January 8, 2012

Anglers –

As we now get into the midst of winter, we expect more people will be searching out warmer destinations, the new year has brought pleasant weather conditions, scattered cloud cover, moderate northern winds and high temperatures into the 80s. Crowds are light now, reports of more reasonable air fares being offered should entice more anglers to travel to Southern Baja, where local fishing grounds offer a variety of gamefish opportunities, with striped marlin, sailfish, dorado, yellowfin tuna and wahoo all being encountered on any given day.

Water temperatures held stable in the 70 to 73 degree range, there were strong currents prevalent and water clarity fluctuated. The bait grounds off of San Jose del Cabo continued to hold schools of mackerel and sardinetas, smaller sized sardinas used for live tanks are being found in quantity near the Palmilla Point.

Despite this not being peak season for these popular species, there have been impressive numbers of dorado scattered throughout the area, with an occasional wahoo, marlin or sailfish in the mix and let’s not forget to mention overwhelming quantities of black skipjack, often they were so aggressive that it was impossible to hook into any of the preferred targeted species that were not able to compete with the pesky skippies. Larger sized sardineta baits were working well for the chance at staying way from the skipjack to target the nicer sized dorado, 10 to 20 lb. La Playita panga fleets were fishing areas from Palmilla to Iman, Cardon and La Fortuna were places of choice, this is where more consistent dorado action was found, this bite held up strong for days, with limits of dorado accounted for, the past few days saw numbers decline, though scattered schools of fish were found.

Striped marlin were more active off of the Pacific banks, this is where more concentrations of mackerel were schooling. Marlin also followed bait schools in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, this will be the pattern though spring. Yellowfin tuna continue to be found by the cruiser fleet out of Cabo San Lucas, most days on Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, more often traveling with porpoise some twenty miles from shore, hit or miss, but some quality action was found for fish in the 15 to 40 pound class. A handful of yellowfin were landed off of the Iman and Gordo Banks in recent days, only a few fish, they ranged 30 to 70 pounds, with the presence of sea lions, skipjack, hammerhead sharks and swift currents, this made for more of a challenge.

Sierra season has started out slow, some fair sized schools are being encountered along the beach stretches, the key is early in the morning, sardinas, hoochies and rapalas are all working, only a few roosterfish being found. Still an odd late season wahoo being hooking into, anglers trolling rapalas on the same dorado fishing grounds. Watch out for all of the skipjack, they will wear you out. No consistent action being found off the bottom, most days the current was too swift to even give it a try, other days there were a few cabrilla, pargo, amberjack and bonito, this action was found using iron yo-yo jigs.

Lots and lots of whales now being sighted, this would now be considered peak season, as these mammals enjoy their annual migration on the most southern grounds.

The combined panga fleet launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 55 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:

2 sailfish, 3 striped marlin, 9 wahoo, 15 yellowfin tuna, 11 amberjack, 2 yellowtail, 10 roosterfish, 42 sierra, 215 dorado, 14 cabrilla and 16 pargo.

Good Fishing, Eric