January 4, 2014
Anglers –

The first week of the New Year has seen many families’s visiting the Los Cabos area. While much of North America is being blasted by icy winter temperatures, Southern Baja has been very pleasant, scattered cloud cover with temperatures reaching up to 80 degrees, lows of about 60 degrees, winds were predominately blowing from the north which is normal during the winter months, so calmer ocean conditions were found in the direction of Cabo San Lucas.

Ocean water temperature now averaged in the 72/74 degree range. Cleaner blue water was found furrther offshore, though most of the fishing action was now encountered closer to shore, where water was a greenish color, with varying degrees of visibility. More baitfish are now schooling in close proximity to the shore, so this is where anglers found more productive action. Concentrations of sardinetas and mackerel are now schooling off of the Old Light House on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. Other options for bait were caballito and ballyhoo, no sardinas were available for this past week.

Anglers found steady action for striped marlin off of the old light house, within about one miles of shore the fleet was concentrated on the bait schools and drifting these same baits down deep to where the marlin were feeding, many charters were accounting for multiple billfish catches, two to four fish per day was common. There was only a scattering of marlin now off of the San Jose del Cabo Banks, where water was cooler and even greener. As the baitfish schools migrate from the Pacific in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, the striped marlin will follow.

With north winds creating unfavorable ocean conditions towards the north, charters from San Jose del Cabo were concentrated on the grounds off of Chelino to Santa Maria and Whale’s Head. The most common catch was two, three or four dorado per boat in the 5 to 15 pound range, striking on rigged ballyhoo, live caballito and a variety of trolled lures. Most of the action found within a couple of miles of shore. Other options were to troll close into the beaches where smaller sized roosterfish and sierra were found. Not much bottom fishing being done, some bonito were hitting on yo-yo jigs off of the Gordo Banks, this is when the weather allowed, as northern winds reside we expect to see more options to open up for the structure species that do move into shallower waters with colder currents.

Breeching humpback and gray whales have been an added tourist attraction, along with flopping manta rays, some pesky sea lions, sea gulls and pelicans. Many celebrities are now in the area for the holidays, here to relax and enjoy the warm sunshine, but this season this has brought an unprecedented entourage of paparazzi’s looking to make a buck, they are hiring local charter boats to take them to the beaches where the stars are reportedly playing, there have been multiple incidents of disputes between celebrity security personnel and these free lance photographers who feel that it is their right to be able to harass these well-known people. Perhaps it is time for new anti-molesting laws to be put in place.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 2 wahoo, 2 yellowfin tuna, 24 bonito, 32 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 194 dorado, 3 mako shark and 15 miscellaneous pargo species.

Good fishing, Eric

December 28, 2013
Anglers –

We are all now enjoying Christmas Holiday times, with the last week of 2013 now upon us, families and friends all gathering to reminiscent of past times and to experience new adventures. What greater place than Los Cabos to bring in the New Year, where the winter climate has been very mild and vacationers are soaking up warm sunshine, participating in many outdoor activities.

We have seen ocean water temperatures now drop down into the 71/73 degree range, this is normal for the time of year, clarity has become more greenish in areas, but still the water is not what you would call dirty. Anglers were finding fair numbers of late season dorado spread out throughout the region, often times found very close to shore, where concentrations of ballyhoo and other baitfish have been attracting them. More often they are found in smaller sized schools, striking on lures, rigging ballyhoo and live caballito. Sizes averaged 10 to 15 lb., with some larger dorado to 20 pounds also accounted for.

