San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

February 6, 2011

Anglers –

Global weather patterns continue to create cooler than normal conditions throughout much of Northern America, as perhaps three quarters of the United States is now either snow or ice bound. This has made traveling that much more difficult and crowds of tourists recently arriving in the Los Cabos area have been noticeably lighter than average. The skies have been clear and sunny, though temperatures this past week were downright chilly, a low of 41 degrees was reported on Friday morning and daytime highs barely reached 65 degrees, surely this cold wave will not last long, though now is a time when you definitely want to have a warm jacket available, as wind gusts were predominately from the north and they dropped the chill factor even lower.

Ocean water temperatures ranged from 66 to 69 degrees, most certainly will start on a warming trend next month as the days progressively become longer. Swells were minimal, though with the combination of persistent winds and strong currents, this attributed to limiting the options for anglers, often having to fish closer to shore in sheltered spots. There were good supplies of sardinas available, with limited pressure this made finding the live bait easy and plentiful.

Local San Jose del Cabo fleets were spending most of their efforts fishing the spots from Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna and when the weather allowed, the Iman Bank. Despite not so ideal conditions, anglers found a wide variety of small to medium sized species. There were red crabs being encountered on the surface, but it was kind of a crap shoot as to when and where these pelagic crabs could be found. When obtained, anglers were able to use these small crabs as bait for red snapper, which were weighing in the 2 to 10 pound range, these were the true huachinango snapper, prized eating, with high commercial value. A bit tricky fishing these light baits, the snapper take the bait very delicately, hard to detect at times, strong fighters on sporting tackle.

Other common catches were yellowtail, sizes up to 15 pounds, most of them about 5 pounds, striking on various baits and jigs, most often off the bottom rock plies, but at times being encountered closer to shore mixed in with schools of sierra. Also a mix of yellow snapper, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito, as well as an occasional small dorado. Small sized roosterfish were plentiful along the beach stretches north of La Playita to Punta Gorda, good area for sierra as well.

The Iman Bank has still been holding some yellowfin tuna, 10 to 40 pounds, though the inclement conditions have not been favorable in recent days for this spot. Hopefully the weather will scatter the sea lions which have taken up residence on these banks and have turned into a real nuisance.

 The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 44 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 4 amberjack, 17 cabrilla, 92 pargo, 21 dorado, 34 roosterfish, 91 yellowtail and 112 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

January 29, 2011

Anglers –

Light crowds of tourists are now visiting Southern Baja, they have been greeted with cooler winter time conditions, scattered cloud cover with moderate winds and daytime highs in the low 70s. Still this would have to be considered nice weather for mid winter. Ocean water temperatures are averaging in the 67 to 69 range through most of the region, this is five degrees cooler than what conditions were at the same time last year.

The San Jose del Cabo fleets have been concentrating their efforts in the direction of the Iman Bank in recent days, this is where they have found schooling yellowfin tuna, ranging in sizes up to 20 pounds, also a scattering of dorado and various bottom dwellers. Trying to land hooked tuna before a pack of aggressive sea lions got a hold of them was a major issue, most charters were having as many fish broken off by these sea lions as they were actually landing. Boats were averaging 2 to 8 yellowfin per morning. This is not bad considering the time of year and condition of the water. Using sardinas for bait was the most productive technique, these baitfish remained plentiful off of the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda. Most of the dorado that are now encountered have been juvenile sized, though occasionally a larger bull of 20 pounds was found.

Closer to shore there have been good numbers of sierra, again most of these fish were in the 1 to 3 pound class, some schooling yellowtail of 2 to 6 pounds were found in various inshore locations as well, both of these species hit best on sardinas, but would also strike Rapalas and cast jigs.

There is not much going on the Gordo Banks now, this area is not known for the best action when the water temps are cooler, though the commercial fleet have been finding the pelagic red crabs in this area and are netting them to be used for snapper bait on other fishing spots.

Striped marlin action continues to be off this year, some scattered fish are being found, but no large concentrations, as the water conditions warm and more numbers of larger baitfish arrive we expect this action to improve.

There were a handful of yellowfin tuna found traveling with porpoise offshore, hit or miss deal, but some of these tuna were in the 30 to 60 pound class. Other schools of tuna were seen at times on the local fishing grounds, but they disappeared as fast as they had appeared. These fish become even more finicky in cooler conditions.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 51 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 114 yellowfin tuna, 24 bonito, 6 amberjack, 15 cabrilla, 62 pargo, 16 dorado, 14 roosterfish, 29 yellowtail and 110 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

January 27, 2011

Anglers –

Los Cabos continues to greet light crowds of vacationers with clear sunny skies, daytime high temperatures have reached into the mid 70s and conditions have been very pleasant for this winter season. Winds out of the north have not been too strong, as they often can be during this time. Ocean swells are minimal and anglers are enjoying favorable times on the water. Water temperatures remain cooler than they were at this same time period of 2010, now averaging 67 to70 degrees. This is now peak season for the annual whale migration, also there are plenty of sea lions and manta rays.

There have been sufficient supplies of sardinas available, recently these baitfish have been schooling off the beaches north of Punta Gorda and the Palmilla area. For the first time in several years the pelagic red crabs have been coming to the surface on the local fishing grounds such as the Gordo Banks and Desteladera. These crabs were being scooped up with small bait nets and are being used for the true red snapper (huachinango). These are prized snapper, averaging 5 to 10 pounds, occasionally reaching 14 pounds. The schooling snapper will often follow these migrations of red crabs and also come to the surface to feed, quite a sight when the water’s surface actually turns into a big spot of red mass. Perhaps the cooler water temperatures has triggered this event and surely the fact that there have not been giant squid in the region has given a chance for this activity to develop.

There have been yellowfin tuna found on the Iman Bank, a bit finicky in the cooler waters, also with aggressive sea lions lurking on the same fishing grounds, though persistent anglers were hooking into these fish while drift fishing with both live and dead sardinas. The tuna were averaging 20 to 50 pounds, with a few larger specimens accounted for, charters reported landed one to four of these yellowfin per morning. Boat pressure was light, with minimal crowds of anglers now in town.

Other options included trolling sardinas closer to shore for good light tackle action for sierra, most of these fish were smaller sized, but a handful of these fish weighed over five pounds. Yellowtail of 2 to 8 pounds were found in migrating schools, rapidly moving location from day to day, but once found these fish provided fun action on both live baits and yo-yo style jigging. A mix of cabrilla, grouper, amberjack, bonito, yellow snapper and triggerfish area accounted for from shallow water rocky areas.

Dorado were found spread out through most of the zone, more often closer to shore where baitfish concentrations were holding. Often becoming more active later in the morning when the oceans surface was warmed some by the rising sun. Striking on a wide range of baits and lures, most of the dorado were smaller schooling size fish under 10 pounds, but there were occasional1exceptions of fish over 25 pounds being landed.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 56 charters for the past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 111 dorado, 45 yellowfin tuna, 16 roosterfish, 254 sierra, 11 amberjack, 23 bonito, 18 cabrilla, 68 yellowtail, 6 grouper, 124 and 26 yellow pargo.

Good Fishing, Eric