January 11, 2014
Anglers –

The Holiday Season has come to an end, school’s are back in session, work schedules are set and it is now time to start the New Year. Also a great time to start thinking about planning another adventure south of the border, where there is plenty of warm sunshine and activities to enjoy. While there was an Arctic freeze that swept through much of the United States this past week, Southern Baja was basking in balmy winter weather conditions, sunny days with highs of 75 to 80 degrees. Winds were blowing predominately out of the north, but not overly strong and anglers enjoyed comfortable ocean conditions most days. Water temperatures ranged from 72 to 75 degrees, warmest areas located 30 to 40 miles offshore, in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.

Sportfishing fleets found action for striped marlin on the Pacific, close to shore near the Old Light House, where concentrations of baitfish schooled. On the outside of Cabo San Lucas, 30 miles of more offshore, charters were finding action for yellowfin tuna which were associated with moving porpoise, many of these yellowfin were of the football sized, several days there were tuna close to the 100 pound class being accounted for while trolling lures in the area where porpoise were working. Still no source for sardinas, which would help start up a consistent bite for schooling tuna. Though one local pangero that acquired sardinas from a boat that netted them near Vinorama on Friday, landed a 80 lb. yellowfin tuna on a dead sardina while drift fishing the San Luis Bank. There good numbers of tuna on these grounds, though you need the correct baitfish to entice them, we are hoping the sardina situation becomes a more reliable consistent source. There have been caballito and ballyhoo available most days, skipjack and bolito have also been found on the fishing grounds, a good option for cut baits.

Inshore action was just starting to pick up on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, lots of good sized sierra were being hooked into while trolling with hoochies. Though we have now heard of reported commercial gill net activity on these same stretches of beaches, these nets are set in the evening and hauled out early in the day in hopes of being more discrete, though the damage is blatantly evident, these pirate coop operations never seem to get much bad publicity until whales or porpoise become entangled, this form of fishing is absolutely indiscriminate, trapping any species that happens to swim through the particular set zone, including fish, turtles and mammals. New sanctions are definitely in order to help protect this fragile inshore ecosystem from complete collapse, this unique diverse fishery is such a valuable natural resource and can be sustained for future generations if managed properly.

San Jose del Cabo fleets are now working areas from Santa Maria to the Gordo Banks and north to San Luis, ocean conditions were greenish as a result of the cooler north winds, though a few dorado and an occasional wahoo are still being encountered while trolling surface lures or rigged baits, though no significant numbers for these fish, these pelagic species are migrating south now, following their preferred temperate currents and food sources. Anglers have been finding good action on bonito while jigging yo-yo’s or trolling smaller sized rapalas, these fish averaged from 4 to 8 pounds. There were a handful of smaller sized yellowfin tuna being hooked into on the yo-yo jigs where the concentrations of bonito are. A few cabrilla, pargo and triggerfish were also in the mix.

Scattered billfish action off of the San Jose del Cabo, quite a few mako sharks in this region now, some even struck on high speed lures and many were hooked into on various baits, most resulting in cut lines. These sharks always seem prefer these cooling currents, usually a sign that mackerel schools are not far away.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 85 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 16 yellowfin tuna, 315 bonito, 14 sierra, 10 roosterfish, 88 dorado, 8 mako shark, 2 grouper, 18 pargo and 40 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

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