April 20, 2013
Anglers –

Paradise like weather conditions in Southern Baja is now attracting moderate crowds of visitors, slack period for tourism, as spring break is over and people are now planning new adventures. Sunny days, with temperatures in the upper 70s and light winds, all made for the perfect time to make a trip south. Ocean water conditions continue to be fluctuating daily, from favorable warming trends and then having currents turn around and cool off. Just a week ago we saw some areas of 75 degrees found offshore, now we are seeing temperatures on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas dip down to 66 degrees and highs of 70 degrees are found in the direction of San Jose del Cabo. There was a couple of days earlier in the week when the south wind blew and pushed in cooler Pacific waters. Ocean clarity has remained clean for the most part, despite being cooler than we would normally expect for this time period.

Striped marlin action were the main species being found while trolling offshore, though the fish are more scattered than in previous weeks. Marlin were found in limited numbers anywhere from 5 to 15 miles from shore, striking lures and baits, at times they were groups of marlin found feeding, other times anglers reported blind lure strikes. Only a handful of dorado are being encountered, most of them under 15 pounds, notably fewer of these fish in the cooler currents. No yellowfin tuna being reported on the local fishing grounds. Only an occasional wahoo strike be reported, we will look to see more activity for these sought after species as ocean temperatures warm back into the mid 70s range.

There were fair numbers of roosterfish being hooked into while trolling live baits close to shore, some of the roosters weighed up to 15 lbs., though as water temps dropped this action also slowed down. Bait supplies consisted of caballito, moonfish, jacks, chihuil and skipjack. Sardinas continue to not be available, due to the schools of these baitfish now being out of normal range.

The most prized catch being encountered in recent days for the local panga fleets have been the yellowtail. These jacks have been found throughout the area, from Chileno, Palmilla, Salinas, Gordo Banks and even right off of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina rock jetties. Very nice quality, most of these fish were weighing 20 to 35 lbs. These fish are striking on various baits, sardineta, chihuil, caballito and moonfish are working. The numbers of these fish have varied from day to day, some charter worked hard to account for one or two of these fish, while other days boats landed limits. Most anglers were fortunate to land just one of these quality eating and incredible powerful fighting gamefish. These jacks are strong fighters that can easily cut off anglers leaders on the nearest rock outcropping. The season is shaping up to be a banner year for yellowtail, La Paz and the East Cape experienced epic action for these prized fish during the previous month. The yellowtail were found close to shore and on the surface sometimes, mixed in with hog sized jack crevalle, though the majority of the yellows were being found in depths ranging 100 to 180 feet. A few cabrilla, amberjack and pargo were rounding out the catches off of the bottom structure. In the upper water column over these same spots there were feisty bonito striking on rapalas, these are the good eating variety and as close to any tuna we are finding at this time.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 26 striped marlin, 22 dorado, 96 yellowtail, 12 amberjack, 15 sierra, 82 bonito, 13 cabrilla, 115 roosterfish and 8 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric

April 14, 2013
Anglers –

As the spring break season has now come to an end and schools are all back in session, we have seen lighter crowds of tourists compared to previous weeks. Weather patterns continue to be unpredictable, changing rapidly, winds were now more predominate out of the south and actually gusts were so strong that port authorities decided to close the Cabo San Lucas Marina for a couple of days earlier in the week. Currents were pushing in warmer waters, then reversing and bringing back in cooler Pacific waters once again. At this time local ocean temperatures are ranging 68 to 71 degrees, actually warmer water was found closer to shore in recent days off of San Jose del Cabo and outside of three miles cooler water temperatures were present. Of course this pattern will surely switch around just as fast as it developed.

The up and down changing conditions has scattered fishing action some, the great striped marlin action slowed down to just a few fish here and there, some feeding marlin were found off of the La Laguna and Punta Gorda area, within several miles of shore, nice sized stripers up to 150 pounds. So far this season we have seen quality sized striped marlin, many of them in the 120 to 150 lb. class. We do expect to see the billfish action improve once again as conditions stabilize and the warming trend returns. Baitfish remain plentiful, more caballito now than mackerel, also some bolito, skipack and chiuil on the fishing grounds. For the past couple of weeks there have not been any sardinas available, this is because the schools are congregating along beaches far to the north, out of normal range for the commercial fleet.

No yellowfin tuna action was being reported locally, the La Paz fleet did report seeing yellowfin in the 50 to 100 pound class near Cerralvo Island, but few of these fish were hooked into, apparently too many skipjack were competing for the same baits. They also had a big bite on wahoo this past week, while off of the San Jose grounds there have been few wahoo in the counts, normally there is a time frame near the later part of April where the wahoo become more active on the grounds from the Gordo Banks towards San Luis, we have seen a taste of this and are anticipating more in the coming weeks.

Along the shoreline the juvenile roosterfish action continued, a few of these fish are now up to 15/20 pounds, though the majority are smaller sized. Sierra and jack crevalle are also being found in the same areas, as are a few roaming dorado, actually more dorado were found close to shore this week, than were found offshore, dorado always seems to go where more bait schools are congregated.

The bottom action was not as consistent as we would expect for this time of year, mixed success was reported on species such as pargo, amberjack, yellowtail and bonito. More of these bonito are appearing over the structure, bottom spot areas, they seem to prefer cooler waters, these are a good eating variety of bonito, not the same as found in So. Calif., they have been readily striking on smaller sized raplalas and are ranging in sizes up to ten pounds, similar fillets as found on small yellowfin tuna, sushi quality.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 4 wahoo, 28 striped marlin, 29 dorado, 9 amberjack, 14 yellowtail, 16 sierra, 165 bonito, 22 huachinango, 15 cabrilla, 124 roosterfish and 5 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric

April 8, 2013
Anglers –

Spring vacation is now winding down to the final days, large crowds of tourists have been arriving in Los Cabos, many college students on break and many families traveling together. They have all been enjoying the exceptional weather conditions, as winds have resided, sunny days have been warming into the upper 70s, perfect climate to get outside and enjoy all of the available activities. Beaches have been busy with crowds of vacationers taking advantage of the miles of pristine beaches that abound in this tropical desert paradise.

More anglers were in town this past week, appreciating the improved offshore conditions, calm seas for the most part, with sportfishing fleets concentrating on the grounds straight outside of Cabo San Lucas and north in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures as cool as 65 degrees were reported outside of Todo Santos on the Pacific and outside of the Gordo Banks there were readings of 75 degree water, most of the region is averaging in the 70 to 73 degree range. Currents have been moving swiftly, cooling off and then warming back up just as quickly, lots can happen from day to day during the spring season. Baitfish schools are also moving according to their preferences, this in turn have the gamefish scattered and following their food source.

This week there were schools of skipjack, mackerel and sardinetas encountered sporadically on the fishing grounds, also early in the week there were pelagic red crabs found drifting to the surface in a masses around the Gordo Banks, this natural occurrence lasted for a couple of days and anglers, both commercial and recreational, were catching good numbers of the true Pacific red snapper using these small crabs for bait, locally known as huachinango, this was the first significant bite on these prized table fare species for the season, encouraging to see these quality fish in the area. These fish normally range 6 to 12 pounds and are very fun sport on light to medium weight tackle and of course produce very fine eating fillets.

Dorado numbers were down this recent period as well, only a handful of these fish are being encountered, some on the offshore billfish grounds and others were found near the shore, where they were attracted by baitfish activity, sizes ranging up to 25 pounds. Same deal for yellowfin tuna, not many were found this past week, many reports of large pods of porpoise being found, but more often than not these was no tuna action was found associated with them. The main attraction offshore has now been for striped marlin, good concentrations of these billfish are now scattered on the fishing grounds off of San José del Cabo and north towards Los Frailes, many charters are accounting for multiple catch and release days. These fish were encountered in feeding frenzies at times, other times they came up as blind strikes on trolled lures, readily taking dropped back baits, it is shaping up now for some wide open marlin action in this same region for the next several months, as this is typically peak season for the striped marlin.

Yellowtail action tapered off, only scattered fish being found on the various rock piles, these jacks were not being found on the surface like during the previous week. Mixed in were some nice amberjack, a few cabrilla and various pargo species. Along the shore there were sierra and this week we saw more numbers of juvenile roosterfish moving in along the beach stretches. Live sardinas became harder to obtain in recent days, as these baitfish are now schooling off the beaches far north of Punta Gorda and this has not been practical for the commercial fleet to travel these distances. We do hope that these baitfish move back within normal range.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 88 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 46 striped marlin, 7 yellowfin tuna, 43 dorado, 22 amberjack, 18 yellowtail, 55 sierra, 225 huachinango, 12 cabrilla, 115 roosterfish and 6 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric