San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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

February 19, 2011

Anglers –

Crowds of tourists increased this past week, as the weather conditions warmed up, we enjoyed clear sunny days that reached 80 degrees and with light winds this made for great conditions offshore for visiting anglers. Ocean water conditions averaged 69 to 71 degrees throughout most of the area, with a warmer current of 73 to 74 degree area 12 to 15 miles offshore of San Jose del Cabo.

As the waters on the local fishing grounds warmed a few degrees in the past ten days, this apparently helped improve the all around fishing action. Definitely the most talked about bite has been the yellowfin tuna out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina, which were now schooling on the Inner Gordo Banks. Word spread quickly as charters were catching an average of two to six tuna per morning while drift fishing with live and dead bait. With as many as fifty charter boats congregating on this spot it made for heavy pressure and the yellowfin were finicky. Anglers using lighter leaders of 30 to 40 lb. reported the best success. As much bait as possible was needed to help entice these fish into a feeding frenzy where they could be fooled into striking the hooked bait. With limited supplies of sardinas and high demand, this made for a bait supply situation, in fact San Jose del Cabo charters were traveling some twenty miles north , near Vinormama, in order to obtain limited amounts of sardinas. But these baitfish were necessary in order to catch these tuna, which were averaging in weight from 15 to 50 pounds, with larger species to over one hundred pounds seen feeding in recent days.

Could be time to break out some heavier tackle and try chunk fishing with cut skipjack, one pangero told a story of hooking into a monster tuna on Thursday while chumming and chunking with fresh skipjack, I guess the gear he was using was simply not stout enough and they never had a chance at slowing the cow.

In recent days there were increased numbers of striped marlin encountered, everyday there were handful of these billfish hooked into while anglers were targeting the tuna with sardinas, these fish ranged from 100 to 120 lb. One incredible catch of an 80 pound wahoo was accounted for on Thursday by an angler using only a sardina for bait and mono leader, no wire, this also occurred on the Inner Gordo Bank.

Earlier in the week there was good action found for yellowtail, amberjack and a few other bottom species. The area of Cardon was consistent for anglers using sardinas and yo-yo jigs in depths ranging from 120 to 160 feet. The amberjack were mostly in the 15 to 25 pound class, yellowtail average 6 to 10 pounds, but almost every day we saw a one or two thirty pound plus class yellowtail mixed in with the smaller schoolies. Strong currents continue to make bottom fishing a difficult and at times unpractical option, as at times it became so swift over these rock piles that it was not easy to reach bottom and then even harder to avoid snagging rocks and losing gear.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 75 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 6 mako shark, 8 dorado,166 yellowfin tuna, 22 Mexican bonito, 32 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 5 wahoo, 28 huachinago, 28 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 142 yellowtail and 15 yellow snapper.

Good fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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

February 13, 2011

Anglers –

It appears the coldest weather has now past, recent days have been mostly sunny, at times moderate cloud cover, overall conditions were on a warming trend compared to last week. Winds were still unpredictable, most of the time coming from the north, at times swinging out of the south. Ocean water temperatures raised a couple of degrees this week, now averaging 69 to 72 degrees, warmest areas now near the 95 spot, outside of Chileno.

Finding any sufficient supply of sardinas became difficult this past week, minimal supplies of this bait source were netted near Palmilla, hardly enough to have the needed chum for possibly chumming up the yellowfin tuna that have been schooling off of Santa Maria, these tuna were in the 15 to 25 pound class, but were very finicky and lots of bait was needed to have the best opportunities.

The most consistent fishing action has been closer to shore, over rocky structure, typically in depths ranging from 100 to 150 feet. Anglers used a combination of sardina, red crabs (when available) and yo-yo style iron jigs to catch a wide range of species, including red snapper (huachinango), cabrilla (leopard grouper), amberjack, yellowtail, yellow snapper, triggerfish, bonito, black skipjack and shark. These fish were all great eating species, averaging less than ten pounds, but also a few larger fish to over 20 pounds were accounted for. On an average morning charter groups could expect to catch three, four or five different types of fish and anywhere from 5 to 15 total landed.  

Stretches close to shore were holding sierra, roosterfish and at time yellowtail. Slow trolling with sardinas was the most productive method of finding action, though anglers also reported success on hoochies and Rapalas.

Pelagic red crabs are being found on the local fishing grounds, this has been more of a commercial pangero deal than sportfishing.  Each day these pelagic crabs are found on the surface, varies daily as to exactly where. These small crustaceans are what the red snapper are being caught on, pretty much exclusively since this is what these true red snapper now have a taste for.

Striped marlin activity has been scattered, though anglers wishing to target these billfish have had an average of a couple opportunities per day on stripers ranging up to 120 pounds, much of this action was found 8 to 15 miles off of the Palmilla to Chileno region. Strikes came on trolled lures, rigged ballyhoo and dropped back baits. We expect as water temperatures raise some and attract more offshore bait species, such as mackerel, sardinetas and flying fish, we will see improved action offshore.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 44 charters for the past week, with anglers reported a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 22 bonito, 15 amberjack, 22 cabrilla, 183 yellowtail, 114 huachinago (red snapper), 46 sierra, 32 roosterfish,14 dorado, 44 yellowfin tuna, 26 triggerfish, 3 mako shark, 1 wahoo and 45 black skipjack.  

Good fishing, Eric

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