the tuna. Wahoo went on a limited bite earlier in the week on the grounds north of Punta Gorda, though these fish have not been very active overall. Dorado were found scattered throughout the same areas, though recently it has been rare to see a dorado over ten pounds.
There were reports of good billfish action off of the East Cape, lots of blue marlin. Off of our area the action was limited for a mix of striped, blue, black marlin and a few sailfish. Lots of natural food fish on the high spots now, so there is more than enough food for the largest of gamefish to feed on, makes it tough to get them to bite. Several stories of black marlin being hooked on lighter leaders that were targeting the more leader shy yellowfin tuna and resulted eventually in losing the marlin due to sawed off leaders.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 3 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin, 235 yellowfin tuna, 58 dorado, 7 wahoo, 7 yellow snapper, 1 gulf grouper, 9 leopard grouper, 12 bonito, 12 huachinango, 85 triggerfish, 2 surgeonfish, 5 amberjack and 12 rainbow runner.
Good fishing, Eric