Anglers –
February 20, 2016

Warm wintertime sunshine is now attracting more tourists and they are enjoying temperatures reaching close to 90 degrees, feels like spring already. Winds have continued to be unpredictable, mainly from the north, but also switching out of the southeast, not as strong as during weeks past. Strong currents have been an issue, but they now seem to be slacking way down.

Crazy season, even the whale migration seems off, not as many being seen off of the San Jose del Cabo area as would be normal for this time of year. Plenty of sea lions on the fishing grounds, awaiting their opportunity at an easy meal, grabbing fish that are hooked on angler’s lines. The bait situation remains the same, sardineta continue to school offshore and can be caught on sabiki rigs early in the morning, caballito, cocinero, squid strips and ballyhoo are also available, though we heard of no reports at all of any sardinas being found.

Ocean clarity became a bit more greenish close to shore, north to Los Frailes, water temperature was also coolest closer to shore, about 72/74 degrees on the average, while five or more miles offshore there was 75/76 degree water reported. All around the fishing action was more scattered this past week. Yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo action became very limited. A few tuna were being hooked, most of these found from La Fortuna to the Iman Bank, and best chances were early in the day, also getting a hooked yellowfin actually in the boat was a challenge with the ever present sea lions lurking nearby. Most of these tuna were in the 15 to 25 lb. range and anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these fish. Dorado were almost nonexistent, who knows where they have gone, wahoo were still around, but fewer were being hooked up, more action early in the week, with very few of these speedsters being reported later in the week. Water temperature cooled off where these wahoo had been schooling off of Punta Gorda, also a bit off colored, with winds settling down these fish could decide to become more active again as conditions improve.

Bottom action was spotty, most common catches being triggerfish and smaller sized snapper/pargo species, with a handful of cabrilla (leopard grouper) in the mix. More hammerhead moving in on the structure, where we commonly bottom fish, makes for an additional challenge. On at least a couple of occasions, anglers reported that something very large grabbed on to their hooked up tuna, only to head for the rocks and break the line, sounds like some grouper or dogtooth snapper are moving in.

The action for striped marlin continues off of San Jose del Cabo, mostly centered from 3 to 5 miles offshore, changing daily, most charters targeting these billfish are having chances, some several per day, majority of hook ups came while drift fishing with the available larger baits, sizes on the marlin ranged from 70 lb. to 120 lb.

Inshore there was some roosterfish and sierra action, a few nicer sized roosterfish were accounted for, up to 25 lb., impressive for this time of year. There was a reported 25 lb. class snook landed from a panga charter while trolling close to shore for roosterfish, off of the Estuary area, definitely an unusual catch.

A few more sierra in recent days, the lack of sardinas has really hurt the sierra season, fun fish on light tackle, scrappy and very fast fighters.

Just no big numbers of any particular species at this time, though spring is now right around the corner, transition time can be like this, but things can also change very fast.

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: 1 snook,18 striped marlin, 7 wahoo, 16 yellowfin tuna, 2 dorado, 6 amberjack, 8 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 16 huachinango, 22 yellow snapper, 15 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 12 parrot fish, 8 bonito, 10 hammerhead shark (released), 2 thrasher shark, and 28 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
February 13, 2016

The month of February has always been thought of as unpredictable and a bit crazy, we have seen a bit of this already. Last week was cooler and windy, now we have seen a warmer trend like spring is already here, daytime highs reaching 90 degrees, plenty of clear skies and sunshine, the wind patterns and unusually swift currents still persist, but it does feel like days will only be getting warmer as we progress towards spring break. Ocean water temperatures are holding at 74 degrees throughout most of the region, warmer 76 degree water found outside of Cabo San Lucas and around the Gordo Banks.

The all-around fishing action remains scattered, a lot of variety in the area now, but no particular species is overly abundant. Clear blue water is being found within a few miles of shore, though there is greener conditions towards the north near Los Frailes. Schools of sardinetas are now congregated off of San Jose del Cabo, always a good sign that these will be attracting more gamefish, particularly striped marlin. Still no reports of the normal smaller sardinas being found, word has spread that this species will be under stricter regulations to help this stock rebound once the environmental conditions are to their liking so that they return to their normal migration patterns. With ocean temperatures remaining warmer than normal, this has contributed to changing oxygen levels and plankton growth, which these baitfish feed on, El Nino has all normal patterns all mixed up.

