November 9, 2019

Anglers –

Another busy week in Los Cabos, as hundreds of anglers arriving from across the globe to participate in the annual WON Tuna Jackpot. This year’s event attracted some 154 teams, with prize money of over one million dollars up for grabs. For yet another year the top first place honors went to a local San Jose del Cabo, La Playa team, this year is was the Sirena team which won with a monster 345 lb. yellowfin tuna, third largest ever weighed for this tournament, congratulations to this group of professionals.

There was more north wind this week, this resulted in choppy ocean conditions, particularly on the grounds north of Punta Gorda where most local charters have concentrated efforts. Daytime highs reached 90 degrees and ocean temperatures were averaging in the 80 to 83 degree range, slightly warmer on the Pacific that in the direction of Seas or Cortez. Various bait options included caballito, ballyhoo, few sardinas found, slabs of squid, small skipjack and chihuil.

Through the past week now the action for tuna which was previously found on San Luis Bank came to a standstill, only later in the week were a handful of free feeding yellowfin even spotted, the tuna found during the two day WON event were outside of Cabo San Lucas and on the Pacific grounds, nothing found on the Gordo Banks.

Highlight this week was the wahoo being found north near Vinorama, most of the fish landed were on slow trolled baits, mainly on caballito, since chihuil were now hard to obtain. Numbers of wahoo were limited, but they were more common than dorado, tuna or any other gamefish being found. Size of most wahoo we saw were in the 20 to 35 lb. class, largest we weighed in was 43 lb. The overall catch this week was way down, anglers were fortunate to land a wahoo and did really week if they caught two.

Only limited bottom action reported, even though the strong current finally slacked, then the wind picked up and made this a more difficult option. A few nice barred pargo, leopard group were accounted for, but more triggerfish than anything else.

Inshore there were good numbers of small roosterfish taken and with sardinas being scarcer we did not seeing more than a few sierra.

Billfish action was more toward the Pacific now, but we did see a handful of striped marlin and one blue marlin out of San Joe del Cabo, found in the direction of the Cabo San Lucas. Also more dorado found that way, though dorado were vey scattered and most of them were under 15 lb.

A few early season whales were reported, in the next month we expect more of these mammals arriving on their southern migration

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 140 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 2 blue marlin, 6 striped marlin, 13 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 43 wahoo, 6 yellow snapper, 8 barred pargo, 1 bigeye jack, 1 amberjack, 4 leopard grouper, 12 Mexican bonito, 8 yellow snapper, 2 sierra, 32 roosterfish and 35 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

November 2, 2019

Anglers –

Fall season is now at its peak, as scores of anglers are arriving daily, many of them now preparing for tournaments, including the WON Tuna Jackpot scheduled for this coming week. This Sunday is the Los Cabos Iron Man event, which means many streets and Hwy. closures, adding to already congested logistics or trying to get anywhere. Fall weather patterns started off calm this week, before the north winds picked back up mid-week, even had one day where there was light scattered rainfall. Ocean water temperature ranged 80 to 84 degrees with moderate swells and at times swift currents.

Always heavy pressure this time of year on local bait resources, we are now seeing a combination of sardinas, slabs of squid, caballito, ballyhoo and some skippers able to find chihuil. Surprisingly supplies are holding up better than we would imagine, will be interesting to see how supplies hold through this month.

Charters are scouting out all directions, most local sportfishing fleets are fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks, Iman, San Luis and as far north as Vinorama.  Action has been spread out and changing from day to day, as to where the bite is best. Early week the best action proved to be for wahoo near Vinorama, finding the chihuil baitfish was the secret to success, not always easy to obtain these candy baits, more of a super panga deal, on certain high spots with specialized rigs. Not many wahoo were striking the trolled lures at this time, best chances were on slow trolled trap hooked baits and early morning before too many boats congregated. The wahoo were averaged in the 25 to 35 lb. class. High boats brought in five, other one, two or three, of course many other were lost for the normal wahoo reasons.

Dorado remained scarce and scattered, only seeing one or two fish for all groups of charter’s per day, we heard of more numbers on the Pacific, but even there the dorado were not nearly as numerous as previous months. More marlin appeared, even in the direction off of San Jose del, though the billfish were much more active towards Cabo San Lucas and on the Pacific. We even had some sailfish and at least one 180 lb. class blue marlin was accounted for. With the warmer water there are still chances at the larger sized black and blue marlin.

Yellowfin tuna were elusive, being targeted on San Luis Banks, as wells as Gordo Banks, though very few were actually landed this week, most of the tuna we did see were in the 60 to 90 lb. range, a few smaller 10 to 20 lb. These yellowfin hit a wide variety pf baits, not on lures, Drift fishing with squid or using chihuil and live skipjack produced strikes. Heavy pressure, combined with lots of nature food source, swift currents, now have these fish skittish and finicky, of course on any given day they could become more aggressive, they are definitely still yellowfin through the area.

Not much off the bottom, triggerfish, bonito, smaller sized snapper and cabrilla were the most common, swift currents have not helped that action at all.

Along the shoreline there were good numbers of juvenile roosterfish, which should always be released, also some early season sierra and jack crevalle in the mix.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 140 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 14 striped marlin, 18 yellowfin tuna, 11 dorado, 52 wahoo, 4 barred pargo, 10 leopard grouper, 38 Mexican bonito, 8 yellow snapper, 2 dogtooth snapper, 8 sierra, 6 Pacific golden eyed tilefish, 4 rainbow runner, 4 jack crevalle, 24 roosterfish and 25 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

October 26, 2019

Anglers –

Busy times now in Los Cabos, peak fall tourist season, attracting hundreds of anglers from around the world, many of them participating in some of the world’s richest fishing tournaments, where pay outs can be in the millions of dollars. Weather settled down, perfect all around conditions, clear sunny skies, slightly brisk now early mornings, though days are still quite warm. Ocean swells minimal, with moderate variable breezes, shifting to the typical fall pattern, off the land, from the west early, then switching later out of the northeast, Ocean water temperature ranged 82 to 85 degrees from the Pacific and up past Los Frailes, or in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.

Sportfishing fleets and tournament participants are scouting out all directions, searching all possible options. Majority of local charters are now concentrating on the grounds from the Gordo Banks to Iman, San Luis and some venturing as far as Vinorama. Heavy pressure always means various bait options can become limited due to unavailable resource. Though this week with patience there seemed to be sufficient supplies of sardinas, slabs of squid and caballito. Sardinas were scarcer near the marina jetty’s and are now seen schooling off of Chileno, which means long back track for local bait vendors, as well as later start for anglers, if they want this bait option. Other anglers are going early, directly with squid and then some are catching chihuil on certain high spots, which proved to be probably the best chance now at hooking into a wahoo. Sardinas and the squid were best choice for finding any yellowfin tuna action. Dorado became very scattered, saw very few this week, not many billfish from the standard charters, more sailfish than others, a higher percentage of anglers were preferring to target wahoo or tuna.

Yellowfin tuna were found in recent days on the San Luis Bank, drift fishing with various baits, mainly sardinas and strips of squid. Yellowfin tuna to over 100 lb. were caught,  the majority of the tuna hooked into were in the 60 to 90 lb. class, no big numbers, but later in the week this bite did improve, some anglers later a couple of quality tuna. Only a handful of football sized yellowfin most were quality grade, of course lots of black skipjack and bonito to fight with.

Not many wahoo seemed to want the trolled lures, this week live bait proved best, particularly off of Vinorama, finding the live chihuil baitfish was not always an east guarantee. AS is the normal case, many more wahoo strikes were lost compared to actual fish landed. With the water temperature now still so warm, we expect wahoo action to be even better through next couple of months.

The a whole lot of bottom action even being attempted now, on and off currents and really nothing big happening, more triggerfish, bonito and smaller sized snapper.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 110 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 4 sailfish, 5 striped marlin, 88 yellowfin tuna, 9 dorado, 68 wahoo, 12 leopard grouper, 35 Mexican bonito, 19 yellow snapper, 3 dogtooth snapper, 4 pompano, 8 sierra, 6 spotted rose snapper, 12 rainbow runner, 8 Pacific golden eyed tilefish and 80 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric