October 19, 2013
Anglers –

The week started out with the passing of Tropical Storm Octave, this latest system followed a path a couple of hundred of miles off to the west of the Southern Baja Peninsula, before making landfall north of Magdalena Bay. Local Ports were officially closed Sunday afternoon until reopening Tuesday morning, higher ocean swells, winds gusts to 30 mph and moderate to heavy rainfall was the main impact felt, with isolated rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches were reported. Needless to say the roads were a flooded mess. With tournament season now here, there are large crowds of anglers arriving from all around the world. The weather has now settled and conditions are ideal, highs in the upper 80s and early mornings are very comfortable with a light wind breaker jacket.’

Ocean water temperatures are still in the 85 degree range, clean blue water is found within a few mile of shore, though baitfish have become harder to obtain. Sardinas are now schooling near Cabo San Lucas, though this preferred baitfish have not been schooling near San Jose del Cabo. Caballito has been another bait option, available in limited quantities. Out of San Jose del Cabo fleets have been using fresh caught squid, imported from the Los Frailes area, though over this recent full moon phase, suddenly this resource of squid has vanished and carnaderos (bait suppliers) are once again scrambling to find new options. Ballyhoo have not been available on a regular basis either, this is the time when more artificial lures, jigging and other alternate techniques will be used, we do anticipate that the bait situation will rebound, hard to say exactly when this will happen, as global weather patterns can alter normal migration habits. Of course the heavy presence of factory processing ships targeting sardinas in Mag Bay certainly does not help the situation.

The most consistent fishing action recently was found from the Iman to San Luis Bank. This is where sportfishing fleets from all directions are congregating, dicing and chumming with fresh cut squid, while drift fishing with strips of the same bait on light tackle, this technique has been producing good numbers of yellowfin tuna in the 8 to 20 lb. class. At times the yellowfin proved to be finicky, moving around rapidly, up and down, appearing and disappearing just as quickly. The same fishing grounds were producing a mix of wahoo and dorado, but not in any significant numbers, more wahoo were actually landed on stripped squid, as were caught on traditional trolling lures. The wahoo that have been accounted for averaged 25 to 40 lb. Dorado schools have spread out, even though the warm water conditions would seem favorable for these fish, hard to say where they have gone. There are some sailfish and marlin hanging around the same grounds where the yellowfin tuna are schooling. A handful of marlin over 500 pounds have been accounted for by tournament teams trolling these same grounds.

Off the bottom there were a few quality sized grouper landed, as well as a handful of amberjack, dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado, cabrilla, bonito and huachinango. Anglers used various whole and cut baits and yo-yo jigs to find mixed success off the bottom
structure.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 155 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 blue marlin, 8 striped marlin, 13 sailfish, 32 wahoo, 6 amberjack, 7 rainbow runner, 6 dogtooth snapper, 20 bonito, 18 huachinango, 14 grouper, 28 dorado and 730 yellowfin tuna.

Good fishing, Eric

October 12, 2013
Anglers –

Scores of anglers continue to arrive in Los Cabos, anticipation is high, as this is always the most popular season for a variety of gamefish and weather conditions are ideal. Skies have been clear, plenty of warm sunshine, highs of about 90 degrees. Early mornings now have a fall chill to them, winds were increasingly unpredictable this week, at times blowing hard from the south, then the next day from the north, this pattern limited where sportfishing charters could comfortably fish, though for the most part ocean conditions were pleasant. Water temperatures are still about 85 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, Pacific waters are slightly cooler. Strong currents have persisted, though have slacked at given times, blue water is now found closer to shore, though choppy conditions for a few days stirred the visibility up a bit.

The bait situation has been limited to purchasing fresh dead squid from vendors at the dock area, some live caballito and other small jacks available after launching, no reports of finding new sources of sardinas, a few rumors being spread that so and so netted some of these baitfish somewhere, though definitely not found in any quantity to support the local fishing fleet at this time, makes us wonder if this will be the season we do not even see sardinas until winter time, migration patterns can be altered, maybe this is what has happened, this is normally the time when we would find schools of sardinas holding along inshore rocky beach stretches.

Panga fleets encountered the most consistent action on the fishing grounds from Iman, San Luis and north to Vinorama. This is where the majority of charters are concentrating; even the fleets from the East Cape are making the long run south to get into the action. Using strips of squid while drift fishing over the banks have produced good numbers of yellowfin tuna in the 8 to 15 lb. range, at times a larger grade of tuna to over 20 pounds were located. Dicing squid into small pieces for chumming the fish to the surface has been the ticket, at times this has also been attracting dorado, wahoo and even sailfish or striped marlin. Everyday there have been reports of wahoo landed by chance on the strips of squid on monofilament, though anglers specifically targeting wahoo with lures or larger baitfish, rigged on wire leaders have not been reporting much at all, at least this is what is reported out of San Jose del Cabo, there were additional reports of wahoo being hooked off of Cabo San Lucas grounds while trolling open waters, same areas where good numbers of dorado are being accounted for, though not much tuna action being reported out of Cab San Lucas.

Only a few reports of larger yellowfin tuna being hooked into on the Gordo Banks, these fish are still holding on the banks, though have not shown in any significant numbers yet this season, nevertheless this is the spot where many top teams will be concentrating on during the tournaments. Recent trend for taking a strike from a large tuna, has been while trolling larger baitfish such as bolito or skipjack, these baitfish are schooling on the same banks, though can be finicky to catch at times.

Not that much bottom action being reported, strong currents and limited results has seen more charters targeting the available surface species. A handful of nice red snapper (huachinango) were taken on yo-yo jigs, as well as a few amberjack, rainbow runners, bonito, cabrilla, grouper, pompano and even one nice roosterfish hooked off the bottom on the Iman Bank.

Billfish action has been spread out, no particular hot spot, sailfish and striped marlin are being hooked into on the same grounds where the schooling yellowfin are, a few reports of strikes on larger trolled baits, the same football sized tuna work ideal for trolling for black and blue marlin, though we have not seen any significant numbers of the larger marlin. Surely the main concentrations of stripers are now congregating near Magdalena Bay.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 182 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 roosterfish, 2 pompano, 11 striped marlin, 15 sailfish,1 black marlin,14 wahoo, 28 bonito, 8 amberjack,10 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 32 huachinango, 7 pargo colorado, 13 cabrilla, 11 grouper, 910 yellowfin tuna and 195 dorado.

Good fishing, Eric

October 5, 2013
Anglers –

With the start of the new month, the always popular fall fishing season has started off with large crowds of anglers arriving to take advantage of the calm weather and great fishing opportunities. Weather has been very pleasant, no new storm systems developing on the horizon at this time, daytime temperatures are in the upper 80s, evenings and early morning are cooler, though jackets are not needed yet. With all of the summer rainfall the desert landscape has transformed into lush green vegetation.

Ocean water temperatures are still averaging 85 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. The bait situation is a little scattered, sardinas are beginning to move into local waters, but are of very small in size, need to have time to mature, but with heavy pressure that might not happen. Fresh giant squid are being sold at the docks in La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, this has been the main bait now being used for the yellowfin tuna on the grounds from the Iman, San Luis and Vinorama Bank. Anglers are drift fishing with strips of squid, this has been productive for tuna in the 10 to 30 pound class, the majority of the tuna are running 10 to 15 lbs., but the yellowfin found outside of Vinorama have been a larger grade of fish, 25 to 30 lb. Limits were the rule throughout the week. Dorado were found throughout the zone as well, the majority were smaller sized, though some fish to over 20 pounds were landed.

Only a few of the larger sized yellowfin tuna that have been lurking around the Gordo Banks were hooked into this past week, most of these were hooked by local teams of pangeros on specialized trips scouting out future tournament potentials. The few big hook ups that were accounted for were while trolling bolito or on chunk bait. Strong current is still prevalent, but not as swift as it has been. A few larger sized marlin were hooked into, one 312 lb. blue was weighed in, landed from a 23 ft. panga. Another much larger marlin was lost after an extended battle on gear that was used for targeting the cow yellowfin.

The most common billfish found on the grounds out of San Jose del Cabo this past week were sailfish, ranging 50 to 90 pounds, striking lures and on various whole and strip baits. There were some striped marlin in the mix as well, ranging from smaller 50 lb. fish up to specimens nearing 200 lb.

Wahoo remained elusive, though everyday they are being seen in the areas where dorado and wahoo are schooling, a handful of wahoo were landed, most of these were on strips of squid and some were on traditional skirted trolling lures or rapalas.

With the surface action being the best action recently, not many bottom fish were reported, a handful of amberjack, rainbow runner, bonito, pargo and dogtooth snapper were landed. We expect now that we are seeing the current not be so persistent, this will give more opportunities for bottom action in the coming weeks, opening up another option for anglers.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 134 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 23 sailfish, 2 blue marlin, 12 wahoo, 11 amberjack, 16 rainbow runner, 23 bonito, 7 dogtooth snapper, 8 barred pargo, 5 grouper, 820 yellowfin tuna and 276 dorado.

Good fishing, Eric