May 12, 2012
Anglers –

Springtime weather in Southern Baja is starting to feel more like summer, as high temperatures were reaching 90 degrees, though early in the morning there was still a slight chill inthe air, in reality the climate now is ideal, with variable breezes later in the day helping to keep conditions comfortable. Ocean currents are now coolest on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, where it is averaging 68 to 69 degrees, in the direction of the Gordo Banks anglers are finding warmer water of 74 to 76 degrees. Early in the week there was a day when we felt serious thunder with lightning strikes throughout the area, only scattered reports of actually rainfall, but where it did rain, the drops were large, very tropical and unusual for this time of year. The majority of the sportfishing fleets were fishing on the grounds off of Chileno to the 1150 spot, the Gordo Banks and north towards Iman, Desteladera and San Luis Banks.

Live bait options remained plentiful for caballito and after becoming scarce for a couple of weeks, nice sized sardinas were once again available, pangeros found schools of these baitfish inshore near San Luis, with calmer surf conditions, this gave the netters opportunities to reach the baitfish. There was also the option of purchasing bags of fresh dead sardinas from the dock area and they were being used mainly for chumming over shallow rocky areas for catching a mix of bottom species. Larger concentrations of bolito are now schooling on the fishing grounds, being caught early in the day for use as trolling baits on the same grounds.

The red hot striped marlin action encountered last week off of San Jose del Cabo tapered off for several days during the recent moon period. In the past day or so the action seems to be rebounding, many stripers were seen tailing on the surface, a percentage of these were striking lures or bait, while many showed no interest. The area from the Gordo Banks to the 1150 spot seemed to have the larger concentration of billfish. There were fewer dorado encounters this past week, only a scattering of mostly single fish found. There were reports of schooling dorado found near shark buoys north of Gordo, but these do-dos apparently had lock jaw and would not hit on anything.

Yellowfin tuna were not found with any consistency, some days anglers did find larger sized yellowfin of 100 pounds plus, breezing in the same area with porpoise, these fish would come up and feed on chummed sardinas, but just would not strike any baits with hooks with them, strange to see tuna act in this manner, but it is not all that uncommon, with the abundance of natural food source on the banks these fish can become obsessed with feeding on a particular resource on their own schedule. There were a handful of medium sized tuna hooked into while trolling Rapalas near the Iman to San Luis area, but still hit or miss.

More reports now heard of seeing free swimming wahoo and occasional hook ups, despite limited numbers, still very encouraging to see these pelagic becoming more active, it seems that they always prefer water temperature in the mid to upper 70s. The wahoo being hooked now have ranged from 10 to 70 pounds, the larger specimens were landed on the marlin grounds on trolled bolito, though more numbers of the ‘hoo were encountered closer to shore, north of Punta Gorda, striking sardinas, yo-yo’s and Rapalas.

With offshore fishing action still producing limited options, many panga charter charters are fishing closer to shore over the rocky structure for a quality mix of great eating species, most of these fish are striking on caballito or sardinas, with some mixed success had on yo-yo jigs as well. Amberjack up to 60 pounds were accounted for, with a few yellowtail of 10 to 30 pounds in the mix, yellow snapper, barred pargo, huachinango, leopard grouper and pompano rounded out the action. In the past couple of days anglers enjoyed the seasons first consistent action for quality and quantity of pompano, these jacks were averaging ten pounds, striking on live bait close to shore two miles north of Puerto Los Cabos, off of La Salinas. These are some of the finest eating fish found in local waters and that includes a smorgasbord list of others.

Trolling the beach stretches has produced sierra, jack crevalle and roosterfish. There were reports of dogtooth snapper starting to show up as well, time to break out the stout tackle for these brutes.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 62 charters this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 21 striped marlin, 7 wahoo, 14 dorado, 8 yellowfin tuna, 34 barred pargo, 65 yellow snapper, 18 sierra, 27 amberjack, 8 yellowtail, 27 cabrilla, 28 roosterfish, 98 pompano, 8 mako shark and 16 hammerhead sharks.

Good Fishing, Eric

Anglers –

Light crowds of visitors now traveling to Southern Baja. Conditions are practically perfect, high temperatures in the mid 80s, warming air and ocean temperatures is creating more marina cloud cover, afternoon breezes make the spring climate very pleasant. Water temperatures were on a warming trend throughout this past week and at this time there is 76 degrees pushing in from outside of the Gordo Banks area. From Cab San Lucas to Los Frailes the inshore water is ranging from 72 to 74 degrees. Conditions and fishing action can change rapidly at this time of year.

Increasing ocean swells from the south made it difficult for pangeros to net any sardinas, so in recent days live sardinas were not available and anglers were using the larger caballito, which remained plentiful from the marina area. Though these baits are purchased per piece, not to be used freely for chumming with, such as with the sardinas. More bolito are now schooling on the fishing grounds and these are being caught early in the day for use as bait. Also at times pelagic red crabs have been surfacing, being netted and used for bait over the bottom structure.

Striped marlin action has dominated the offshore action for the past few months, but this past week we saw wide open action, as the numbers of marlin on the local grounds significantly increased, anglers were regularly accounting for multiple catches on striped marlin ranging to to 150 pounds. In recent days there has been a hot spot found between the Outer Gordo Bank and the 1150 high spot, ten to twelve miles offshore, but the stripers are being found throughout the region, at times within a couple miles of shore. The marlin are striking on a variety of trolled baits and artificial lures. Local panga fleets were reported incredible success while slow trolling with dead bolito, while caballito and skipack also worked, the billfish seemed to prefer the bolito, striking on the fresh dead bait without hesitation. Many double and even triple hook ups were reported, these marlin were encountered in concentrations. As skipjack and bolito schools increasingly congregate on the fishing grounds, this is now attracting larger concentrations of gamefish. Continued reports of mako and thresher sharks found on the same offshore fishing grounds and more dorado also appeared in the fish counts, no real numbers yet, just single fish being encountered, hooked on trolled lures or bait, the majority of the dorado have been of larger size, with a handful of impressive sized bulls up close to fifty pounds accounted for from the same marlin grounds. A few wahoo stories being talked about and we look for these elusive fish to become more active with the warming currents and their favored bolito food source appearing.

With the lack of sardinas and higher surf conditions, there was not much to report for inshore action, anglers had other options of fishing rocky structure areas, from 50 ft. to 200 ft. Anglers found mixed results on a wide variety of species, most common were yellow snapper, barred pargo, huachinango (red snapper), amberjack, cabrilla (leopard grouper) and triggerfish. On some days good early morning action was reported on yo-yo jigs and live caballito, many heavier fish were cutting lines off in the rocks. Red crabs were sporadically found on the surface and being used successfully for red snapper bait, even an occasional amberjack hit on these small crabs. Sea lions were also hanging around their favorite snapper grounds and were a negative factor to deal with. Bottom species become finicky when the grounds are plugged with red crabs and all of the fish acquire a preferred taste for these crabs and not much or anything else. With persistence and patience there were quality catches accoutered for, all excellent eating specimens and we certainly enjoyed the improved action.

The combined local panga fleets launching from La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately  52 charters for the week, with anglers reported a fish count of: 86 striped marlin, 6 mako shark, 2 thresher shark, 23 dorado, 22 barred pargo, 86 yellow snapper, 4 yellowtail, 34 amberjack, 28 cabrilla, 14 pompano, 48 triggerfish, 42 sierra, 1 yellowfin tuna and 12 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –

This week we saw the first real heat wave of the season, temperatures reached into the low 90s during the first part of the week, later on weather patterns normalized and light crowds of tourists were enjoying pristine spring time weather. Winds resided and anglers found comfortable conditions on the ocean, where water temperatures ranged from 68 on the Pacific up to 72/74 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, warmest currents being found on the fishing grounds offshore of San Jose del Cabo.

Caballito were available for bait and nice sized sardinas were being netted by pangeros north of Punta Gorda near San Luis. This week there were more bolito encountered on the local fishing grounds, always being choice bait for the variety of gamefish that can be encountered on any given day. This is the time of year when reports can change rapidly from day to day, striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, grouper, amberjack yellowtail, sierra, roosterfish and various snappers are just some of the species that can be encountered.

Striped marlin continue to highlight the action offshore, from Cabo San Lucas to the Gordo Banks, anywhere from 5 to 18 miles offshore good numbers of stripers are being found, not always in the biting mood, but with persistence charters are often accounting for multiple fish days, two to four marlin per boat was common. Fish averaging 90 to 130 pounds, striking on lures and dropped back baits, many reports of anglers seeing large groups of marlin tailing on the surface, sometimes proving to have lock jaw, while other times they would readily strike, hard to figure out. Still some thresher and mako sharks being found on the offshore grounds, this past week a 22ft. commercial panga based out of Guaymas, Mexico, north in the Sea of Cortez, made news after trapping a 20 ft., 2,000 pound great white shark in their nets, surprising what range they sharks have.

With the warmer conditions that started the week, a quality bite developed for a variety of fish off of the San Luis area. Early in the morning there were greater numbers of bottom fish caught, snapper, cabrilla, amberjack and a few yellowtail, yo-yo’s and baits both worked equally well. Decent sized sierra were caught close to shore here and surprisingly enough there were yellowfin tuna that came up to the same chum line close to shore in only 60 feet of water, spooky fish, disappearing as fast as they appeared, for a couple of day charters caught as many as four per boat for a couple of days, most of these tuna ranged from 20 to 40. Wahoo were seen and hooked into from this same area, striking on yo-yos and sardinas, more often cutting lines, but a handful of ‘hoo to 30 pounds were successfully landed. Later in the week this tuna action disappeared, but at least this was a good sign that these fish are in the area and as the conditions continue to warm and become increasingly favorable we do expect this action to bust wide open.

The Gordo Banks was now attracting more schools of baitfish, including bolito, anglers that trolled these baitfish around the banks reported striped marlin, sharks and dorado, not many dorado around at this time, but the majority being found were larger sized, up to 40 pounds. This is the normal time when we find larger yellowtail on the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks, something to try in the coming weeks, larger live baits drifted down deep, always worth trying the yo-yo jigs as well.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 63 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 28 striped marlin, 1 thresher, 4 mako shark, 14 hammerhead shark, 32 yellowfin tuna, 21 dorado, 8 yellowtail, 39 amberjack, 6 wahoo, 124 mixed species of pargo, 35 cabrilla, 8 grouper, 185 sierra, 38 roosterfish and 6 pompano.

Good Fishing, Eric