May 20, 2011

Anglers –

The season’s first southern hemisphere swell arrived early in the week and waves ranging up to ten feet high were keeping crowds of surfers happy. This swell had been anticipated and surfers were arriving from across the globe. Ocean conditions became stirred up closer to shore, high surf conditions made it too dangerous for cast netters to net sardinas, the last few days there have not been live sardinas available. There has been a mix of live moonfish, caballito or mullet, as well as fresh dead ballyhoo or brined sardinas. Local water temperatures ranged from 72 to 77 degrees, warmer areas being found in the direction of the Gordo Banks to Los Frailes.

This recent full moon period saw the all around fishing action slow down, several coinciding factors, including high swells, no live sardinas and unpredictable winds swirling from all directions. This time period always seem to produce rapidly changing weather patterns from day to day and anglers find that the action can vary accordingly, both favorably and negatively..

Striped marlin action has been the most consistent bite for offshore charters. The marlin are being found throughout the region, seem to be more concentrated from Chileno to the Gordo Banks, weeks past most marlin were found 15 or more miles from shore, recently they are being encountered with several miles of shore. Action became more scattered in recent days and winds created choppy conditions the later part of the week. The billfish were striking on trolled lures, live baits and rigged ballyhoo, crews were crisscrossing areas where free jumpers and feeders were spotted. Most of these stripers have ranged from 80 to 120 pounds.

Dorado counts are slowly increasing, mainly found in ones and twos, though there were several reports of anglers finding larger sized schools, so that is encouraging. Late spring to early summer as a rule is the time of year when we see the largest sized dorado on the local fishing grounds. Often not in huge numbers, but most all of the fish encountered are larger sized, then as the summer progresses we see increasing numbers of schoolie sized dorado.

Yellowfin tuna are now schooling over various high spots, stirred up conditions and lack of live sardinas in recent days halted this action, but should rebound as the swells and winds reside again. Yellow fin ranging in size from ten to two hundred pounds were reported this past week. Trolling larger baifish, particularly bolito, accounted for majority of the biggest tuna. Most of the yellowfin being landed by sport fishing charters were in the 10 to 50 pound range. They were also found traveling with porpoise further offshore, it was matter of being in the right place with the correct offering.

During this same time frame in 2010 we had great wahoo action develop along the coastal stretches from Cabo San Luis towards Los Frailes, so far we have only had a taste of these fish becoming active. We will keep our fingers crossed that last year’s history repeats itself. With all of the baitfish now schooling offshore on the various banks we do have high expectations for coming weeks.

Inshore there were reports of larger sized roosterfish up to 40 pounds caught and released while trolling larger live baits (mullet, caballito or moonfish) along the beaches north of La Playita. We have also noticed increased numbers of mullet moving in. Some dogtooth action was also encountered north of Punta Gorda, though this time the fish won and the anglers lost the battles due to cut off lines on nearby reefs. A handful of amberjack were also found closer to shore on larger live bait trolled on the surface, exciting way to fish for these jacks, a couple of specimens recently topped fifty pounds.

There was not much bottom action found this last week, even though most charters were targeting surface species, the anglers that did try the bottom action reported limited success for various pargos, cabrilla and amberjack. We did see a few nice grouper brought in by the La Playita commercial panga fleet, so maybe we will see more opportunities as the weather stabilizes. This is also time we start to see more pompano in the area, they sure are fun sport and great eating.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 57 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of: 21 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 8 hammerhead shark, 45 yellowfin tuna, 29 dorado, 8 cabrilla, 39 various pargo species, 24 jack crevalle, 6 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 48 roosterfish, 6 pompano, 18 sierra and 3 wahoo.

Good Fishing, Eric

May 15, 2011

Anglers –

This is the occasion to visit the Southern Baja California area, the weather is practically perfect, highs near 85 and nights are still pleasantly cool. Winds remain a bit unpredictable, but for the most part anglers have enjoyed very comfortable ocean conditions. Despite such favorable conditions the crowds of tourists have remained substantially below normal numbers for this time of year.

Sportfishing charters are covering a wide area searching for the most productive action, typically this is the period when more consistent action is found in the direction of the Sea of Cortez and off of San Jose del Cabo. Warmer water currents were pushing in, with the areas north of the Gordo Banks averaging 75 to 80 degrees. Large concentrations of baitfish are congregating on the local fishing grounds and offshore action has started to heat up. There continue to be sardinas available of Palmilla Point, also a mix of caballito, moonfish and mullet. This is the time when we see large size schools of mullet migrating into the region, this attracts the dogtooth snapper and big roosterfish, the coming weeks will see many options open up.

Yellowfin tuna action slowed down near the San Luis Bank, north winds were a factor for a couple of days, on other days lots of tuna were seen breezing the surface, but very few were hooked. One 200 pound class yellowfin was landed late last week by local La Playita pangero Sergio Carillo while trolling with a live bolito near San Luis. We anticipate that this action will become more consistent as the weather stabilizes and continues to warm up. Schools of yellowfin were found spread out from Palmilla towards Santa Maria, anglers had blind strikes on rapalas and hoochies type lures, most of these yellowfin were in the 10 to 15 pounds class and this action was scattered day to day. The larger sized tuna were found among the dark colored porpoise that are feeding on the same fishing grounds, they have been moving fast and were finicky, but a few have been hooked and on any given day these fish could become more cooperative.

This week we have finally started to see dorado in the daily fish counts, found offshore with striped marlin and also now following baitfish closer to shore. Dorado to 30 pounds were accounted for, this is the time of year when we see big bulls move in. No significant numbers now, but it has been a long time since we have seen any dorado at all, so just hearing about them now is exciting.

Not many wahoo talked about this week, the previous week had showed signs of more activity. Surely the ideal conditions and abundant food supply will trigger more action by these wahoo in the near future.

Bottom fishing produced limited action for amberjack, yellowtail, snapper, cabrilla and grouper. Even though it was not wide open, it was worth breaking up the morning of surface trolling with a drop or two off of the rock piles, you never know what you might catch while working a yo-yo jig of drifting with bait.

Striped marlin action moved closer to shore off of San Jose del Cabo, being encountered anywhere from five miles on out, anglers found feeders, as well as free jumpers and had multiple chances per day at hook ups. The stripers were coming up and striking on lures, consistently being hooked on dropped back baits. A few sailfish were also moving into the warmer waters.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 56 charters this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of 3 sailfish, 19 striped marlin, 4 wahoo, 16 dorado, 57 yellowfin tuna, 18 bonito, 24 pargo, 28 sierra, 15 amberjack, 11 yellowtail, 17 cabrilla, 62 roosterfish, 6 pompano and 12 hammerhead sharks.

Good Fishing, Eric