Anglers –

January 7, 2017

We are now settling into the New Year, the large crowds of visiting tourists have lighten up and normal routine continue. A very controversial newly instigated 20% fuel hike is causing uproar throughout Mexico and people are anxious over this ongoing situation. Weather patterns cooled off over the previous week, as winds from the north continue to prevail. Ocean swells were minimal, water temperatures are now holding in the 73 to 74 degree range, with greenish water being found pushing into certain areas. Whale migration now seems to be in full swing, after having been late to appear in significant numbers, these mammals are now in local waters for their winter migration.

Anglers were using strips of squid, caballito and some mackerel to target a variety of gamefish Still no big marlin bite going on, despite mackerel moving in. Best chances to find the striped marlin now has been on the Pacific, only a scattering of billfish found in the direction of San Jose del Cabo now. Most local fleets have been fishing the grounds from straight off of San Jose Estuary, to Punta Gorda and north to the Iman Bank. Most common species has been the yellowfin tuna, which has been somewhat of a bonus for this late in the season. No huge numbers, but charters have accounted for one or two, or even up to six yellowfin per outing. Average sizes were in the 15 to 30 lb. class, but also quite a few tuna to 50 lb. are being accounted for. There was a recent trend for the yellowfin to strike more readily on either mackerel or caballito, instead of exclusively on strips of squid like during previous months. Either drift fishing or slow trolling the live bait has proved to be most successful technique recently.

Dorado continue to be quite scarce, only an occasional single fish, we saw a couple of dorado as large fifteen lb. More dorado were actually found closer to shore than further out, also later in the day, nothing much early. Wahoo have been very quiet for a few weeks now, though late this week we saw a few of the wahoo up to 45 lb. landed, these were found near the Iman Bank, so we are hopefully with the moon phase being favorable in the coming days that the wahoo will become more active, Water temperature surely will cool off more as winter season progresses, this normally sends wahoo on a southern migration.

Roosterfish action became very quiet this past week as well, a few sierra were found, no numbers though, also some jack crevalle. Bottom action was limited to mainly triggerfish and a mix of smaller pargo and snapper species. No grouper, amberjack or yellowtail to speak of.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 168 yellowfin tuna, 9 dorado, 5 wahoo, 15 bonito, 5 pompano, 15 yellow snapper, 12 leopard grouper, 28 huachinango, 22 tijareta, 32 sierra, 6 rainbow runner, 5 barred pargo and 90 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
January 1, 2017

Happy New Year’s !

The end of the year has brought many families visiting Southern Baja, ideal vacation spot to pass the holiday season and bring in the New Year. Busy times now, as everyone is actively preparing for annual festivals. Weather was a bit unusual, very windy from the north through the week, laying down on Friday for the weekend, warmer temperatures, highs near 90 degrees late in the week and early morning lows were a balmy 65 to 80 degrees, warm north wind was blowing. Ocean swells were minimal, though water temperature was cooling into the lower to mid-70 degree range, also green water splotchy throughout the inshore zones. Still decent conditions to hold a variety of pelagic gamefish late into the season.

Schooling mackerel are moving into the region, off of the Pacific Banks and off of the normal grounds off of San Jose del Cabo. This has been attracting more striped marlin, though still in limited numbers, we except for the action to become wide open in coming months. Dorado continue to be scarce, only an occasional fish, most of them small in size. Same deal with wahoo, only a handful of these fish were landed in the past week, though we do believe that many are still remaining in the area, has not become so cold yet to send them migrating south. Early week there was a blue marlin in the 250 lb. class landed from a charter out of La Playita, hooked on a trolled caballito, two hour battle to bring the fish to gaff.

Yellowfin tuna remains one of the main species being successfully targeting, Best action through the first part of the week, as wind shut down the northern grounds, was right near the arches off of Cabo San Lucas, yellowfin to 30 lb. were striking the drifted strips of squid, lots of sea lions to deal with in this area, though boats accounted for up to six yellowfin per outing. Then the action switched back to Punta Gorda, where using the same techniques, anglers found yellowfin ranging up to 50 lb. close off of the point, within one mile. No huge numbers, but charters accounted for one to five fish. Bottom action on the same grounds produced red snapper, triggerfish and a few pargo or pompano. We did hear of one report of a monster yellowfin tuna of over 300 lb. landed off of a larger sportfishing, not sure exactly where the cow was landed. The were 100 lb. plus tuna being seen surfacing on the Gordo Banks, but very few were actually hooked into, Dave Asher visiting from the East Coast did hook up with a very large yellowfin tuna on the Outer Gordo Bank, only to lose the fish after a grueling two hour battle. So it does appear that there will be a chance at these larger grade of yellowfin in to the first part of the New Year.

