August 3, 2012
Anglers –
Summer season is progressing rapidly, crowds of tourists are predictably light at this time of year, days are very warm and the humidity continues to rise. The tropical storm patterns from the south have remained quiet for the past couple of weeks and presently there are no new systems seen developing, of course we all know that conditions can change rapidly during the next couple of months. The region is in desperate need of rainfall, in the midst of a parching drought cycle for several years now. Ocean water temperatures seemed to have stabilized into the 82 to 88 degrees range, from Cabo Sano Lucas to Los Frailes, as normal, the warmest summer currents are found in the direction of the East Cape. Clean blue water is now moving closer to shore and ocean swells are moderate. Still some unpredictable winds swirling from all different directions, mornings have been mostly calm for anglers, with variable breezes picking up later in the day.
Sportfishing charters are mainly concentrating on the fishing grounds from the 95 and 1150 spots, to outside of the Gordo Banks, to Iman, San Luis and north to Los Frailes. Action has been spread out. There was one monster 750 pounds class blue marlin landed out of Cabo San Lucas this past week, but for the most part the billfish bite has been for striped marlin, sailfish and a handful of smaller sized blue marlin, very few black marlin in the area yet. There is an abundance of baitfish activity on the grounds, concentrations of such a food source normally attracts the larger gamefish.
This recent full moon phase seemed to have slowed the offshore activity down in recent days, we are looking forward to improved action soon, conditions are just too ripe now for the bite to not bust wide open. Average fish counts now have ranged from two or three fish, up to a dozen fish per charter. Most common catches have been for dorado or yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound range, the bite has not been consistent from area to area or day to day. Anglers did find decent numbers of yellowfin tuna on the 95 spot outside of Chileno and also near Los Frailes, which is out of range for normal charter operations, more often than not these schooling tuna were encountered without porpoise, though at other times they were found associated with fast moving pods of these mammals, feeding on the same source. When found near the surface the yellowfin were striking on a wide variety of small to medium sized lures or baits. For the past week now the larger tuna in the area of San Luis have not made much of a showing, though a few missed strikes on trolled bolito were reported in recent days, so we at least know that these 100 pound plus fish are still in the area and when conditions are to their liking we should see some quality action. The month of August is typically the time when anglers report the largest numbers of quality grade tuna.
The first light of the day bottom action for red snapper has shown signs of tapering off, but the true early birds fishermen have been producing fair numbers of these huachinango at first light on yo-yo jigs, mainly a commercial fishery, they are leaving PLC Marina at 5:00 a.m. to reach San Luis Bank, not a normal charter deal. A handful of cabrilla, grouper and amberjack were rounding out the bottom bite, this is always the time of year when anglers have the opportunity of hooking into a big grouper, drifting with whole large baits over the rocky outcroppings is a proven method of getting bent by one of these brutes, whole other story actually battling them to gaff, even on the heaviest of tackle.
Roosterfish and jack crevalle were the main species found close to shore, this action typically starts to slow down at this time, as schools of mullet and other baitfish begin to migrate elsewhere. Depends on heavy surf conditions, which tend to scatter bait schools, as this time surf is lighter, hard to predict for how long, southern swells continually arrive during the summer months.
The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 40 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
3 striped marlin, 5 sailfish, 76 dorado, 66 yellowfin, 11 amberjack, 8 grouper, 12 cabrilla, 18 roosterfish, 12 jack crevalle, 56 huachinango(red snapper), 30 yellow snapper and 22 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric