November 30, 2013
Anglers –

Thanksgiving vacationers visiting Los Cabos this week were greeted with pristine weather conditions. As much of the United States was being impacted by powerful storms, in Southern Baja the climate has been ideal, highs ranging 75/80 degrees, scattered early day cloud cover, with plenty of sunshine the rest of the day. Early in the week there were strong gusting winds whipping in from the north, this limited angler’s options for a few days, later in the week the winds resided and ocean conditions were much more comfortable.

Water temperatures were ranging from 76 degrees on the Pacific to 79/80 degrees off of San Jose del Cabo and towards Los Frailes. Live caballito and other jacks have been available, should not be long before we see schools of mackerel appearing on local grounds. Sardinas are starting to be found in closer proximity, but this is still a day to day situation on quantity and exactly where these baitfish are located. Squid and ballyhoo have been offered at the dock area, overall the bait situation has improved, with lighter pressure in coming weeks, this should give the resource a chance to rebound some.

The Iman Bank has been the most productive spot recently. There have been wahoo, dorado, yellowfin tuna and billfish all found on these banks. Most plentiful fish have been the tuna, these yellowfin are ranging from 10 to 20 pounds, anglers had best results while drift fishing with strips of cut squid or with sardinas, we are starting to see the commercial panga fleet from near Los Frailes traveling south to Iman Bank with supplies of freshly netted sardinas for sale, this proved to be the best bet for finding wide open surface action. Lots of bonito and skipjack were also schooling on the same local grounds. Roaming dorado were found scattered throughout the region, not in big numbers, most dorado were under 15 lb., though a handful of larger dorado were mixed in.

We are still in peak season for the elusive wahoo, so far these fish have not gone on any extended consistent wide open bite, though things appear to shaping up in the direction of some quality wahoo action in the coming weeks. Everyday these fish are being encountered in limited numbers, individual charters have landed up to several fish per morning, while loosing other strikes as well, most anglers were fortunate to land just one of these speedsters. Of the wahoo being brought in, weights have averaged 25 lb. to 45 lb. The majority of wahoo strikes recently have come on slow trolled baits, caballito or chihuil and there has been a recent trend of more wahoo hook ups being reported later in the morning, versus the traditional first daylight action.

Ocean temperatures have been on a slow cooling trend, we have seen conditions remain a couple of degrees warmer than would be expected during this time frame, we do expect to see temperatures continue to fall, as days are now progressively becoming shorter and with northerly winds becoming more frequent it will not be long before we experience transition time again. The annual migration of whales is now arriving in the first wave and will be peaking in the coming months, as these mammals arrive from their northern feeding grounds to give berth to their offspring in the subtropical waters of Southern Baja California.

With the offshore surface action continuing to be the most productive deal, we are not seeing much bottom action reported. Sierra action is now an inshore option for anglers having live sardinas.

Striped marlin action was wide open on certain areas, from the Pacific grounds, multiple catch days were common and also these schooling fish are now moving in the direction of San Jose del Cabo, marlin are being found within a couple miles of shore, striking on trolled lures and various baitfish, the late morning action has been most productive.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 138 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 23 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 47 wahoo, 140 bonito, 10 cabrilla, 7 amberjack, 28 pargo,
22 sierra, 110 dorado and 610 yellowfin tuna.

Good fishing, Eric