A sign that anything could happen on any given day was confirmed when local pangero legend Hugo Pino from La Playita landed a 350 lb. black marlin off of the Gordo Banks mid- week, Hugo was trolling a live caballito when the black struck. Very unusual to find black marlin hanging around these grounds during mid-February. On these same grounds there have been yellowfin tuna, some of these tuna are over the hundred pound mark, many have been seen of all sizes, feeding on what look like an abundance of flying fish, hard to entice them to strike on anything else, though a handful of these yellowfin to 120 lb. have been landed, some on normal morning charters, other on afternoon trips by the selective few commercial and private boats that do go out later in the day. Problem has been finding a calm enough afternoon, these anglers are stock piling slabs of squid as well, the more chum the better, to help entice these finicky tuna.

Not all that much going off the bottom, wind earlier in the week, combined with persistently stronger currents and then the ever present hungry sea lions, all has added up to few numbers of snapper, cabrilla and amberjack. There was a report of a couple of yellowtail, so maybe more of these popular jacks will move in. If conditions do continue to stabilize, we should see improved bottom action, anglers have been using whole and cut baits, as well as yo-yo jigs, some charters are starting to use down riggers.

Wahoo are hanging around into winter season again, though bite has been sporadic, more chances now there a favorite food source of sadinetas have showed up. Punta Gorda seems to be holding more numbers of the wahoo now, but the word has also spread, putting added pressure on these already elusive and shy fish.

Very few dorado being found, just a few single fish, no particular place better than the other. Inshore there were some roosterfish and a few sierra found, a few roosterfish to 20 lb., good sized for this time of year. With the warmer water and lack of sardinas for bait there have been no big numbers of sierra

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 17 striped marlin, 14 wahoo, 35 yellowfin tuna, 11 dorado, 10 amberjack, 16 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 1 thrasher shark, 16 huachinango, 52 misc. pargo/snapper , 6 sierra, 24 roosterfish and 55 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
February 6, 2016

The first week of February brought light crowds of tourists, the all-around climate was very pleasant considering this is the midst of winter time and daytime highs were reaching 85 degrees. The period started out with calmer days, but quickly these calm ocean conditions deteriorated, as the north winds picked up to near gale force, on Wednesday it blew 30 mph, with even higher gusts, then weakened later in the week to about 15 to 20 miles mph., this continued through into the weekend. As a result we saw ocean water temperatures drop suddenly into the 74 degree range and it appears this cooling trend might continue.

This sudden change did not help the fishing action at all, in fact not many charters were even braving the elements. Bait fish became scattered, though local bait vendors did make the extra effort to travel to the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas at night where they found good numbers of schooling mackerel, though with the stirred up conditions anglers did not find much with these lively bait fish. There were limited supplies of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid also available.

No particular species of fish was very active at all this week, even the triggerfish were not eager to eat. Yellowfin tuna were still hanging around the Iman Bank, but not many were landed, these grounds were practically unreachable for several days and the hungry sea lions were more aggressive than ever. The tuna that were landed ranged up to 25 lb., striking on strips of squid. A handful of yellowfin also were taken from other areas. Dorado became even scarcer than they had been, the few that were accoutered for were in the 10 lb. range.

Striped marlin action slowed compared to last week, though these billfish are still being found in varying numbers throughout the region. The ocean clarity is still good and these marlin to not mind cooler currents, they just need to have their steady food supply.

Wahoo became more finicky with cooling waters, also the word was now out, as to where most of these wahoo were hanging out off of Punta Gorda and the pressure was heavier on these grounds. Too many spear fishermen these days, not easy to fish where there are also people spear fishing. Many of the wahoo they hit with spears end up ripping free, only to die of their injuries and this makes the entire school of wahoo even that much spookier. The large needlefish have returned in force, striking on trolled baits and making a mess of things as they like to do.

Bottom action was showing improvement last week, before this latest blow, maybe cooling waters will get some yellowtail action going. Inshore there were some sierra caught, trolling baits and lures, hard to really get these fish going without the sardinas available.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 38 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 11 wahoo, 18 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 18 rainbow runner, 4 amberjack, 6 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 17 huachinango, 26 other pargo/snapper species, 8 bonito, 9 sierra and 12 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric