Anglers –
August 8, 2015

The Eastern Pacific remains calm in the vicinity of Southern Baja, though at this time there is a powerful Hurricane Hilda brewing far off to the west, present forecast has it passing to the north of the Hawaiian Islands. Locally the conditions have been very tropical, with occasional thundershowers over the mountainous regions, ocean swells have been light, though currents have been strong, greenish water had pushed in after south winds from last week, though water clarity has showed improvement in recent days. This week the larger high stake tournament season kicked off with the East Cape Bisbee event, though overall crowds have been light as we move into the warmest period of the year and everyone is anxiously following weather reports for any development of tropical storms that might impact local interests.

Yellowfin tuna remain the main species being encountered by anglers, using sardinas for bait on the Iman Bank has been where the most consistent action is being encountered. Sardinas have been found schooling near the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Jetty’s, though these schools are not as plentiful as during the previous weeks, showing signs of impact from heavy pressure, since this has been the only area locally where these baitfish have been available. Some anglers are shopping for slabs of giant squid at local super markets as another option and this has been paying off. Average size for the yellowfin has been in the 10 to 50 lb. range, though the recent tournament did produce a couple of tuna in the 150 to 170 lb. class. Lots of charter boats have been congregating on the Iman Bank, coming from as far as the East Cape or Cabo Lucas, since this is where the best bite has been, heavy pressure has meant that the fish have become more finicky and anglers were finding better success while using lighter leaders, though that can be a problem when hooking into larger fish. No huge numbers of fish now, though most charter are catching fish and many have been accounting for tuna in the 50 lb. class.

Still no dorado being reported, only an occasional wahoo and the billfish bite has been scattered, with more blue marlin in the 100 to 200 lb. class being found, a few black marlin as well, as well as some sailfish and striped marlin. Last week a 553 lb. blue marlin was weighed in, caught on a private boat on the Pacific Finger Bank, a bit out of range for normal day charters.

Off the bottom there have been a mix of pargo, occasional amberjack, triggerfish, bonito, white tuna, cabrilla, dogtooth snapper and even a handful of larger sized roosterfish, which seem to like hanging out in the deeper water where they are finding a variety of natural baitfish congregating, this has been a trend in recent years. Anglers hooking into heavy fish over the deeper structure, only to find out they have a big 40 to 60 lb. roosterfish instead of an amberjack or grouper.

Not much inshore action at this time of year, action is centered over the offshore grounds, this is where all of the bolito, skipjack and other food sources are congregated.

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 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 9 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 6 wahoo, 205 yellowfin tuna, 5 dogtooth snapper, 6 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 19 white skipjack tuna, 3 roosterfish and 28 mixed pargo species.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 1, 2015

As we start a new month there are no new storm systems on the horizon that are forecast to affect Southern Baja. At this time Hurricane Guillermo is far off to west, following a path towards Hawaii, but is supposed to weaken before impact the island chain. Locally the weather has been very warm and humid, though skies have been clear, none of the afternoon thunder storms since last weekend. Ocean swells have been moderate, with water temperatures holding in the 86/87 degree range. Light afternoon breezes made for very comfortable conditions for anglers.

The action on the Gordo Banks for past couple of weeks, which had been for mostly very small sized yellowfin tuna, has now faded out, still a few marlin being hooked into from these grounds, both black and blue marlin, a handful of striped marlin and sailfish. This past week there were marlin to over 300 lb. landed, these fish were striking on trolled skipjack or tuna.

With supplies of sardinas still maintaining fleets in the vicinity of the marina jetty the action now has switched north to the Iman Bank, using the small sized sardina baitfish anglers were finding a grade of yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 50 lb. class. No significant numbers, but most charters were accounting for two, three, four of five tuna per morning. Off the bottom this area produced some huachinango, dogtooth snapper, cabrilla and triggerfish, again no big numbers, but a few quality fish were reported.

Dorado continue to virtually nonexistent, a combination of factors likely the cause for this. Finding any action while surface trolling open waters was difficult, more action was accounted for while using baitfish, drift fishing over the structure where fish were concentrated. Just a handful of wahoo were found, most of these while trolling early in the day with Rapalas.

No inshore action to speak of either, just a few roosterfish hanging around, the season for this gamefish is nearing the end. Though there is always a chance at finding a roosterfish lingering around the marina jetty where there are concentrations of various baitfish.

Eastern Pacific appears to be on track of having a strong el Niño warm water phenomena that can cause havoc on normal fish migrations patterns. We still have over two months of tropical storm season to deal with, so we will monitored weather forecasts frequently.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 66 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 black marlin, 1 yellowtail, 5 sailfish, 4 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin, 2 wahoo, 190 yellowfin tuna, 13 dogtooth snapper, 1 gulf grouper, 4 amberjack, 8 cabrilla, 1 surgeonfish, 22 white skipjack tuna, 4 roosterfish and 32 huachinango (red snapper).

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
July 25, 2015

Last week Hurricane Dolores threatened to impact the Southern Baja region, but never amounted to much at all, as the system veered further west. Keeping it far enough away to cause any damage at all, actually very little rainfall was accounted for, the system dumped more rainfall in Southern California than it did in Los Cabos. Port closure was lifted on Saturday and conditions have been improving every day since. Ocean swells have diminished to moderate levels, mid-week we had six foot swells for a day or so, but this swell has weakened once again. Even though forecasts have called for variable percentages of rainfall every day, it has been mostly dry on the coast, with the exception of very limited isolated showers quickly moving through. In the mountainous area north of the airport and to La Paz, they reported greater measurable rainfall. We had been monitoring recent development of Tropical Storm Felicia, but this storm moved far to the west and quickly downgraded to a depression, causing no impact at all locally, except for increasing tropical humid conditions. Slight breezes in the afternoon have helped to keep conditions bearable.

Ocean temperatures are now reaching the upper 80 degree levels, with most of the area now being in the 86/87 degree range, slightly cooler on the Pacific side of the peninsula. Water clarity quickly rebounded with calmer seas, blue water was found close to shore. Billfish activity has been centered around the 1150 and 95 spots, as well as on the Gordo Banks. Charters have been finding mixed success while trolling lures and various rigged baitfish, with more numbers of blue marlin starting to move in, as well as some lingering striped marlin and a few sailfish. Many charters were accounted for multiple billfish days, while others told stories of large fish being hooked, only to be lost.

The most consistent bite for the local panga fleet has been on the Gordo Banks for smaller grade of yellowfin tuna, these fish were striking best on sardinas, which remained available near the marina jetty in the early morning, these fish ranged up to 10 lb., mixed in with white and black skipjack. There are a few big yellowfin moving on to these same grounds and early in the week we saw the first super cow of the season landed, this tuna was hooked from a 22 ft. panga while soaking a bolito for bait on the Inner Gordo, the fish took two hours to land on 60 lb. tackle with use of a 80 lb. leader, the yellowfin was weighed in at a whopping 331 lb. Quite an achievement on a set up that was being rigged up for targeting dogtooth snapper, which have also been lurking on the Inner Gordo Bank. Several dogtooth snapper were being hooked into each day from this spot, with many of these hook ups lost due to broken off leaders. The dogtooth that were actually landed were weighing in the 30 to 55 lb class.

Dorado continue to be very scarce, just not many being found, who knows what is going on to cause this lack of these normallyy abundant summer season species., most likely these fish are searching out cooler Pacific currents and different food sources. Wahoo were not being found either, not really surprising, as these fish become sluggish in such warm waters. Roosterfish action along the coastal stretches faded out, though an occasional roosterfish was being found, some of these were up to 40 lb.

Still plenty of sharks being hooked into, they seemed to quiet down immediately after the high swells passed, but in recent days they have become a nuisance once again. Off the bottom a few cabrilla, amberjack, yellowtail snapper, huachinango were rounding out catches. One 30 lb. yellowtail was landed, not an everyday catch in 86 degree water, as these jacks prefer cooler currents.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 yellowtail, 8 sailfish, 7 striped marlin, 4 blue marlin, 8 dorado, 430 yellowfin tuna, 12 dogtooth snapper, 6 amberjack, 5 cabrilla, 15 yellow snapper, 11 jack crevalle, 120 white skipjack tuna, 14 bonito, 7 roosterfish and 14 huachinango (red snapper).

Good fishing, Eric