Anglers –

The Los Cabos area is now busy reinforcing infrastructure with a heavy military presence in support of the upcoming D20 summit, where many of the world’s leaders will be holding talks in the newly constructed San Jose del Cabo convention center. So we must all bear with the inconveniences of road closures, military check points, additional delays, closed ocean zones etc…as authorities are now working around the clock to make sure this event is secure and progresses smoothly without incident. Crowds of tourists have been moderate during this late spring period, as many surfers as anglers, not much of a ocean swell this past week, but everyone is enjoying comfortable weather conditions, there was a slight cooling trend this past week, high temperatures in the mid 80s, mornings cooler, lots of marine moisture, definitely transition time. It is only a matter of time before these up and down patterns stabilize, this year it seems everything has been a bit later than normal, some seasons it has not been until mid July when conditions finally settle.

Hard to predict, or even keep track of the ocean conditions recently, has been changing rapidly, from day to day, as cool as 60 degrees off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, to almost 80 degrees off of Los Frailes, that is a dramatic variance within fifty miles of coastline. The current is sweeping back and forth, stirring up algae concentrations and even changing oxygen levels, at the present time water temperature is in the mid to upper 60’s off of Cabo San Lucas and towards San Jose del Cabo and to the north, the ocean has been ranging from 74 to 77 degrees, this warming trend has continued through the week, despite more favorable temperature, the current remained dirty green and even brown in some areas, not what you want to see when targeting offshore pelagic species. For a period the water was warmer close to shore and cooler offshore, opposite from normal patterns, not much of any blue water breaks to be found. Baitfish seem to scatter in these conditions as well, sardinas have not been available recently, though out of the marina area there has been sufficient supplies of caballito and mullet. The swirling current of the past several weeks really have mixed ocean conditions and has made fishing much more of a challenge.

Anglers enjoyed the all around climate, but were having to deal with adverse ocean conditions, working hard to find a fair variety of species, though very spread out and in no significant numbers. There were amberjack showing up at the PLC Marina jetty entrance and each morning a handful were being hooked into on yo-yo igs and live bait, most of these fish were in the 20 to 30 pound class, there was one 101 pound amberjack caught early in the week from another area. A few yellowtail up to 30 pounds off of Palmilla, Chelino and other areas, still striking in the dirty water, but also very hit or miss. Some various cabrillas, groupers, pargos, sharks and bonito rounded out the structure action, anglers used bait and yo-yo jigs with mixed success. Some charters accounted for up to a dozen fish in combination, while others were fortunate enough to find one or two takers.

Earlier in the week there was great roosterfish action found, at times epic feeding frenzy were encountered, particularly on the less pressured areas in the direction of Los Frailes, fish to 40 or 50 pounds were reported during the week, the current progressively turned a brown color and this slowed inshore action, even though there were jack crevalle up to 30 pounds encountered and less numbers of roosters, with some late season sierra in the mix.

Striped marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo slowed way down, but everyday there were marlin hook ups reported, an average of maybe every other cruiser charter landing a marlin, an occasional dorado found as well, most of this was further offshore and in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. A few yellowfin tuna encounters were reported, these tuna were in the 40 to 80 pound class, found between San Luis and Los Frailes, traveling with larger dark colored porpoise, a few hook ups were reported on caballito. These fish are ready to move onto local fishing grounds when conditions rebound and attract more of their food source.

So we all are waiting patiently for ocean conditions to improve and for the fishing action back return to standards.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
3 striped marlin, 11 dorado, 12 hammerhead shark, 34 bonito, 22 amberjack, 8 yellowtail, 8 grouper, 18 cabrilla, 4 dogtooth snapper, 18 jack crevalle, 125 roosterfish, 2 pompano, 12 huachinango, 15 yellow snapper, 24 triggerfish, 18 sierra and 6 pargo colorado.

Good fishing, Eric