Anglers –
June 4, 2016

With the official start of the summer still a couple of weeks away, the weather conditions are steadily warming and becoming more humid. Scattered morning clouds, burning off quickly as the day progresses. Wind patterns have been mainly from the south, 10 to 20 mph, generally calm early in the day, with more breeze later in the afternoon. Swells increased some this past week and there were strong currents, so swimmers need to be aware and use extra caution. Ocean water temperatures was in the lower 70’s on the Pacific, off of San Jose del Cabo it averaged 78 degrees and towards Los Frailes it was in the 80 degree range.

The local bait situation remains the same, anglers are using strips of squid, ballyhoo, caballito, jurelito and moonfish. Though this should be the season where we are finding bolito and smaller skipjack on the offshore grounds, so far we have seen very little of this activity, same goes for the inshore mullet migration, we have yet to see any of these schooling baitfish either, this being one of the reasons that not much inshore fishing action has been encountered, normally this is time when the annual roosterfish run starts to really take off, so far this action has been very spotty, a handful of larger grade roosterfish were caught and released from the offshore structure areas, where tuna, pargo and amberjack were also being targeted. This has been a trend in recent years for the roosterfish, normally an inshore species, though with the lack of inshore baitfish these gamefish are roaming further offshore to find food.

The main concentration of striped marlin is now being found from 15 to 20 miles offshore, besides striped marlin, a few sailfish in the mix, plenty of pilot sharks as well, with many of these sharks even striking on higher speed trolling lures, not only bait, an occasional wahoo on these same grounds as well, including a 75 lb. wahoo taken mid-week. Some of the stripers recently have been larger sized, up to 150 lb., we usually do see some of the bigger stripers towards the end of the main season. Not many wahoo were reported this past week, though we are seeing at least a couple per day in the overall fish count, no particular spot has been best for this, either out on the marlin ground, or closer to shore..

Amberjack are in the area, though the bite has moved around from day to day, some of these jacks have been found close to the marina entrance, off of the San Jose Estuary and off of Palmilla Point, as well as on the San Luis Bank. Many of these ambers were weighing in the 20 to 40 lb. range. The amberjack were striking best on the live baits, either caballito or moonfish. A couple of dogtooth snapper were also reported, this is the time we should see more of these largest of the pargo species moving into local waters. Besides finding plenty of triggerfish, though now mostly smaller size, not as large as we were seeing earlier in the spring, we are seeing a mix of some barred pargo and yellow snapper, both being quality eating species and scrappy fighters.

Yellowfin tuna has been hit or miss, but in recent days we are seeing an improvement, smaller grade yellowfin striking on smaller trolled hoochies from Red Hill to Chileno Bay and north between Iman and Vinorama anglers found tuna up to 40 pounds on high sots while drift fishing strips of squid or slow trolling surf with caballito or moonfish. Once again the lack of sardina we are not having as easy of time enticing these yellowfin tuna into surface feeding frenzies.

Dorado were starting to be found in greater number, but anglers were still lucky to land a couple of these fish, with most of these being smaller in size, only a handful of fish up to 20 lb. accounted for.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 73 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 5 dogtooth snapper, 25 striped marlin, 18 wahoo, 105 yellowfin tuna, 22 bonito, 58 dorado, 32 amberjack, 13 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 55 yellow snapper, 15 sierra, 14 barred, 18 huachinango (red snapper), 10 roosterfish and 160 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
May 28, 2016

We are still only seeing moderate crowds of tourists arriving, though we expect that when school semesters all finish there will be more families going on vacation. The weather definitely became more tropical this past week, we saw scattered cloud cover much of the morning, burning off as the days progressed, high temperatures in the upper 80s. There was some swirling gusting winds the first part of the week, the second half we saw calmer conditions, afternoon breezes picking up predominately from the south, though overall anglers emjoyed comfortably fishing conditions. Swells increased some and currents were also stronger than normal. Water temperatures ranged from 70 degrees around the corner on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, to near 80 degrees on the Sea of Cortez side, this is where the majority of the sportfishing fleets were concentrated, From off of Chileno, to Red Hill, Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis and Vinorama.
.
Anglers found that baitfish were less plentiful this past week, not much inshore baitfish activity at all and the offshore grounds did have some small skipjack, but no reports of bolito, should start seeing more of this favored food source showing on the local fishing grounds soon. Limited supplies of caballito, moonfish, jurelito were available in the marina area and the bait vendors also were offering ballyhoo and slabs of squid.

Fishing action was slower for the first part of the week, partly because winds limited options, but later in the week we saw much improved action, particularly near the San Luis Bank, where hog sized amberjack in the 20 to 80 lb. class were accounted for, also some good wahoo action was encountered, as well as more dorado than we had previously seen. Anglers used various baits and lures, a combination of drift fishing, slow trolling and higher speed trolling all produced strikes. We saw wahoo to 50 pounds and dorado up to 25 lb. Yellowfin tuna were scattered, some hitting on squid and others while trolling smaller hoochies and Rapalas, most of the tuna landed were in the 5 to 20 lb. range. There were reports of charters landing as many as a dozen yellowfin trolling off of Red Hill, while north of Punta Gorda most boats were only finding a couple yellowfin in the their combined catch, but there was more chances at variety in that direction, particularly for finding the wahoo, dorado and amberjack.

Striped marlin were found within several miles of shore, as well as further out on their normal traditional grounds. Striking on baits as well as trolled lures, sizes ranged from 50 to 130 lb. There was an unusual story this week of a 20 ft. whale shark being seen swimming around inside the Cabo San Lucas Marina, apparently this was event never witnessed before, normally this very elusive species is encountered occasionally in the clear waters on offshore sea mounts.

Not much roosterfish action reported, though there were at least some being hooked into by hard core surf anglers, lack of inshore baitfish activity to attract more of these prized fighters. Next month is usually the prime season for these sought after gamefish.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 sailfish, 1 yellowtail, 28 striped marlin, 33 wahoo, 86 yellowfin tuna, 25 bonito, 26 dorado, 29 amberjack, 6 cabrilla, 15 yellow snapper, 14 sierra, 8 barred pargo, 5 parrot fish, 3 pompano and 200 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
May 21, 2016

We are now in the later part of spring season, with summer just around the corner, we continue to see lighter crowds of tourists than what we would normally expect during this time frame. As school semesters finish most likely we will see more people traveling. Great time to visit now, ideal weather, highs in the upper 80s, wind patterns predominately from the south, pushing in Pacific breezes that keep conditions bearable.

Ocean currents have been strong, swells have been moderate, water temperatures off of San Jose del Cabo and towards Los Frailes are warming rapidly, now in the upper 70s, near 80 degrees, while on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas it has averaged 73 degrees. The majority of the sportfishing fleets are now fishing from off of the Chileno area and on the various grounds to the northeast. Common bait now being used is ballyhoo, cocinero, caballito and squid strips. There are reports of more skipjack and bolito activity, though these food sources are just starting to appear, still no mullet schools to report. A lot can happen this time of year in matter of a week or two.

Striped marlin has been the main action found offshore, more numbers of marlin found 10 to 18 miles from shore, though on some days stripers were found within one mile. Many charters reported multiple catches per morning trip. Sizes ranged from 60 lb. to 140 lb. The billfish were striking trolled lures, rigged ballyhoo, as well as various live baits. There were also a few sailfish now appearing in the warmer waters, concentrations of pilot sharks and some thrashers as well. The same offshore grounds have been producing quite a few wahoo strikes and even a few dorado, though no big numbers, though wahoo were as large as 50 lb. or heavier and dorado up to 25 lb. Striped marlin were more numerous than dorado or wahoo.. Increased porpoise activity is being reported, with a few reports of larger sized yellowfin being seen, the largest we heard of that was landed out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina was an 80 pound class tuna mid-week.

Anglers trolling areas closer to shore, anywhere from Chileno, Red Hill, Iman and towards the San Luis Banks, found a mix of wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dorado, sierra and miscellaneous bottom species. No big numbers of any species, off the bottom triggerfish were most common, also some early morning snapper, amberjack and an odd yellowtail. Most of the dorado being encountered have been small juveniles, only an occasional nicer sized fish reported. Wahoo ranged from small 15 lb. fish, to over 50 lb. No numbers though, but there is a chance at a quality fish or two. We expect with the warmer conditions that the all-around action should also become more consistent and productive.

Not much roosterfish action reported, a couple of snook catches were accounted for by beach anglers, this will be the start of the main shore fishing season coming up.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 71 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 sailfish, 62 striped marlin, 21 wahoo, 45 yellowfin tuna, 14 dorado, 9 amberjack, 12 cabrilla, 13 yellow snapper, 10 sierra, 12 bonito, 1 yellowtail, 5 barred pargo and 70 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric