February 1, 2020
This past week we felt an overall cooling trend, scattered cloud cover, variable winds, strong at times, predominately out of the north, high temperatures reaching into the lower 70s. We are in the midst of winter season now, so these cooler conditions are not unusual, we expect similar weather through the month of February, which is always known to be full of unpredictable patterns. Local resorts are now seeing large crowds of tourists, though not a high percentage of them are serious anglers. This is a common scenario, as this time frame is not the peak season for most of the highly sought after game fish.
The all-around fishing action slowed this past week, with cooler and gusty ocean conditions being the major factor. Best action out of San Jose del Cabo seemed to be straight out front, from Palmilla to the Hotel Zone and north towards Punta Gorda. The grounds to the north, where fleets do regular concentrate their efforts, have been turned over with greener cooler currents, better looking water and more schooling baitfish are presently right off of the Marina entrance. Ocean is now in the 70 to 71 degree range through most of the region, the coolest currents are near Los Frailes and are pushing further south every week.
Off of San Jose del Cabo there continued to be sizable schools of mackerel and sardineta reported, also more black skipjack moving in on these same grounds. Bait vendors have limited supplies of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid.
The yellowfin tuna action stalled out through the week, also dorado became scarcer with each passing day. Early in the week a few wahoo were reported, also more dorado, but as week progressed with not so ideal conditions, ocean temperatures cooled and surface action slowed way down. Billfish was very slow as well, some days the striped marlin would be more active, but the very next day they could not be found, again more consistent early in the week.
Not much going close to shore, a handful of sierra, a few roosterfish, though the cooler off colored current slowed that action way down. There had been mid-morning frigate bird activity followed, with feeding dorado found close to shore, but that action faded, we hope that as weather settles and we see a slight warming trend, that action will improve.
Currents were swift, but there was a mix of bottom fish being found, not large fish, but a few quality leopard grouper to 15 lb., yellow snapper, with other pargo and cabrilla species.
The weather patterns in the coming weeks will be a factor as for how the fishing action shapes up.
The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 29 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 6 wahoo, 32 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 13 cabrilla, 9 bonito, 32 red snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 4 barred pargo, 1 halibut, 1 yellowtail, 2 amberjack and 26 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric