Anglers –
July 21, 2018

We saw a slight increase in visiting anglers this past week. Weather patterns were increasingly more tropical, with more cloud cover, but only some very minimal rainfall was felt, more humidity than anything else. No new storms brewing to the south at this time, mild surf conditions and very little wind. All this made for great ocean conditions for anglers, with water temperatures up in the 80 to 83 degree range through most of the region and even warmer currents lurking further offshore. Lot of baitfish now on the fishing grounds.

Anglers found sufficient supplies of bait near the marina area, mainly sardinas, caballito and mullet. Most of the fishing action has now been centered from the Gordo Banks to Iman, San Luis and north to Vinorama. Cleaner currents have improved the all-around action in recent days. Though the yellowfin tuna that are schooling near and Iman and San Luis Banks continue to be very finicky from day to day, though the tuna that are being hooked into are averaging in the 40 to 60 lb. class and there were at least a couple of larger tuna up to 120 lb. accounted for this past week. Some small football sized yellowfin tuna have also shown up, we have not seen those yet until now, perfect bait size for trolling after at a big black or blue marlin. We have heard the reports of black and blue marlin taken out of the East Cape and especially out of La Paz. On our grounds a couple of blue marlin in the 200 to 300 lb. class were reported. Some sailfish and striped marlin were also found on the same grounds,

The wahoo and dorado also became more active this week, dorado were found on the same tuna grounds, most of these on various baitfish, though they would strike lures as well. Sizes ranged up to 20 lb., though the majority were under ten pounds, please remember to release the smaller fish, especially the females, which are easily identified by there more rounded off forehead. Wahoo were striking trolled Rapalas near Iman, San Luis and Vinorama, no huge numbers, but at least we are seeing some of these elusive and highly sought after gamefish, sizes were respectable, averaging 30 to 40 lb.

Bottomfish was mainly jigging for red snapper and bonito off of Iman and San Luis, some days better than others, late in the season now for these fish. Hoping to see more amberjack and possibly dogtooth snapper show up. Only a handful of leopard grouper or broom tail grouper found.

Inshore action for roosterfish was becoming a bit more scattered, but some epic action for quality sized roosterfish to 70 lb. was found, particularly on the beach stretches towards Vinorama, but also off the local hotel zones as well. Mixed in were some hog sized jack crevalle and even a few out of season sierra. Best bait for roosters was live mullet

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 2 blue marlin, 5 sailfish, 7 striped marlin, 92 dorado, 132 yellowfin tuna, 9 wahoo,142 bonito, 12 yellow snapper, 75 red snapper, 19 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 2 amberjack, 68 roosterfish, 19 jack crevalle, 8 barred pargo, 5 surgeon fish, 8 sierra and 38 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric