Anglers –
September 3, 2016

We are now into the first week of September, historically the one month where there are greater chances of Hurricanes making direct contact with the Southern Baja Peninsula. Presently the weather has been stable for this past week, no rain, minimal wind, moderate swells, scattered tropical clouds, with very warm and humid conditions, early mornings continue to be slightly cooler, lows of 74 degrees, daytime high near 100 degree heat index. Most recent storms were Madeline and Lester, both following paths far off to the west, narrowly missing direct strikes on the Hawaiian Islands. Now we are closely monitoring a newly forming low pressure system south of Acapulco, forecast to strengthen in Tropical Storm Newton and head in the direction of Baja, we will hope for the best, but need to be prepared for anything that might happen. With ocean temperatures now ranging from 82 to 87 degrees, these are favorable conditions from tropical storm development.

This past week anglers found much more productive all around action than during the previous week. Majority of the charter fleets are concentrating on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks to Vinorama, where they have found a variety of surface gamefish as well as opportunities off of the bottom structure. There are no huge numbers of billfish now, but there is a chance at hooking into either a sailfish, striped, blue or black marlin, as all of these species are presently in local waters. We do know of black marlin landed in recent days weighing in the 350 lb. class, hooked into off of the Gordo Banks, where there has also been an occasional larger grade of yellowfin tuna encountered, so far this bite has been very hit or miss, lots of concentrations of schooling bolito and skipjack, major natural food source, fish can become finicky at times with so much food available. In recent days there was one 130 pound tuna landed. On these grounds the best bet has been to slow troll either bolito or skipjack.

In the marina area the bait suppliers have been offering caballito, moonfish and slabs of squid. The most consistent action has been centered on the Iman Bank, good number of smaller grade yellowfin tuna, most in the 10 to 15 lb. range, an occasional tuna to 50 lb., drift fishing with strips of squid has been most productive for this bite. Lots of schooling dorado arrived this week, striking on lures and a variety of baits, the majority of these fish have been under 15 lb., though we do know of one 40 pound bull dorado that was landed off of the Gordo Banks, the big ones have been scarce recently. Early in the week there were a couple of days when a handful of wahoo up to 40 lb. were landed, striking on baits and trolled Rapalas, this bite shut down as fast as it had begun.

The swift current slacked up and this opened up the bottom action, which in the past couple of weeks had produced mainly triggerfish. In recent days off of Iman Banks there has been quality action for species such as leopard grouper, dogtooth snapper and amberjack, we saw one 80 lb. amberjack and dogtooth snapper to over 50 lb. were accounted for. This is normally the time of year when we do expect to see some impressively large gamefish, though it is also the period when weather can turn for the worse very rapidly, so following extended weather forecast is a must.

Not much action reported close to shore, though we did hear of a couple of late season roosterfish, as well as some jack crevalle. Local beach anglers have hooked into a few snook and tripletail, both prized summertime catches.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 black marlin, 5 striped marlin, 4 blue marlin, 4 sailfish, 325 yellowfin tuna, 210 dorado, 9 wahoo, 10 huachinango, 11 yellow snapper, 9 dogtooth snapper, 14 leopard grouper, 75 triggerfish, 16 amberjack, 2 roosterfish and 12 jack crevalle.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 28, 2016

Light crowds of tourists visiting at this time, weather patterns continue to be very tropical, hot and humid, chances of thundershowers forecast throughout the week, though we did not see much rainfall, except on Tuesday afternoon, when a major electrical storm passed through the area, vicious thunder and lightning strikes, which left most of the region without power for a couple of hours, two inches or more of rain fell in a matter of 30 minutes, then skies cleared back up just like that. The latest Tropical Strom Lester is far off to the west, having no impact on land, though the ocean swell did pick up some, as we saw surf over two meters high pounding the shoreline. Winds have been light for the most part and just this morning we felt that slight hint of fall season in the air, as early morning was slightly cooler than it has been for the past couple of months. Water temperature is ranging from 80 to 85 degrees, coolest area right close to shore off of Cabo San Lucas.

Anglers have been using strips of squid and live caballito for bait, also some skipjack and bolito being caught on the fishing grounds and being rigged for larger gamefish baits as well. The Gordo Banks have been producing some of the larger fish as usual, though numbers of actually fish landed from these grounds are low, a handful of black marlin hook ups, one yellowfin tuna caught by a local pangeros estimated at 280 lb. earlier in the week, another later in the week at 130 lb. Lots of sharks again biting on these same banks. Anglers used larger whole baits or drift fished with strips of squid. Clean blue water, lots of natural food source as well, stronger than usual currents running, these can be factors why the bite is not what we would expect for this time of year, of course this can change, just as fast as the weather can.

