Anglers –
May 9, 2015

Surprisingly light crowds now, considering this is usually a popular time for visiting tourists. Large swells pounded the region through last weekend, same swell that caused major flood damage to resorts located further south on mainland Mexico. Conditions have settled now, light breezes, increasingly warm days, feeling semi tropical, great time of year, climate is ideal, this is before the heat of the summer.

Sportfishing fleets were fishing in all different directions, main action found offshore was for striped marlin, good numbers of fish seen throughout the zone, anywhere from a few miles out to fifteen miles or so have been productive areas. The marlin have been feeding on an abundance of squid which are now on local fishing grounds, at times, with all of this natural bait available, the stripers became more finicky of striking on any other offerings. Though many were striking on various lures, rigged ballyhoo and caballito baits. Average weighs ranged from 90 to 120 lb. Still some thrasher sharks being hooked into on the same grounds.

Dorado were surprisingly scarce, just a handful of fish found scattered from inshore to offshore, most smaller sized fish, with a few exceptions. Water conditions are improving once again, recent swell and winds contributed to pushing in dirty greenish currents, with conditions now rebounding and water temperatures averaging 74 to 76 degrees, anything could happen on any given day. On the Pacific there were water temperatures as low as 70 degrees reported, warmest grounds were in the direction of the Sea of Cortez and Los Frailes.

Anglers were scratching away at a variety of structure species, while waiting for surface action to improve. Most common fish were huachinango, of the true Pacific Red snapper, leopard grouper, yellow snapper, triggerfish and bonito. Though this action was not consistent, best bet for enticing the red snapper were being found while using red crabs for bait, which were only available on a very limited basis. Other whole and cut bait were being used, as well as yo-yo jigs. No sardinas have been found now for the past couple of weeks, ballyhoo are being used for trolling, and caballito have been readily available in the Marina channel through the commercial fleet.

We had not seen any yellowfin tuna action at all for some 12 days, though on Wednesday and Thursday limited numbers of yellowfin were accounted for by charters trolling with caballito off of the Cardon area. These fish were all in the 25 to 40 lb. range, anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these fish. Wahoo made a strong showing on the same spot as where the tuna were encountered, though many more wahoo were lost than were actually landed. As clarity improves and the days continue on the warming trend we expect action to turn on in the coming weeks. This is the time of year, when there can be great action found from inshore, offshore and off of the structure.

Inshore fishing was hit or miss now, some roosterfish, most of them smaller sized, jack crevalle, powerful fighters, some as large as 25 lb. Not many sierra now, season is getting late for them and the lack of sardinas is not helping to find these fish. Within the next several weeks is when we do normally begin to see larger sized roosterfish move in, particularly as their mullet food source migrate into local waters.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 17 striped marlin, 15 yellowfin tuna, 7 wahoo, 18 dorado, 10 sierra, 18 jack crevalle, 8 roosterfish, 5 amberjack, 49 huachinango (red snapper) , 26 cabrilla, 2 broomtail grouper, 18 whitefish, 20 yellow snapper, 12 bonito and 22 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric