January 7, 2012

Anglers –

As vacationing families now return home so children can resume their school schedules, crowds of tourists are much lighter than how they were during the holiday season. The weather has been on a warmer trend, mostly sunny skies, light winds, with high temperature ranging into the 80s. Ocean water temperatures were now ranging from 70 to 74 degrees. Clarity varied from area to area, but overall conditions were improved over previous weeks.

Anglers were able to find live sardinas for bait without much difficulty and there were schools of mackerel and sardinetas found locally. Fleets were fishing in all directions, this past week there were more consistent reports coming from the Pacific side of Cabos San Lucas, this is where water temperatures were warmest. Areas off of Chileno, Palmilla, Cardon and Iman also produced scattered action.

The striped marlin bite was most productive off of Cabo San Lucas and the Old Light House areas, three to fifteen miles from shore, scores of tailing billfish could be seen on any given charter, though these fish proved to have lock jaw at times, different techniques were used with varied success, trolling lures, casting and soaking live baits, etc..Even though mackerel were still found schooling off of San Jose del Cabo, charters in this region have not seen much in the way of marlin this past week on these grounds.

Dorado were being found in smaller sized schools, fish averaged 5 to 15 pounds, with a percentage of larger fish up to 25 pounds accounted for. The dorado were found close to shore and also out on the offshore fishing grounds. These fish can grow up to five pounds per month, better to release smaller sized dorado so that they can spawn and have the chance to grow to maturity. Dorado have been fairly abundant in recent weeks, considering that this is the tail end of the normal season for them.

This is the time when more inshore action typically begins, so far there has been limited activity for sierra, with juvenile roosterfish also being found, we look for this action to improve as the season progresses. This is also the season when more bottom species become more prevalent, so far only mixed results for some cabrilla, pargo, bonito, amberjack and yellowtail have been found. Trolling with live bait, hoochies and rapalas worked close to shore and jigging with yo-yo’s over structure produced a mix of cabrilla, amberjack, bonito and snapper. Lots of hammerhead sharks are congregated on rocky high spots now, they proved to be a nuisance when trying to catch the targeted species.

Yellowfin tuna action has switched this past month from the Sea of Cortez to off of the Pacific and Chileno, associated with porpoise most of the time, more often anywhere from 10 to 20 miles offshore. Most of these fish were in the 15 to 30 pound range, though there were reports of tuna up to 100 pounds or more encountered. With fluctuating conditions this bite was hit or miss. In recent days there were signs of more yellowfin action.

No shortage of whales now, the Iman Bank has been a hot spot for humpback whales, while the gray whales prefer the inshore waters off of the Pacific beaches.

There have been news bulletins about a new Mexican law now starting to be enforced this month, Tourist Visas are now required for all anglers fishing in Mexican waters. This will not be a factor for anglers traveling by air to Los Cabos, since tourist visas are officially processed and stamped on arrival at the SJDC airport. This law is going to impact anglers departing by sea from Southern California and the heading south to fish in Mexican waters, these anglers will need to obtain their tourist visas in advance.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 5 yellowfin tuna, 235 dorado, 14 roosterfish, 112 sierra, 8 amberjack, 2 yellowtail, 12 hammerhead shark, 25 bonito, 18 cabrilla, 3 dogtooth snapper and 28 pargo.

Good fishing, Eric