Finding yellowfin tuna was much harder, with cooler currents and lack of sardina baitfish, no tuna action was being reported. There have been more school of Bonita moving in over the structure, these are the good eating variety, also have sharp teeth, almost like sierra, scrappy fighters on light tackle, readily striking on trolled rapalas and retrieved jigs, weighed up to 10 lb. Cooling water temperatures have brought in more sierra along the shoreline, these aggressive fish are hitting on small rapalas and hoochies, the action is best early in the morning, if new sources of sardinas are located that will really help the overall inshore fishing action. There has been shortages of caballito as well as no sardinas at all to speak of, many charters are relying on lures and rigged ballyhoo. We are anticipating reports of schooling mackerel moving in on the local fishing grounds, but this has not happened yet, it seems to be the season of changing baitfish migrations, will be interesting to see what happens during this cold water transition period, every season can be different.

Only a handful of wahoo are being reported, these elusive gamefish fish never really did go on a consistent bite this season, with ocean temperatures now in the low 70s, this is typically when wahoo start to migrate in a southern direction to follow preferred temperate currents. Though we do expect we will see a few more wahoo in the fish counts before they vanish for the winter, often these fish will bite later in the day during this period of colder water, sunshine seems to warm surface temperature up and gets them more active.

Anglers have found minimal success searching for bottom species, finding more triggerfish, skipjack and bonita than anything else. The month of December was windy more often than not, northern winds were persistent, with only a few days of calmer conditions mixed in, this stirs ocean conditions, scatters bait schools and makes it hard to find productive bottom action.

Billfish are scattered on the offshore grounds, no concentrations, striking lures and ballyhoo and caballito. Some striped marlin were being hooked while drift fishing baits deeper over the areas where they were seen occasionally free jumping of tailing on the surface. We all know this is the season where a huge striped marlin frenzy could develop on any given day, if any bait concentration is encountered be prepared for action.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 88 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 85 bonito, 134 sierra, 15 roosterfish, 165 dorado, 5 hammerhead shark and 22 pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

December 21, 2013
Anglers –

Crowds of tourists were light this past week, we do expect to see increased crowds during Christmas week. The weather has settled, winds were light and ocean conditions were great, air temperatures ranged from 60/80 degrees and ocean currents have now varied from 74 to 77 degrees. Clarity of the ocean fluctuated, having become greenish closer to shore, though conditions are still favorable for this late in the year.

Anglers found improved action for dorado in recent days, the majority of these fish have been found within a couple miles of shore, at times they were found in larger sized schools, with fish ranging to over 20 lb. Striking on caballito, ballyhoo and various trolled lures, many charters were rapidly limiting out once they did find where the fish were. Sardinas were not available at this time and caballito also became less plentiful with the passing of the full moon.

Inshore action produced roosterfish, sierra and jack crevalle. Most of the roosterfish are juvenile sized this time of year and should be released with care in order to grow to maturity. Sierra bite would be wide open if sardinas were readily available, though these scrappy fighters are striking on rapalas and hoochies type lures, best action being early in the morning at first light.

Billfish action was once again now centered on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, where good numbers of striped marlin are concentrated off of the old light house and the more distant banks. We should see schools of mackerel and sardinetas soon on local grounds, this is now the season when we start to find these baitfish schooling and attracting more gamefish into the region.

Whale season is now in full swing and these mammals are being sighted throughout the area. Increasing recreational dive tour operations have put additional pressure on the Gordo Banks and it is getting to the point where rod and reel anglers can hardly even have a reasonable chance on these grounds with so many scuba divers in the water at a given time. Additionally these boats are anchored up right near the high spot, this makes it difficult to drift fish in the manner accustomed for productive fishing on these banks. This is definitely a confliction of interests and it appears that this situation will likely become worse before any changes are made.

Many commercial drift netters have been seen in the area lately, it is a shame these boats are even allowed to operate in touristic zones. They are truly destructive, their main catch is dorado and marlin, both of which are supposedly protected sport fish only species, but are blatantly being commercially exploited as a by catch. It is time to seriously put some thought into protecting the future fishery and set priorities straight.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 56 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 5 wahoo, 22 bonito, 11 cabrilla, 6 amberjack, 14 pargo, 23 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 175 dorado, 24 triggerfish and 16 yellowfin tuna.

Good fishing, Eric