The action around the Iman Bank has been a bit more productive and chance at more variety. This is where anglers are hooking into some yellowfin tuna that have been averaging 20 to 40 lb., most of these have come on strips of squid, again no numbers, anglers lucky to land one or two of these tuna.

A handful of dorado are being accounted for, but not in any quantity, most of these fish have not been larger than 15 lb. Striking on trolled lures and various baits, no particular location, scattered throughout the area. Very few reports of wahoo that we heard of, they can become more dormant when water temperatures reach the mid-80s. Not much bottom action found this past week either, more triggerfish than anything else, swift current makes it hard to effectively fish the structure. We did hear of one 80 lb. class amberjack, when currents slack we do expect to see more options off the bottom, time of year we can see some quality grouper and dogtooth snapper.

Not much inshore action now, more jack crevalle than anything else. Surf conditions are up now, this scatters baitfish schools, normal pattern for late August.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 52 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 33 yellowfin tuna, 36 dorado, 2 wahoo, 8 rainbow runner, 13 huachinango, 12 yellow snapper, 4 surgeonfish, 48 triggerfish, 3 amberjack and 8 jack crevalle.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 20, 2016

With school sessions now set to start the new fall semester, we have seen lighter crowds of tourists arriving. With all around fish reports not being up to normal expectations we are not seeing any large numbers of anglers arriving either. Tropical weather conditions continue, this past week was calm, warm, humid, with plenty of sunshine, now we have the latest Tropical Storm Kay swirling off the lower Peninsula a couple of hundred miles to the west, bringing scattered rainfall, but no port closures at this time, looks like we will see same patterns through much of next week. When forecasts call for 80% chance at rain, often this refers to isolated areas, clouds that pass through relatively quickly and do not account to much of a problem. We are not expected any high winds or swells to develop from TS Kay. Tidal swings have been high now due to the full moon phase, also this bright moon did not seem to help the fishing action much either.

The week started off with decent catches for a combination of dorado, yellowfin tuna, billfish and assorted structure species, but as the week progressed, action became more spread out and not as productive, hard to pinpoint a particular reason for this, considering ocean conditions seemed favorable, though there were strong current that were running, varying from day to day, also very warm water, averaging 85 degrees, lots of natural food source on the fishing grounds and then the bright full moon, all these can be combined factors for the slack in action.

Bait suppliers have been offering live caballito and also more slabs of giant squid are being used again, for drift fishing and targeting the tuna, more bolito and skipjack on the grounds are now being used as larger trolling baits. Other options included using yo-yo jigs early in the day over the rocky areas. No particular spot has been really consistent recently, though best chances overall have centered around the Iman Bank, though on the Gordo Banks a handful of larger gamefish, including a couple of yellowfin tuna in the 200 lb. class, as well as black and blue marlin to 300 lb., though overall the Gordo Banks have been quiet, just an occasional hook up reported, but this is the place where the largest fish have been produced.

Early in the week we saw a couple of days of good dorado action, mostly for smaller sized fish, with a handful of fish in the 15 to 20 lb. range accounted for, but this was the most significant dorado action we had seen all summer long. A few wahoo in the area, found in open offshore waters while charters are mainly targeted billfish, Dorado were found off of Red Hill and towards the north of Punta Gorda. Not much inshore action now reported, or even targeted, as this is the time when this action normally phases out for the season, Some local shore anglers did report a few nice sized snook, as well as triple tail, an elusive summer time catch, more active normally in the evening.

On the Iman Bank anglers had chances at hooking into yellowfin tuna while using strips of squid, fish to 50 lb. were landed off of these grounds, larger fish reportedly lost. Though bite has not been consistent at all, was best early in the week, then became much more hit or miss. These same areas produced some cabrilla, broomtail grouper, yellow snapper, barred pargo and dogtooth snapper, not big numbers, but some nice quality fish were accounted for. We are optimistic that the action should improve as this full moon fades, this is the month when we normally find excellent action, especially for quality yellowfin tuna.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 54 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 5 striped marlin, 4 wahoo, 19 yellowfin tuna, 46 dorado, 14 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 6 broomtail grouper, 2 pargo colorado,8 huachinango (red snapper), 4 dogtooth snapper,18 yellow snapper, 2 amberjack and 9 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric