December 25, 2011

Christmas time is here, everyone is now busy preparing for family events. Families have been arriving in Los Cabos to enjoy the holiday season, escaping the cold temperatures to the north. With winter time now having officially started local weather has also cooled off, though the highs are still pleasantly in the 70s, but with early morning lows down into the 50s, vacationers do need to remember to dress accordingly.

Ocean conditions changed rapidly this week, as currents moved in from the north and dropped water temperatures from 70/76 degrees down to 69/72 degrees. Cooling water is usually associated with greener off colored currents, and this has been the situation at this time, most areas off of San Jose del Cabo are now off colored, towards Cabo San Lucas there has been cleaner blue water, but this has not meant that this has been where the best action for anglers has been found.

With the rapidly changing conditions the fishing action has become more scattered as well. Earlier in the week there was some great striped marlin action found off of San Jose del Cabo, this is where schools of baitfish such as mackerel, sardinetas, chihuil and skipjack were congregated, attracting both billfish and dorado within several miles of shore. Fleets from all directions were concentrated on this spot, marlin were hooked while soaking baits down deep, trolling on the surface, as well as casting into feeding frenzies on the surface, which often occurred mid day and into the afternoon. As the greener cooler currents swept in, this bite slowed way down accordingly. The northern winds also kicked up, which is usually the pattern at this time of year, two or three days of wind, then a couple of days of calmer conditions, before repeating the same cycle.

On the Gordo Banks anglers found more skipjack than anything else, also plenty of problems with hungry sea lions, no yellowfin tuna to talk about this week, as dorado and striped marlin were the main surface species now being encountered. Not much in the way of bottom action, but we do expect to start scouting out more of the structure prospects in the coming weeks for some fire cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack and snapper. Along the shoreline anglers were now finding sierra and roosterfish, but this action varied from day to day, and depended on the availability of live sardinas. Dorado were also found at times right in the surf zone, there were even a reports of dorado up to 15 lbs. being landed by surf anglers near Punta Gorda, this is the time when dorado can be found closer to shore, where more baitfish are concentrated. Most of the roosterfish now being hooked into are juvenile sized, with a handful of them reaching up to 15 pounds.

A handful of wahoo were taken this past week, but most of these fish were more the sized of sierra, strange to see such smaller sized ‘hoo, wonder where their parents are? Probably heading south by now.

We are now transitioning into winter time type fishing action, typically we find quite a wide variety of species, maybe not as large as in the warmer months, but there can be great light tackle sport and most of the fish are of the good eating variety. We will anticipate improved inshore action, the time that more numbers of yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin should continue to dominate offshore.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 65 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 27 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 172 dorado, 9 wahoo, 12 pargo, 15 bonito, 250 black skipjack, 34 roosterfish and 18 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 17, 2011

Crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area are now light, with the official start of winter next week, cooler temperatures from the north are reminding us that even in Southern Baja we do have seasons. A cold front has moved in this week and kept high temperatures below the 75 degree mark, more cloud cover associated with this front, but no rainfall to speak about. Winds have been averaging 10 to 15 mph from the north, less than they were at the start of the month. Water temperatures dropped into the 70 to 76 degree range, cooler off colored greenish currents are pushing in a southern direction from Los Frailes.

With the lighter crowds this past week, the supply and demand situation for the available bait has improved. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches by the commercial netters, but with their limited market now, not every day are they looking for the sardinas, with the easier to find caballito continuing to be found inside the marina jetty area. The schools of mackerel which had been found off of San Jose del Cabo the past couple of weeks seemed to have vanished in recent days, perhaps something to do with the full moon phase or local shrimp trawling operations. At present time schools of mackerel have returned off of San Jose del Cabo and there has been a very good striped marlin bites as well, three to found miles offshore, billfish were balling up bait and feeding on the surface.

Off of San Jose del Cabo there has not been any consistent yellowfin tuna action found, besides maybe a few fish early in the week taken off of the Gordo Banks, these tuna were in the 60 to 70 pound class, other fish were seen breezing on the surface, but they were not interested in biting. As cooler off colored water moved in there were reports of no tuna even being seen on these banks. There have been reports of football sized yellowfin tuna being encountered traveling with porpoise off of Cabo San Lucas, more often 10 miles of further from shore, but this has been spotty and there have been more consistent catches of striped marlin and dorado on the Pacific. Some charter boats were releasing as many as three or four stripers in one morning. Marlin are also being found in the direction of the Gordo Banks, but not in the same numbers as on the Pacific. Trolling lures and various baits all were accounting for marlin strikes, fish were averaging 80 to 130 pounds.

For the fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos, their mainstay has been for dorado, these fish were found in good numbers throughout the week, Particularly from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, most charters were catching limits and releasing other fish as well, lures and bait are working equally well. Sizes ranged up to 25 pounds, average dorado was 10 to 12 pounds.

Strong currents made it difficult to concentrate on any bottom action, but we expect to do more of this as winter conditions settle in. Sierra are making a stronger showing now along the inshore stretches, this action should become steady during the coming months. Roosterfish continue to be found while trolling baits closer to shore, most of these fish are now weighing less than ten pounds, a handful of large specimens, though they are strong fighters and fun sport on light tackle.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 53 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:

14 striped marlin, 285 dorado, 6 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 36 roosterfish, 12 bonito and 44 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 11, 2011

Late fall has brought cooler temperatures and more unpredictable winds sweeping through Southern Baja, back to back cold fronts from the north, no rain, just scattered cloud cover, at this time conditions have settled and anglers are enjoying much more comfortable conditions. Currents are now on a cooling trend, average water temperature has been 75 to 79 throughout most of the region, still a bit warmer than usually for this same time frame. Clean blue water is being found within one mile of shore.

Schooling mackerel are now on the local fishing grounds, mixed with sardinetas. Smaller sardinas are also being found in limited quantities by the commercial fleet. The number of visiting anglers dropped way off compared to previous weeks, as people now prepare for the holiday season. Inside the jetty channel of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina there has been plentiful supplies of caballito, wonder how long this resource can hold up with so many throw nets being used in this small area?

Local charters have been concentrating their efforts from Santa Maria, Gordo Banks, La Fortuna to Iman Bank. Most common species this past week has been dorado, found while trolling lures and by slow trolling or drift fishing various baits. Numbers were up from past week, still varied from day to day as to the best locations, if anglers did find any type of floating debris they were pretty much guaranteed of having wide open action. Charter had varied success of one or two dorado, up to a dozen or more. Sizes ranged from small juvenile fish to 30 pound bulls. These same fishing grounds produced a few wahoo, many smaller sized ‘hoo in the area, not often to we see wahoo of ten pounds, they normally are more in the 30 to 40 pounds range. The handful of wahoo that are being accounted for have hit on yo-yo’s, trolled baits and high speed lures, such as Rapala X Rap’s. With the water temperatures still favorably warm, we are optimistic that wahoo will become more active, as there is lots of baitfish in the area and there is now lighter angling pressure.

Yellowfin tuna action was slow during the recent cold fronts, but tuna are still in the area and with the weather now calmed down for a couple of days we are anticipating hearing more reports of yellowfin catches. On Thursday, several pangas charters hooked into tuna on the Gordo Banks and at least three quality tuna in the one hundred pound class were landed.

Not much bottom action being done recently, but as conditions stabilized some anglers did report action on cabrilla, yellowtail and pargo. There are still a few home guard yellowtail biting on the Gordo Banks, lots of hammerhead sharks competing for baits though, at time making it impossible to keep a bait in the zone where the yellows were found.

Striped marlin are arriving in larger numbers, following their favored food source, with all of the mackerel now in the area we do expect to see another great year for marlin. Still a few sailfish and larger marlin around, one black marlin was lost from a La Playita panga on Wednesday.

Roosterfish have been found in surprisingly good numbers for this time of year, The beach stretches in front of the hotel zone off of San Jose del Cabo produced action for roosterfish up to 20 pounds, trolling live caballito was the best bet to find the better grade of roosters. Sierra were now arriving in increased numbers, as they prefer the cooling water temperatures, typically these fish school in this area through May, they average two or three pounds, but can do grow to 15 pounds and are very aggressive fighters on light tackle.

More and more whale sightings now, as humpback and gray whales are now arriving to their breeding grounds after spending the summer feeding in Alaskan waters.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 70 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:

15 striped marlín, 3 sailfish, 264 dorado, 15 wahoo, 12 yellowfin tuna, 18 pargo, 10 cabrilla, 16 bonito, 9 yellowtail, 106 roosterfish and 36 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric