July 16, 2011
No new tropical storm systems at this time, we did have a day earlier in the week with a few scattered showers and for much of the past week we have seen more tropical cloud cover. With the little moisture that did fall, the parched local landscape does seem a bit greener and humidity has noticeably increased. Southern swells have been steady, as have winds from the south, fluctuating currents, but overall the ocean conditions seem to be improved in recent days, water temperatures averaging 80 to 84 degrees.
Mullet, caballito, jurelito and moonfish have been available for bait and schooling bolito are being found on the fishing grounds. Anglers have been waiting patiently for this summer season’s action to take off, everything seems to be happening late this season.
The fishing has still not been consistent from day to day and the fish counts have been below Cabo standards. With the way the water clarity and temperatures are looking now, we do expect the action to break open at any time. We have seen encouraging signs in recent days, lots of bolito on the fishing grounds is always a favorable, just a matter of more numbers of gamefish showing up.
Local fleets have concentrated most of their efforts from the Gordo Banks to Iman and San Luis. The Gordo Banks produced dorado and marlin action on the surface, trolling with larger live baits resulted in strikes from dorado up to 40 pounds, though the majority were fish of 5 to 20 pounds. Quite a few striped marlin also hitting in this same area, a couple of stripers were landed that weighed close to 200 pounds. There was at least one blue marlin and one black marlin reportedly landed, as well as a few sailfish, this billfish action should remain steady the rest of the summer. Off the bottom on these same banks there were some quality species accounted for, dogtooth snapper, yellowtail, amberjack and grouper. These fish hit on yo-yo jigs and drifted baits, many fish were lost, as they could not be turned before reaching the rocks and cutting the line. No huge numbers here, but definitely a chance at hooking into a big fish, it is another matter to actually land them.
Near Iman and San Luis anglers were using a combination of jigging, soaking baits off the bottom or slow trolling larger baits on the surface. Bolito has been the most productive bait for this, but jurelito were also working, patience was needed and making sure to capitalize on the few strikes taken. This is the spot where a handful of the larger grade yellowfin tuna were encountered, the tuna ranged from 30 to 200 pounds, no significant numbers at this time, but on any given day this bite could break wide open. One local La Playita panga hooked into a 70 pound class roosterfish while trolling a bolito on the surface over the Iman Banks, close to four miles offshore, this is not your normal everyday occurrence for roosterfish, as they prefer to patrol the inshore beach stretches for mullet or ladyfish.
It seems that the inshore bite for roosterfish and dogtooth snapper has tapered off and is now switching back to the offshore rock piles. The inshore season for dogtooth snapper never really happened much this year, now we are starting to see more of these larger sized snapper on the rock piles, this is the normal pattern, as they move from inshore out to the deeper banks.
We do expect to see increasing activity for dorado, the same type of action that has been found off of the East Cape region should shift in a southern direction in the coming weeks. There has not been consistent dorado action yet, but this week we did see increased numbers, so that is encouraging. No wahoo have been reported, a few cut off baits here and there, so there is always a chance.
Surf fishing activity has been hit of miss, a few snook being reported by the group of local anglers who put in their time near the San Jose Estuary, also a few reports of roosters, jack crevalle and snapper as well.
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 62 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a total fish count of: 6 sailfish, 17 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin, 28 yellowfin tuna, 58 dorado, 28 amberjack, 8 dogtooth snapper,18 huachinango (red snapper), 22 yellowtail pargo, 20 jack crevalle, 13 yellowtail, 21 cabrilla and 26 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric