Anglers –

March 14, 2015

The month of March is when transition time begins, seasonal changes are very unpredictable, some years we can see warmer conditions arrive early, that could be occurring now, as weather patterns could not be more favorable at the present time, clear sunny skies, highs in the low 80’s and light winds. The first wave of Spring Break vacationers are now arriving in the Los Cabos area, this coincides with the annual San Jose del Cabo traditional fiestas which start this week, popular events such as the government sponsored fishing tournament out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina and the Off Road Races at the Luis Sandoval track will both be held on Sunday. Efforts on rebuilding the panga basin of the marina have been intense for the past month and things are certainly looking much improved and completion seems to be within sight. Then the chief engineers can draw plans for even a larger project, which is reconstructing the north jetty so that a repeat of 2014 will not happen again.

Anglers reported a complete turnaround in the fishing action, as last week conditions had been cool and the action slowed to nearly a standstill. Now, with this warming trend the yellowfin tuna and dorado bite has really improved. Local fleets have been finding great action near the San Luis Bank, with live sardinas being readily available from the commercial pangeros, who are finding these baitfish schooling inshore near Vinorama.

Drift fishing over the bottom structure in about 150 feet of water with fly lined baits has producing good numbers of yellowfin tuna in the 20 to 30 pound range. Dorado have been roaming around on the same grounds, most of these fish are running in the 10 to 15 lb. class. Even a few wahoo in the mix, with some 15 to 25 lb. wahoo landed while using straight mono leaders targeted for the tuna and dorado. Other wahoo also were taken on trolled lures, as well as on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.

Sierra action seemed to have slowed some, maybe the warmer 74 degree current is a factor. Bottom drops over rocky structure have produced sporadic action for bonito, a variety of pargo species, cabrilla and triggerfish. Not much going on in the way of yellowtail, though reports from Southern California of epic yellowtail action on large sized fish has been almost unprecedented, possibly another el Nino in the works.

Striped marlin have continued to be spread out, though the Pacific produced more catches than in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, unpredictable as to what is going to happen this season, bait migrations are shifting according to ocean temperatures as well.

The annual migration of whales is now in full swing, scores of humpback and gray sightings. We were all reminded this week of the power that these mammals have, earlier in the week tragedy struck on a tour boat out of Cabo San Lucas, when they accidently collided with a whale and one passenger was killed in the event, a Canadian woman. These magnetic animals are wild and must be given space. Our condolences go out to everyone involved in this accident.

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: 1 striped marlin, 8 wahoo, 88 dorado, 215 yellowfin tuna, 18 sierra, 95 Eastern Pacific bonito, 8 amberjack, 22 cabrilla, 16 huachinango, 8 roosterfish, 18 barred pargo, 24 yellow snapper triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

March 7, 2015

We are seeing fairly good sized crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area now, though not a great percentage of these people were interested in sportfishing. So fleets were not all that busy, though with the new month arriving, we all know that spring break is just around the corner and even greater numbers of visitors will be arriving. This time frame is a time of transition, when we start to have warmer days, up into 80s, scattered cloud cover at times, fluctuating winds, often picking up stronger later in the day. Can feel like late spring one day and then be a bit cooler the next, even feeling a bit wintry early in the morning.

Every season can be a little different, it does feel like the worst of the north winds are now over, we have seen signs of marine cloud layer developing, cooler ocean currents meeting with warmer land masses can cause this. Throughout most of the region ocean temperatures are averaging 74 degrees, up to 76 degrees outside of Cabo San Lucas, near the Jaime Bank. This is still several degrees warmer than what we normally might expect to have at this time. Baitfish migration, as well as striped marlin action seems to be affected. No mackerel or sardinetas now being found, these are one of the main food sources for the striped marlin. No concentrations of squid either, so if there is not the sustainable food source, the fish will scattered and be on the move, searching. Water clarity had been good for the most part.

Sardinas continue to be found schooling close to shore near Vinorama, a long run for the bait suppliers, not worth their while unless a certain numbers of charters are going to need this resource, on other days the low tides and increased swell activity made it a tough go for netting any of these baitfish, which were in close proximity to the rocky outcroppings. The majority of days though the sardinas were available, other option were caballito.

The all-around fishing action was less consistent this past week constantly changing conditions have things a bit unsettled, we are optimistic conditions will begin to stabilize soon and this should help put things back on the right track. Most local charters are fishing areas from the Gordo Banks, to Cardon, La Fortuna and as far as Vinorama.

