June 1, 2013

Anglers –

This past week, over the Memorial Day Holiday, we saw increased crowds of tourists in Los Cabos, everyone was greeted with pristine weather conditions, sunny days, with high temperatures in the upper 80s and enough Pacific breeze to keep things perfectly comfortable. Warmest ocean currents are now found north of Chileno, towards Gordo Banks and Vinorama, where it is now up to 75 degrees of more, while towards the south and around the corner from Cabo San Lucas, water temperatures were dipping into the 60s, quite a dramatic variance within such a short distance.

Despite the daily patterns still being unpredictable and inconsistent, anglers found very respectable fishing action. Offshore the main action has been for striped marlin, concentrated in areas from 5 to 15 miles offshore, outside of the Gordo Banks has been one of the more productive area in recent days, the striped have ranged to over 150 lbs. and many charters were accounting for two or three billfish per day. These fish were readily striking lures, with all of the squid now present in local waters, they are chasing the squid type lures aggressively. The stripers are also striking on trolled ballyhoo, caballito and bolito. Not many dorado being reported, though everyday a handful of 10 to 30 lb. dorado have been accounted for from these same fishing grounds. No yellowfin tuna or wahoo to report, though one nice yellowfin was hooked into from a panga while trolling a larger baitfish near San Luis Banks, the fish was quality sized apparently and came unbuttoned at color. A few wahoo were seen free swimming over the inshore rocky areas where panga charters were looking for various species, but none of these ‘hoo were hooked into. With the way the ocean conditions is really coming into prime shape, anything could happen on any given day.

With the striped marlin being the only consistent catch offshore at this time, many of the charters, particularly the panga fleets, are concentrating close to shore and near the shallow water rock piles. Along the sandy beach stretches anglers got into some great roosterfish action, as the season is reaching its peak early and is now going wide open, prospects are excellent for the next month for these prized gamefish. Slowing trolling with caballito has been the best bet recently, though we will start seeing more mullet activity very soon. Roosterfish to over 50 pounds were landed throughout the week, many of the fish were ranging in the 15 to 25 lb. class. Everyone needs to remember these are a fast growing prized fighting gamefish species, which are not renowned for their eating qualities and they should be treated with care after being landed, while being photographed and released to mature and fight another day.

Other inshore action found over the rocky reefs towards the less populated northern beaches included leopard grouper, dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado and amberjack. All of these fish are powerful fighters and excellent eating, striking on various baitfish, most of time slowly trolled on the surface, tricky to hook and even harder to keep them from reaching the rocky reefs and cutting leaders off, fun to try though, can be frustrating and rewarding at the same time. This is a seasonal fishery lasting from mid May through June, then much of the action switches back on to the deeper structure.

As we progress into late spring, early summer season, we expect to see more pelagic exotics appear in the fish counts, such as yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado, sailfish and blue marlin. This weekend is the national holiday of ”Dia de La Marina” and there will be capacity packed crowds of locals attending all of the events scheduled in La Playita, starting with the crowning of the fiesta princess, to all night dances, carnival rides, dorado fishing tournament with beach angling categories as well, also there are off road vehicle races planned on Sunday in the San Jose Arroyo, of course lots of beer drinking and fun times for al,.

The combined local panga fleets launching from La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 105 charters this past week and anglers reported a fish count of:

3 sailfish, 28 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 2 mako shark, 8 yellowtail, 27 amberjack, 2 golden leopard grouper, 23 cabrilla, 15 dorado, 23 yellow snapper, 92 pargo colorado,12 sierra,

14 bonito, 11 pompano, 39 dogtooth snapper, 26 jack crevalle and 188 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

May 25, 2013

Anglers –

Time has been passing by rapidly, already it is late May and this is the time of year when crowds of tourists can be as variable as can the daily weather patterns. There were moderate numbers of anglers now in town, also a large presence of surfers taking advantage of the season’s first enduring southern swell. Currents pushed in temperate waters, clean blue water was found within several miles of shore and ocean temperatures

climbed back up into the 75 degree range outside of San Jose del Cabo and areas to the north. The climate has been almost as pleasant as possible, highs in the upper 80s, still a slight chill in the air early in the morning, winds have been very light. Great time to visit before the heat of summer arrives.

The mainstay of the bait supply has been caballito, found inside the marina channel entrance, also a noticeable increase in schooling mullet moving into coastal areas, with higher surf condition we still have not seen any source for live sardinas, though on some days there were limited supplies of fresh brined sardinas available. Schooling bolito and skipjack were found on the offshore grounds, but not always easy to catch and chihuil are even scarcer, only the early birds are able catch some of these baitfish at daybreak over the high spots. With an abundance of food source in the region we anticipate having an extended spring season for striped marlin, roosterfish, dogtooth snapper, amberjack, cabrilla and a variety of other gamefish.

Roosterfish season has got off to an early start and is now in full swing, as these hard fighting members of the jack family are patrolling the shoreline looking to ambush any batfish that is in their path. Most common technique recently has been to slow live caballito, with early morning being the most active period, average sized roosters were 15 to 25 lb. some much larger fish were encountered. Toad sized jack crevalle continue to compete for inshore dominance and we are now seeing the first real consistent bite developing for dogtooth snapper, which are found in very shallow water in late spring, reaching sizes of over fifty pounds, these power horses will test both angler and equipment to the fullest.

In additional to the jacks, roosterfish and dogtooth, other inshore areas produced pompano, pargo colorado, leopard grouper, sierra and amberjack, with one amber weighed in at 73 pounds. Once again anglers were slow trolling with the available larger sized baits over the shallow rocky structure, this proved to be the most successful method. There are yellowtail still holding on the deeper reefs, off of Palmilla and on the Gordo Banks, finding the right combination of a slack current and preferred bait choice has been a game of chance. The handful of yellow that were accounted for were in the 20 to 30 lb. class.

Billfish bite became more scattered and even when the striped marlin were found, often they were not interested in biting the hook, other reports of multiple marlin catch and release days were reported, a matter of being in the precise spot with the right offerings. Dorado continued to show up in small numbers, some smaller sized fish mixed in with some larger bulls, found on offshore marlin grounds as well as closer to shore at times. No wahoo or yellowfin tuna action reported, the way conditions are shaping up, anything could happen any day.

The combined local panga fleets launching from La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 71 charters this past week and anglers reported a fish count of:

11 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 mako shark, 19 yellowtail, 38 amberjack, 22 huachinango, 28 cabrilla, 34 bonito, 18 dorado, 26 sierra, 35 pompano, 18 dogtooth snapper, 30 jack crevalle and 138 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

May 18, 2013

Anglers –

The season’s first tropical storm has developed off of the Southern Mexican coast, named Alvin, this weakening storm is far away from making any impact on land, forecasters do expect to see increased wave activity over the weekend as a southern hemisphere system is pushing in higher swells and surfers are excited with anticipation. Spring time weather has started to feel a bit more like summer, days are progressively becoming warmer, with highs nearing 90 degrees. Winds have been light, switching from the north to the south, unpredictable from day to day, as daily weather patterns are changing continually. Ocean temperatures have ranged from 65 degrees on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, up to 75 degrees outside of San Jose del Cabo and towards Los Frailes.

Anglers found that the fishing action has been varying, just like the weather has been doing, on any given day just about anything could happen offshore, there is an abundance of squid and other baitfish in local waters now. At times crews encountered balled up medium sized squid on the surface and were able to net some of them as use for bait. We are seeing more schools of bolito now moving in on local fishing grounds, as well as mullet close to shore. Favorable signs when we see this much bait activity, always an attraction for gamefish to follow their preferred food source.

Striped marlin continue to provide consistent action offshore, fish have been scattered throughout the region, anywhere from 2 to 20 miles from shore. With all of the natural food in the area the billfish were at times not interested in feeding, other days they would shy away from caballito, but would readily strike bolito, some charters did accountant for multiple marlin catch and release days. The majority of the marlin have ranged in sizes from 80 lb. to 150 lb. A handful of open water dorado are being found and small groups of these fish were also found closer to shore over the rocky structure, places that hold concentrations of baitfish, a few dorado over 30 lb. were reported. Not much talk about wahoo, but we know with such plentiful baitfish around and the way the conditions are now warming and with clean blue water being found, that any day these fish could become increasingly active.

There are yellowtail holding on the high spots, the fish landed are in the 20 to 35 lb. class, they have not been biting consistently, they were striking best on live chihuil batfish drifted down deep on the Gordo Banks. These particular baits were very difficult to come by, only available at first light on these same grounds and in limited numbers, not for sale. Caballito continue to be the main bait source obtainable in the marina area, sardinas are schooling along the beaches north of Punta Gorda, but with higher surf conditions, the commercial pangeros were not safely able to net them.

Some charters were able to obtain fresh brined sardinas and they reported catches of various snapper, cabrilla, pompano and sierra. Some of these late season sierra have been large, to over 10 pounds. This past week there were several quality snook accounted for by anglers fishing off the shore near the Pueto Los Cabos Marina jetty. These catches are early in the season for the elusive snook, striking on baits and various lures, the largest reported was a 33 lb. snook that hit on a Rapala type lure. An unusual catch of a 20 pound halibut while trolling a live caballito for roosterfish was accounted from La Playita panga charter.

Action for roosterfish has been steady this past week, with larger fish now moving in, several roosters up to 50 lb. were caught and released, and many other fish were over 20 pounds, numbers of fish have varied each day, reports of 20 releases one day and the next day boats could only find a handful best chance was early in the day. Strong currents have been running and tidal swings can all have an effect on the bite.

The combined local panga fleets launching from La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 80 charters this past week and anglers reported a fish count of: 16 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 4 mako shark, 22 yellowtail, 19 amberjack, 38 huachinango, 12 barred pargo, 20 cabrilla, 23 bonito, 30 dorado, 42 sierra, 1 halibut, 9 pompano, 6 dogtooth snapper, 34 jack crevalle and 115 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric