September 21, 2013
Anglers –

Crowds of tourists visiting Los Cabos were relatively light this past week, this is the normal pattern for the later part of September, though with the fall season just about ready to start in earnest, surely there will be a flood of visitors swarm the area in the coming weeks, as this is always one of the busiest times of the year. The great all around fishing action and ideal weather conditions, along with world famous high stake fishing tournaments attract people from all over the world. Another reason for limited numbers of tourists this past week was the highly publicized forecast of the most recent Tropical Storm Manuel, which first struck the southern mainland near Acapulco and cause disastrous flood damage, resulted in many deaths, the system was downgraded to a depression after making landfall but then regenerated strength once getting back over the warm ocean waters and heading in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, forecasters were unsure of its erratic path, with water temperatures near 90 degrees Manuel did reach category one hurricane status and ended up making landfall in Sinaloa, where it again caused major flood damage.

The Southern Baja region was bracing for probable impact, though they were spared any major damage, on Wednesday afternoon there was wide spread lightening, thunder and rain squalls, but there were not any reports of high winds or heavy ocean storm conditions developing. Local ports were closed for both Wednesday and Thursday, reopening for Friday morning. As a precaution the government also closed schools for the same two days, despite clear calm conditions on Thursday, this seemed a bit over overcautious, as there are already so many holiday vacation days scheduled.

Building up to this latest storm, anglers reported the most consistent fishing action for dorado and yellowfin tuna. The majority of the dorado were now juvenile sized, with a small percentage of these fish going over 15 pounds, scattered throughout the area in medium sized schools, striking on lures and various baits. Baitfish were scarcer during this period, as bait suppliers were finding it harder to jig up caballito during the dark hours and the squid that had been in the area the past couple of weeks had all but vanished, the commercial fleet is now scouting out new bait sources. The East Cape had been finding good supplies of sardinas, but apparently these schools were scattered from higher surf conditions that struck this area with the passing of TS Manuel.

The best action for the yellowfin tuna was found from Iman to San Luis Bank, anglers were using strips of squid to entice tuna up to 25 lb., while fly lining these baits on the surface they could find limits of five fish per license. Then when the source of fresh squid disappeared anglers had to rely again on trolling hoochies, smaller feathers or cedar plugs and the numbers of yellowfin were not as high. East Cape boats had been making the long run south to these same fishing grounds and with live sardinas they were having a field day for the yellowfin tuna, but now they are scrambling for bait as well. With the weather once again settled down we expect the bait situation to improve, even though we are also now dealing with the full moon phase, which never seems to help the abundance of bait sources. We do expect to see sardinas moving into local waters very soon, as this is the annual migration pattern.

On Friday, the first day that the port reopened after Hurricane Manuel, a group of three local La Playita pangeros hooked into a super cow sized yellowfin tuna while trolling a live bolito on the Gordo Banks from a 22 ft. panga, after a two and a half hour battle they were able to bring the fish to gaff, back at the docks the yellowfin was weighed in at 367 pounds, largest tuna reportedly caught this season, a definite tournament jackpot contender.

There has been limited bottom fishing opportunities due to very persistent strong currents, almost unprecedented, we do expect with weather patterns now transitioning that this current will reside and will open new option for anglers.

With the arrival of fall, we see the water temperatures start to fall and with this species such as wahoo normally become more active, so are all anticipating this, as well as improved bait resources. Though this is now always the period when we feel high humidity, the worst of the summer heat is past and we will now be enjoying ideal weather in the coming months.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 48 charters for this storm shortened week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 4 wahoo, 2 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 225 yellowfin tuna and 160 dorado.

Good fishing, Eric

September 14, 2013
Anglers –

Local weather has settled down this past week, this has given the area a chance to dry out after all of the recent rainfall. The desert landscape has transformed to a lush green color, days remain warm, with scattered tropical cloud cover and high humidity. With each passing day we are starting to feel a hint of fall in the air, particularly early morning. There is now a low pressure system developing off of the Southern Mexico mainland coast and we will be monitoring its progress closely, as this is the time when the local environment is favorable for tropical storms to form rapidly.

Crowds of tourists are light now, this is the time when family priorities shift towards starting the new school year. It will be soon enough when the busy fall fishing season is in full swing. For the anglers that are making the trip they have enjoyed great fishing action in recent days. Most consistent bite has been found on the areas north of Punta Gorda, from La Fortuna to San Luis Bank, for yellowfin tuna and dorado. Ocean current has been swift from the south, this has made any bottom fishing that much more difficult. Water temperatures are in the 84 to 87 degree range, clear blue conditions are found within a couple of miles from shore.

Squid has been the best bait for the yellowfin tuna, the giant squid are being jigging up by the commercial fleet in dark hours and sold to charter boats in the morning, there are also limited supplies of caballito, still no sardinas available. Drift fishing with strips of squid on light tackle has been the best bet for catching limits of yellowfin tuna, the fish were now larger than in previous weeks, averaging 15 to 20 pounds. The larger cow sized tuna that were starting to show up on the Gordo Banks have not been active this past week, though surely they are still in the area, we expect these cows to become more active soon.

Dorado schools have been spread throughout the area, found by trolling lures and baitfish. The majority of the fish have been smaller sized, though with patience anglers have been able to find some larger sized dorado mixed in. Limit on these fish is two per license and the inspectors are enforcing these regulations. Only a few wahoo being accounted for, they become sluggish in the warmer water, we expect that these speedsters will become more active as fall conditions transition in the coming weeks.

Billfish have slowed this past week out of San Jose del Cabo, only scattered reports of mostly smaller sized striped marlin, surely there are black and blue marlin lurking on the grounds, they just are not readily striking lately, the way the conditions are anything could happen on any given day.

No inshore action being reported, bottom action was limited to a handful of amberjack, pargo and grouper, though no numbers to speak of, though a few impressive fish were accounted for, amberjack up to 78 lb. and one grouper over 100 pounds landed by a La Playita commercial pangero, current has been relentless, hard to effectively drift fish the bottom structure when moving so fast.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 75 charters this past week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 8 wahoo, 5 amberjack, 2 grouper, 16 red snapper, 300 black skipjack, 415 yellowfin tuna and 550 dorado (many released).

Good fishing, Eric

September 7, 2013
Anglers –

Southern Baja has recently experienced a series of tropical storm systems, in the past couple of weeks the area has felt the effects from Ivo, Juliette, Kiko and this Thursday, TS Lorena. Lorena was a minimal strength tropical storm, but nevertheless when making direct impact, can make a mess of things in a hurry. We expect to see red flag closed port conditions through Friday and most likely part of Saturday, likely that sportfishing fleets will be back in operation for Sunday.

These back to back storms have repeatedly stirred ocean conditions, just as patterns seem to stabilize, another system develops, creating stormy offshore conditions, strong currents have been rampant, pushing around dirty water, particularly near shore, baitfish become more scattered as well. Then as the weather settles this cycle can rapidly reverse, fishing action can get back on track in a matter of a day or two.

Just like the weather has been rapidly changing, so has the all around fishing action. For the fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina the most consistent bite has been for yellowfin tuna and dorado in the area of San Luis and Vinorama. Fresh squid has been available from the commercial fleets, actually these smaller sized giant squid are now being caught in local waters during the dark of night. Using strips of these squid was producing great action for the smaller sized football yellowfin. Same for dorado, they were hitting on squid, as well as caballito and a wide variety of trolled lures. The majority of the dorado were juvenile sized, these fish should be carefully released, a handful of larger respectable sized dorado to 10 or 20 pounds were accounted for. Anglers found fast action, though most of the fish were not large sized as is anticipated during late summer.

The larger cow sized yellowfin have been taking up residence on the Gordo Banks, just starting to arrive the last couple of weeks. No big numbers of these fish are being reported, but there have been around a half of dozen cows (yellowfin tuna 200 lb. or larger) landed landed from local boats. Recent trend has been an afternoon bite, during the early hours the current perhaps has been just too strong and the tuna have been more actively feeding later in the day when the current was slackening. Hard to figure their feeding patterns, this was a scenario that occurred last September and October as well, mainly local anglers capitalizing, charter boats regularly depart early in the morning and return early afternoon.

Options for anglers were somewhat limited, surface trolling baits or lures and also drift fishing over high spots. Strong currents made any deeper bottom fishing more difficult and it was not very productive even when able to reach the depths, the fish do not like fighting the swift currents either. A few red snapper were in the mix, an occasional amberjack or dogtooth snapper, but not many numbers. We expect that once currents do reside that we will find better results off of the structure.

Billfish bite slowed through the recent storm fronts, as weather settles we anticipate improved action for all of the sought after gamefish.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 41 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 180 yellowfin tuna, 192 dorado, 2 wahoo, 3 amberjack and
15 huachinango (red snapper).

Good fishing, Eric