Inshore sierra action became more hit of miss, this had been a sure bet bite in previous weeks. A few smaller sized roosterfish were found close to shore as well, particularly near Punta Gorda and the La Laguna area. These jacks were striking best on slow trolled bait, same for the sierra. Bottom action had been showing some promising signs, with more red snapper, yellow snapper, cabrilla and even some nice amberjack and yellowtail. But, then as weather changed the bite all dropped off, best bet now is either close to shore or over the various rock piles. No surface action now for yellowfin tuna or dorado, only a handful of small dorado being encountered. The Eastern Pacific bonito had been a mainstay recently, providing the most consistent action, with some bonito to over 10 pounds being accoutered for. This bite dropped off to a standstill and all we can do is wait for things to improve.

Off of Cerralvo Island towards the East Cape. We had heard of reports of out of season wahoo activity, the same things happened for one super panga out of La Playita earlier in the week, one boat landed six wahoo up to 25 pounds from an area just north of Vinorama, this was an isolated incident, as no one else reported getting into the action, which was kind of a fluke and also out of normal range for local charter fleets. Of course the next day these wahoo did not decided to bite. It just proves that anything can possibly happen on any given day.

Still many whales in the area, as these mammals have been entertaining people that are based on land and ones boats.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 67 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 6 yellowtail,  6 wahoo, 21 dorado, 34 sierra, 120 Eastern Pacific bonito, 11 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 15 huachinango, 24 roosterfish, 22 yellow snapper, 1 thrasher shark and 45 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

February 28, 2015

As the month of February comes to an end we have seen unpredictable crazy weather patterns continue. This week has been more like we would expect at this time, cooler currents, off colored ocean conditions, variable winds, predominately from the north. Though the climate has been very comfortable, lows in the mid-50s and high temperatures about 80 degrees, with plenty of sunshine. Whale watching is now at its peak, as scores of whale sightings are being spotting on any given day throughout the region.

Anglers encountered changing conditions and this meant tough times when looking for yellowfin tuna or dorado, those species have scattered and now we are finding more of the cooler water species as we would expect during the winter season. Catches have included bonito, sierra, roosterfish, pargo, red snapper, cabrilla, grouper, yellowtail, skipjack, triggerfish and others. The Eastern Pacific bonito has been one of the more abundant fish, striking off the high spots north of Punta Gorda on both sardinas and yo-yo jigs, average size is about 5 lb, some going as large as 12 lb. Good fighting fish and excellent eating, similar to tuna or even albacore. Supplies of sardinas were a bit harder to find, mainly because of the early low tides and the rocky areas where the schools of baitfish are now concentrated. They are finding some live sardinas, but supplies are not what they have been as in previous weeks.

A handful of nice yellowtail are just starting to show up, all of the fish landed have been in the 25 to 30 lb. class, from the Gordo Banks to San Luis Bank, these jacks should start showing in greater numbers. Live bait off the bottom and yo-yo jigs have both worked. A few sharks on the same grounds to deal with. Also the ongoing sea lion problem. The all-around bottom action is improving, we are now seeing red snapper (huchinango), barred pargo, yellow snapper, leopard grouper, pinta cabrilla, flag cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish.

Sierra have continued to be the main species running close to shore, most of these fish are averaging in the 2 to 5 pound range, though we saw one 15 lb. trophy brought in this week, also a couple of others near the ten pound mark. A few roosterfish in the mix, mostly smaller sized juvenile fish. Slow trolling with sardinas have proved the best bet for these fish.

Billfish action has been slow, a few scattered striped marlin, no feeding frenzies, as offshore bait schools have been hard to find, no concentrations, we expect the coming months will bring more consistent offshore action. There has been a lack of mackerel this season so far.

We have seen significant progress on rebuilding efforts of the panga dock area in Puerto Los Cabos Marina, in another month or so we are hoping things will be much improved. Local road crews in La Playita had dug up and closed the main access road, beginning work on the final long overdue pavement section from the Marine Group to Hotel El Ganzo, planned to install new drainage, water pipe work etc… Though the crew completely abandoned all efforts of this project and have left us with an embarrassing mess. Someone has got to step in and fix this situation. Another disaster is the gill and drift net operations going on in local waters, reports of netters filling pangas with thousands of pounds of so called protected species such as juvenile roosterfish, this just does not make any sense at all, where are the authority’s priorities, is there any thought at all about the state of the future fishery?

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 96 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 5 yellowtail, 18 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 235 sierra, 310 Eastern Pacific bonito, 9 amberjack, 55 cabrilla, 58 huachiango, 12 roosterfish, 35 yellow snapper, 12 hammerhead shark and 80 skipjack.

Good fishing, Eric