Live caballito were tougher to obtain early in the week, rebounding later, squid supplies remain sufficient and now the mackerel appear to be picking back up, of course still no reports at all of sardinas being located anywhere in the vicinity. More whales are arriving, after a lull in activity, the mammals now seem to being spotted more frequently.

Close to shore there was roosterfish, jack crevalle and sierra, we did have one super panga catch a release a roosterfish that was estimated near 40 lb., impressive size considering this is not peak season now for the roosters. Most of the sierra we saw were on the small side, Red Hill had a decent bite early in the morning for sierra for anglers trolling small Rapalas and hoochies.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 136 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 1 blue marlin, 13 striped marlin, 195 yellowfin tuna, 14 dorado, 3 wahoo, 8 bonito, 5 pompano, 2 island jack, 22 yellow snapper, 9 leopard grouper, 88 huachinango, 32 tijareta, 34 sierra, 12 rainbow runner, 12 barred pargo, 22 roosterfish and 140 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
December 24, 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Crowds of vacationers were arriving throughout the week in the Los Cabos area to enjoy the Holiday Season south of the border. Many were doing so to escape the frigid cold temperatures sweeping across northern territories. Weather conditions were definitely cooperating, as the persistent northern winds finally calmed down, clear sunny skies, with daytime highs in the 80s, feeling more like spring time than winter. The area was bustling with tourists and many families were reserving sportfishing charters as one of their preferred activities.

Ocean water temperatures were holding in the 74 to 76 degree range, still warmer than usual for this time frame, with the winds residing for a few days now, this has given the chance for clarity to improve and blue water was being found fairly close to shore. Bait supplies remained steady for caballito and strips of squid continue to be used for drift fishing, while targeting the yellowfin tuna action. The majority of the charters launching out of San Jose del Cabo area were fishing areas from Punta Gorda, Gordo Banks, Cardon and Iman Bank. Through much of the week the most productive place proved to be close to shore off of Punta Gorda.

All around action was a bit spotty, some days the bite would be early, some days late. Most common species caught was yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 30 lb. class, no huge numbers, but some charters were fortunate to land five or more tuna per trip. Caballito and the strips of squid was the main method that showed best results. There were a few larger yellowfin tuna still lurking late into the season around the Gordo Banks, but these fish were more finicky than the tuna found closer to shore. Not a tremendous variety of species now, only a few dorado being found, most of these closer to shore as well, the majority smaller size, though we saw a handful of dorado in the 20 lb. range. Wahoo are still hanging around the region, though not many were being landed, they did not seem eager to strike on the normal type of lures or trap hooked baits, though many anglers told stories of having wahoo cut lines that were rigged with lighter mono leaders, which were needed to entice the line shy yellowfin.

Where the tuna action was centered close to shore there were various species of pargo and snapper mixed in, as well as the ever present triggerfish. The commercial fleet were doing well targeting the red snapper with fresh shrimp heads that were able to obtain from shrimp trawlers which were passing through the area while on their way back to their home ports.

While we heard of more striped marlin action being found on the Pacific Banks, we did not see much action for billfish off of San Jose del Cabo, only an occasional striper of sailfish. No signs of any sardina schools and this seems to be hurting any inshore fishing opportunities for sierra or roosterfish. Though a few decent sized roosterfish were hooked into off the beach stretches while trolling with caballito.

After seeing whales earlier in the month starting to appear, recently they have been very few and far between, late to arrive for their annual migration.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 105 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 235 yellowfin tuna, 26 dorado, 6 wahoo, 12 bonito, 3 grouper, 3 pompano, 32 yellow snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 140 huachinango, 35 tijareta, 12 sierra, 8 rainbow runner, 4 barred pargo, 16 roosterfish and 160 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric