April 20, 2013
Anglers –

Paradise like weather conditions in Southern Baja is now attracting moderate crowds of visitors, slack period for tourism, as spring break is over and people are now planning new adventures. Sunny days, with temperatures in the upper 70s and light winds, all made for the perfect time to make a trip south. Ocean water conditions continue to be fluctuating daily, from favorable warming trends and then having currents turn around and cool off. Just a week ago we saw some areas of 75 degrees found offshore, now we are seeing temperatures on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas dip down to 66 degrees and highs of 70 degrees are found in the direction of San Jose del Cabo. There was a couple of days earlier in the week when the south wind blew and pushed in cooler Pacific waters. Ocean clarity has remained clean for the most part, despite being cooler than we would normally expect for this time period.

Striped marlin action were the main species being found while trolling offshore, though the fish are more scattered than in previous weeks. Marlin were found in limited numbers anywhere from 5 to 15 miles from shore, striking lures and baits, at times they were groups of marlin found feeding, other times anglers reported blind lure strikes. Only a handful of dorado are being encountered, most of them under 15 pounds, notably fewer of these fish in the cooler currents. No yellowfin tuna being reported on the local fishing grounds. Only an occasional wahoo strike be reported, we will look to see more activity for these sought after species as ocean temperatures warm back into the mid 70s range.

There were fair numbers of roosterfish being hooked into while trolling live baits close to shore, some of the roosters weighed up to 15 lbs., though as water temps dropped this action also slowed down. Bait supplies consisted of caballito, moonfish, jacks, chihuil and skipjack. Sardinas continue to not be available, due to the schools of these baitfish now being out of normal range.

The most prized catch being encountered in recent days for the local panga fleets have been the yellowtail. These jacks have been found throughout the area, from Chileno, Palmilla, Salinas, Gordo Banks and even right off of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina rock jetties. Very nice quality, most of these fish were weighing 20 to 35 lbs. These fish are striking on various baits, sardineta, chihuil, caballito and moonfish are working. The numbers of these fish have varied from day to day, some charter worked hard to account for one or two of these fish, while other days boats landed limits. Most anglers were fortunate to land just one of these quality eating and incredible powerful fighting gamefish. These jacks are strong fighters that can easily cut off anglers leaders on the nearest rock outcropping. The season is shaping up to be a banner year for yellowtail, La Paz and the East Cape experienced epic action for these prized fish during the previous month. The yellowtail were found close to shore and on the surface sometimes, mixed in with hog sized jack crevalle, though the majority of the yellows were being found in depths ranging 100 to 180 feet. A few cabrilla, amberjack and pargo were rounding out the catches off of the bottom structure. In the upper water column over these same spots there were feisty bonito striking on rapalas, these are the good eating variety and as close to any tuna we are finding at this time.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 26 striped marlin, 22 dorado, 96 yellowtail, 12 amberjack, 15 sierra, 82 bonito, 13 cabrilla, 115 roosterfish and 8 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric