Anglers –
August 25, 2018

As Hurricane Lane is presently dangerously close to the Hawaii Islands, conditions locally in Los Cabos have remained calm, with no new tropical storm systems seen developing at this time. We still have another full five weeks of the normal tropical storm season, we are all hoping that no major storms approach Baja. Weather continues to be very warm, increased humidity as well, some afternoon rain squalls to the north of San Jose del Cabo, normal pattern for this latter part of summer. Minimal wind, primarily only slight afternoon breezes, moderate swells, always need to be careful along the shoreline during these summer months.

With continued reports of great fishing action coming out of Southern California for bluefin tuna, yellowtail, white seabass and as a result crowds are lighter than normal now in Los Cabos. Local fleets are now mainly concentrating their efforts on fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks, Iman and San Luis Banks. Anglers were using slabs of squid, sardinas, as well as skipjack and small tuna for baits. Iman and San Luis was the best place to find a nicer grade of yellowfin tuna, everyday these grounds are producing tuna to over 70 lb. No huge numbers, fish were also finicky and shy with the ever present boat pressure, but with patience and consistent drifting and chumming over these high spots there were good chances of hooking into yellowfin. The Gordo Banks produced mainly a smaller grade of tuna up to about 12. Lb. It is the time of year that we normally see the cow sized tuna appear on these famous grounds.

The Gordo Banks and on the grounds near Iman, there were several black marlin catches reported this week, these fish were hooked into while slow trolling larger rigged baits, the white skipjack proved especially effective, the fish that were landed weighed in the 200 to 300 lb. range.

Only a scattering of mostly smaller sized dorado were being found. Over last weekend and at the start of this week, there were wahoo being hooked into while trolling Rapalas and other lures on the normal grounds from Iman to San Luis, a handful of charters got into this action, with a couple of wahoo landed and others lost, these fish were in the 15 to 40 lb. class. As the week progressed this action faded out as some anglers did target this action but could not entice any strikes. The ocean temperature warmed this week, back up into the 81 to 87 degree range, too warm of water often will make species such as wahoo more lethargic, less active.

Bottom action was limited, most anglers were opting to target other surface species, though a few dogtooth snapper and amberjack were reported, as well as some red snapper, bonito, yellowfin snapper and cabrilla. Best chance for these fish was early in the day, using various baits, as well as opportunities using yo-yo jigs.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 57 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 3 dogtooth snapper, 3 black marlin, 2 sailfish, 17 dorado, 7 wahoo, 96 yellowfin tuna, 14 bonito, 8 yellow snapper, 6 amberjack, 17 red snapper, 9 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 3 roosterfish and 42 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric