December 18, 2010

The official start of the winter season is next week, while much of the United States is enduring freezing temperatures the light crowds of tourists now visiting the Los Cabos area have been enjoying clear sunny skies with highs near 80 degrees. Cooler marine moisture dropped early morning into the mid 50s. Water temperatures are progressively cooling now ranging from 70 to 76 throughout the region. Greener cooler currents are pushing in a southern direction from Vinorama. The Gordo Banks area has had the most favorable conditions in recent days and this is where much of the sport fishing fleet has been concentrated.

With the lighter crowds this past week, this help the supply and demand situation for the available bait. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches by the commercial netters, also on most days there has been fresh dead brined sardinas available at the dock early in the a.m. Mackerel and caballito have been very limited.

Last year during this same time frame anglers were catching quality sized yellowfin tuna and that is also what is happening this past week. Tuna to over 200 pounds are being hooked into while drift fishing on the Gordo Banks. Average yellowfin was in the 30 to 80 pound class, but much larger fish are on these same fishing grounds, at least two tuna over 200 pounds were taken in the past several days. Using a combination of live and dead sardinas proved most productive, leaders of 40 to 60 were preferred, as these fish were shy do to all of the natural food sources now in the area, due to these light leaders many of the larger fish were lost. The action for the smaller grade of yellowfin off of Iman and Punta Gorda has tapered off since a good start beginning the week. Now the best action has definitely been around the Inner Gordo Bank. Late week it was common for charter to have two or three tuna in the 70 to 90 pound class per morning.

Dorado were showing up in the daily fish counts more frequently, more of these fish were found trolling within a couple miles of shore and many anglers found their two fish limit in a hurry, with sizes averaging 10 to 20 pounds.

Wahoo were becoming more scattered in the cooling waters, each day a few of these fish were being landed, most of them from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, with sardinas and yo-yo jigs accounting for the majority. We did hear of an occasional wahoo striking on Rapala or skirted lure as well.

Early this last week a couple of black marlin were hooked into while slow trolling live chihuil on the Gordo Banks, on estimated 350 pound black was lost after a three hour battle by a group of anglers on the super panga “Killer II” and another black that was hooked up at the same time was landed by local pangero Hugo Pino, it weighed in the 450 pound range. The lack of mackerel locally made it tough to find any concentrations of striped marlin, only some fish here and there. A couple of larger sharks seen, mako and one tiger were seen on tuna grounds, several hooked fish were bitten by sharks and there was also a very large sea lion that was a major nuisance.

Sierra and smaller sized roosterfish were moving inshore in greater concentrations, this should produce consistent light tackle action for the coming months.

Limited action reported off the bottom, a few amberjack, pargo and cabrilla, current has been swift, this makes it that more difficult to work the bottom spots. 

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 51 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 5 striped marlín, 112 dorado, 16 wahoo, 139 yellowfin tuna, 16 pargo, 12 cabrilla, 9 amberjack, 26 roosterfish and 24 sierra.

December 11, 2010

Los Cabos is greeting visitors with warm sunny skies, this while much of the United States is enduring freezing early winter temperatures. Daytime highs in Cabo were near 80 degrees, with lows in the upper 50s. Breezes were moderate and blew prominently from the north, this kept ocean conditions comfortable for anglers out of San Jose del Cabo. Water temperature were slowly dropping, now averaging a still favorable 74 to 76 degrees through much of the Southern Baja Region.

There was a sharp decline in the numbers of tourists arriving in recent days, this can be expected, as people have other priorities and are now gearing up for Christmas. More whales are migrate in to local coastal waters, as these mammals arrive to enjoy the sub tropic conditions for the next several months. For the anglers that were here to fish, they found the fishing action to be a bit more spotty and scattered, but with persistence and patience there was a variety of quality game fish found on the local fishing grounds. The majority of the action was found from Chileno to Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank.

The bait situation was limited, on most days there were caballito and sardinas available. Schools of sardinas were found close to shore off of Palmilla and towards Vinorama, though they varied in size and quantity. Obtaining the sardinas was necessary for targeting the yellowfin tuna that were schooling close to shore off of Chileno and Punta Gorda, these fish ranged up to 30 pounds and fly lining with sardinas was most successful. There was a larger grade of yellowfin holding on the Gordo Banks, most of these tuna ranged in the 30 to 60 pound class, tuna to over100 pounds were landed in recent days, and larger fish were seen at times breaking the surface. The fish seemed a bit finicky due to all of the natural food fish now on these fishing grounds. Using lighter fluorocarbon leaders, with combinations of live and dead baits did result in hook ups. You had to put in a good effort, but many charters did have two or more fish in their box.

Dorado became more scarce again this past week, only an occasional do-do encountered, more of them were found within a couple of miles to shore and weighed less than 20 pounds.. Wahoo action slowed as well, not many were hooked on trolled lures, but slow trolling with various baits did result in some scattered action, some wahoo were also striking on chrome patterned yo-yo style jigs, this while anglers were targeting yellowfin tuna and chumming with their limited supply of bait. Recently it has paid off to purchase extra bait.

Bottom fishing produced a mix of cabrilla, rainbow runners, pargo and amberjack, though no big numbers, strong currents were running on and off, hard to always find favorable conditions to drift over the rock piles. A handful of yellowtail were landed by the La Playita fleet, so we should see more of these jacks arriving with the cooler waters.

Anglers have been starting to troll coastal stretches and are finding some smaller sized roosterfish, jack crevalle and sierra, most of these fish were hooked on sardinas and weighed ten pounds or less, can be fun action for children. Sierra were schooling off of the San Jose hotel zone and have been striking well on hoochies or rapalas early in the morning.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 65 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 1 black marlin, 19 wahoo, 136 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 9 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 2 yellowtail, 18 rainbow runner, 28 roosterfish and 38 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 4, 2010

The sunny weather in the Los Cabos area continues to attract good numbers of anglers which have been targeting various gamefish that are now available on the local fishing ground. Yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and striped marlin remain the higher priority target species now. The ocean water temperature has dropped down into the mid 70 range, 74 to 76 degrees throughout much of the region. Winds became more of a factor this past week, on Monday the northerly’s were strong and actually most of the fleet from launching that day, since the winds have tapered off and conditions are settling back down. Clean water is being found within a couple miles of shore, the majority of the fleets are fishing from Chileno to Iman Bank.

Carnaderos are working overtime in order to find minimal supplies of sardinas, most of these baitfish schools are now found in the direction of Vinorama. Caballito, moonfish and mackerel have been available some days as well.

The week started off with wind and cooler weather conditions, this made fishing more difficult, overall fish counts were down. Though there were some quality catches accounted for, most charters had 2 or 3, up to 10 fish in combination. Yellowfin tuna were most consistent near Iman and also close to shore off of Punta Gorda, drift fishing with sardinas was the ticket, either dead or alive. These tuna averaged up to 20 pounds, at times would become shy, seen on the surface, but finicky. A larger grade of yellowfin were holding on the Gordo Banks, this action became less consistent during this recent cold front and with the lack of sufficient supplies of sardinas for chumming. Most of the fish that were hooked into on the banks were in the 30 to 60 pound size.

Anglers were reporting some larger sized dorado in recent days, not only smaller juveniles, several dorado over 20 pounds were landed out of the La Playita panga area. They were striking on trolled lures, as well as on various baits, much of this action was found close to shore, from La Playita to Punta Gorda, inshore baitfish are attracting more game fish into this stretch.

The striped marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo had become wide open late last week, but now the mackerel schools have been scattered by shrimp trawlers and we will wait for more mackerel to move back in. Stripers are still being found in limited numbers spread throughout the area, much of this action is found within five miles of shore.

Off the bottom anglers found that currents have slacked and more opportunities will be open with cooler waters increasingly favorable to certain structure dwelling fish species. Yellowtail, snapper, bonito, sierra, etc… A handful of dogtooth snapper and amberjack were striking baits off of the high spots, some of them in the 30 to 40 pound class.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 104 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 17 wahoo, 210 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 13 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 16 bonito, 8 roosterfish and 18 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric