Anglers –
October 3, 2015

With the summer season now officially over we have started the busy Fall Season. Weather remained calm in the Eastern Pacific through most of the week, no rain until Saturday, when the remnants of Hurricane Marty swept by and left scattered thundershowers and wind gusts to 30 mile per hours in certain isolated areas, by later in the day conditions settled down and that seemed to be the end of this system. Heat index still over 100 degrees, with very high humidity. The climate should become more comfortable in the coming weeks. We were closely watching the development of Hurricane Marty far to the south early in the week, this system quickly dissipated mid-week, after slowly progressing through apparently unfavorable environment for further strengthening and for progressing northward. A great thing for us, we hope these storms continue to go elsewhere, we expect in several more weeks the chances of any further tropical storm activity will be slim, though with these strong El Niño conditions you never really know what might happen.

Ocean water temperatures are now in the 85 to 88 degree range, clean blue water is found within several miles of shore, strong currents have slackened some. Full moon phase recently passed and contributed to a few tougher days for anglers, coinciding with early morning low tides and higher surf conditions, this made the sardinas much harder to find and net for the commercial fleet. Another option for bait was slabs of giant squid, not easy to obtain though, local super markets carry them and some bait vendors are starting to also offer packages of squid in the same marina launch area.

The yellowfin tuna were the main species now being cooperative and for this reason targeted, only an occasional dorado or two and wahoo have not been active this past week either. Working the bottom structure anglers found a scattering of miscellaneous species, main catches were small to medium grade pargo and snapper species, a few decent cabrilla and amberjack also in the mix. Local fleets have been fishing in different directions, most consistent action was found from close to off of Santa Maria, to the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. In recent days the bite near Cabo San Lucas for the smaller 5 to 15 lb. yellowfin tuna, has faded compared to previous weeks, lots of pressure and limited supplies of baitfish, as well as there now being a problem with aggressive sea lion activity, these pesky predators have just returned recently and are waiting on the same fishing grounds for their chance at any possible easy meal.

Action near Vinorama improved for tuna in the 10 to 20 lb. class, with an occasional fish to 50 or 60 lb. mixed in, chance at a wahoo or dorado from this same area as well, though not many were actually landed, these fish are on the grounds, being seen free swimming and feeding on chum. These yellowfin were striking mainly while drift fishing with squid or sardinas. Proving to be finicky earlier in the week, making a big showing on the surface but not wanting to strike. The bite on the Gordo Banks improved through the week, with a quality grade of 50 to 90 lb. fish being accounted for in decent numbers, strong group of fish, with most anglers now using gear ranging from 40 to 80 lb. The key on the Gordo Banks has been having the squid, the more the better, lots of chumming involved.

Marlin action seemed to slow down this past week, one smaller blue marlin was caught from La Playita, and a handful of sailfish. Some of the yellowfin action late in the week was found under pods of traveling porpoise on the outside of Gordo Banks, drift fish squid underneath the porpoise, fast moving deal, who knows where this action will be the next day.

Overall with the weather remaining calm, this is allowing the ocean conditions to become more favorable and we are anticipating a great fall bite, continuing through and into winter.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 119 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 1 blue marlin, 356 yellowfin tuna, 28 dorado, 3 wahoo, 35 white skipjack, 18 bonito, 10 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 26 yellow snapper, 6 amberjack, 38 triggerfish, 14 cabrilla and 13 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
September 26, 2015

The closer we reach to the month of October we expect the tropical storm season will be over with, though with ocean water temperatures still holding in the 84 to 88 degree range, we must still monitor all Eastern Pacific forecasts with caution. At this time there is a pair of low pressure areas far to the south, off of the Mexican mainland, will be interesting to see what develops of these systems. Presently, local conditions are calm as can be, in the early morning there is that hint of Fall Season in the air, though mid-day heat and humid index is still reaching over 100 degrees. Last week we had some heavy rainfall, scattered throughout the region, not much wind associated with the passing of this storm front, though rainfall of up to four inches were recorded. The desert landscape will definitely be turning a fresh shade of green in the coming weeks.

These latest rain squalls, with strong currents pushing in, contributed to off colored water closer to shore, this seemed to have slowed down action for species such as dorado and wahoo, though a handful of these fish are being accounted for almost on a daily basis. Some wahoo up to 40 pounds were accounted for, a handful of anglers were fortunate to land one of these elusive speedsters. Most of the dorado being found now are small juvenile sized fish. Supplies of sardinas were now more scattered, off of La Playita area, only the smaller clear type sardinas were available, these baits do work as dead bait for tuna, but are not the same as the normal sardinas we find, this preferred species has moved south out of our range at this time. Other options for bait has been to search local super markets for giant squid slabs, which is never a guarantee. Caballito also have been available, as well as chihuil or skipjack on some of the fishing grounds.

The inshore grounds off of Fiesta Americana Resort near Cabo San Lucas continues to produce good numbers of yellowfin tuna up to 20 pounds, also with an occasional dorado or wahoo from this same area. Iman Bank has been another productive region, with a bit more of an opportunity of finding some bottom structure species, as well as tuna, dorado or wahoo. The best place to have a chance at hooking into the larger grade of yellowfin tuna has been off of the Gordo Banks, though we have not heard of any monsters this past week, many tuna in the 50 to 70 lb. class and a few up to 150 pounds were reported. Some days single boats had as many as four or five nice tuna, other days were tougher and landing one tuna was considered good. These yellowfin are definitely holding on these Banks, though are fighting strong currents and at times seem to be filled up on the natural food source that is present.

Billfish action was somewhat scattered as well, though on any given day you could hook into a striped, blue or black marlin, also chance at sailfish, just no big numbers of any of these species at this time. The black and blues have been lurking around the high spots where the food chain is concentrated.

Reconstruction crews are pressing now to finish up the work on Hotel El Ganzo, which was devastated by last year’s Hurricane Odile. La Playita Panga area work is progressing as well, still has a ways to go to have all of the necessary conveniences.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 85 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 7 sailfish, 1 striped marlin, 480 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 8 wahoo, 15 white skipjack, 22 bonito, 14 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 18 yellow snapper, 2 amberjack, 10 cabrilla and 15 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
September 19, 2015

Everything is still calm on the weather front of the North Eastern Pacific. Last Sunday we did cancel out fishing charters due to heavy tropical thunderstorm activity early in the day, since then, the rest of the week has been dry and anglers enjoyed great ocean conditions. Water temperature are now ranging from 85 to 87 degrees, clarity is clean and blue in most areas, still a bit off colored inshore north of Punta Gorda.

Supplies of sardinas remained plentiful near the marina entrance and are now being found along beach stretches close to Cabo San Lucas, where they had not had these schooling baitfish available until recently. Most consistent action now has been for various sized yellowfin tuna, action was centered from Santa Maria to the Iman Bank and most of the yellowfin being accounted for are fish in the 10 to 20 lb. class, though other areas produced decent numbers of tuna 50 to 70 lb., with several fish up to 150 lb. landed. On the Gordo Banks a variety of sizes of yellowfin tuna were seen breezing on the surface, some of these were cow sized fish, though these fish proved finicky, with all of the natural food source and strong currents sweeping through, the fish are not always in the feeding mood. Best action for numbers of fish recently has been either near shipwreck of the Santa Maria area or around the Iman Bank, though the Gordo Banks also produced some quality action mid-week, before slower days later in the week.

Dorado and Wahoo action slowed back down, though there were some of these fish being found, just not a consistent bite. Strong current also limited bottom action to sporadic numbers dogtooth snapper, various pargo and snapper species. The warm water continues to attract rainbow runners into the fish counts.

Several black marlin were also landed this week, largest weighed in was a 335 lb. specimen, all of these were hooked into near the Gordo Banks, while trolling with chihuil, caballito or skipjack. This is the time when billfish grand slams are possible, as striped, blue marlin and sailfish are also now being found on local fishing grounds.

Not much inshore action this time of year, though local beach and dock anglers have hooked into a few snook recently, though these fish have proved very elusive this season, a handful of nice corbina to 10 lb. were also taken from the shore, as well as quite a few sierra off the San Jose Estuary, a bit early in the season for these fish, which do normally prefer cooler water.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 61 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 black marlin, 8 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 15 dorado, 5 wahoo, 280 yellowfin tuna, 18 white skipjack, 8 bonito, 11 rainbow runner, 6 dogtooth snapper, 8 yellow snapper, 5 cabrilla and 13 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric