May 28, 2023
Starting to see more visiting tourists and anglers alike, as some school semesters have already finished up early this season. Weather patterns are still pleasant, not too warm yet, ideal all around ideal climate now, highs near 85 degrees, no longer chilly in the early morning either. Winds predominantly from the north have been a factor on some days, increased ocean swells and rapidly changing currents as well. Ocean water temperatures are steadily rising, now in the 76 to 79 degree range.
Anglers were able to obtain caballito, jurelito mainly for bait, a few mullet showing, also slabs of squid and ballyhoo being another option, no sardinas reported at all.The majority of the fishing action is now taking place from straight offshore of San Jose del Cabo and towards the north, Iman, San Luis and to Vinorama. Big numbers of striped marlin now spread out throughout the region, most of this action found from five miles and further offshore. The stripers are moving around daily as to where their food source is, so the best location can vary from day to day. Charters targeting these billfish have been averaging anywhere from one to six marlin per trip, sizes as large as 160 lb. These fish were striking readily on lures, dropped back or slow trolled baits as well.
Only a few dorado are being seen, but we saw a handful of very nice sized bulls to over 40 lb., so this is an encouraging sign for this early in the season. Earlier in the week we saw a few wahoo in the mix, one of these weighed in at 61 lb.
Off the bottom we saw varied success, but overall more productive than the previous week. More amberjack up to 45 lb. were accounted for, some leopard grouper to 20 lb. and a handful of red snapper (huachinango) up to 14 b., they have been limited so far this season, quality fish, we hope to see more of them during the next month, best chance was early in the morning on the yo-yo style jigs.
Close to shore there were reports of roosterfish and jack crevalle, though we did not have many anglers targeting these at this time.
A handful of nice yellowfin tuna were taken from near the San Luis Banks, ranging up to 100 lb., striking on caballito of other jacks, mainly while drift fishing, same way the amberjack were hitting. Though these tuna were finicky and very sporadic as to when they might strike. Lots of tuna now from Los Frailes and north to Buena Vista, but that is out of our normal range for now, those yellowfin were mostly in the 5 to 20 lb. class. We will wait until they migrate closer to within our range.
Good Fishing, Eric