March 7, 2020
The first week of the new month saw lighter crowds of tourists arriving, as fears of traveling due to corona virus outbreak has spread alarm. We have not hear of any cases locally but our closer monitoring the situation. Mild weather, more than usual cloud cover, no rain though, variable winds predominately from the north, but also switching unpredictably, settling down later in the week. Water clarity a bit up and down due to conditions, also ocean temperatures cooled into the 68 to 70 degree range.
Bait supplies were working harder to find available caballito, also offering squid and ballyhoo. Charter fleets have concentrated efforts from Palmilla Point to Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman area. Still opportunities now for yellowfin tuna, best chances were near La Fortuna while drift fishing with squid or using live caballito. On last Sunday there was a 114 lb. yellowfin tuna accounted for, as well as other fish over 70 lb., though average yellowfin being landed was more like 20 to 30 lb. On and off bite, depending on water temperature, currents, boat pressure etc… No other areas were producing hot action, so the majority of all the daily charters were congregating on the same grounds, creating a pressure situation. Anglers were doing well to land a couple of these tuna.
Off of the various rocking high spots we were seeing increased numbers of leopard grouper, amberjack and various snapper. Though this action varied with consistency from day to day. Anglers were using yo-yo jigs, as well as available bait. We also saw one golden phase leopard grouper, a rare species. Amberjack averaged 10 to 20 lb. though a couple we saw were over 50 lb. Only very sporadic red crab activity reported, currents need to be just right for these crabs to drift to the surface where they can be scooped up with nets for use as bait. There were more triggerfish than any other bottom species,
Every day we are seeing a few dorado, most of them found mid-morning and near shore, averaging about 10 lb. We also saw at least a few wahoo accounted for the week.
Near shore only limited action for roosterfish while trolling live bait, on most days the roosterfish were more active early in the morning. A few sierra and jack crevalle were mixed in.
The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 24 dorado, 44 yellowfin tuna, 12 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 8 sierra, 1 dog tooth snapper, 14 roosterfish, 10 flag cabrilla, 16 leopard grouper, 1 golden cabrilla, 12 bonito, 38 red snapper, 18 yellow snapper, 2 white skipjack, 8 spotted rose snapper, 4 mohara, 4 porgy, 4 hogfish, 2 pompano, 6 barred pargo and 38 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric