February 1, 2020

This past week we felt an overall cooling trend, scattered cloud cover, variable winds, strong at times, predominately out of the north, high temperatures reaching into the lower 70s. We are in the midst of winter season now, so these cooler conditions are not unusual, we expect similar weather through the month of February, which is always known to be full of unpredictable patterns. Local resorts are now seeing large crowds of tourists, though not a high percentage of them are serious anglers. This is a common scenario, as this time frame is not the peak season for most of the highly sought after game fish.

The all-around fishing action slowed this past week, with cooler and gusty ocean conditions being the major factor. Best action out of San Jose del Cabo seemed to be straight out front, from Palmilla to the Hotel Zone and north towards Punta Gorda. The grounds to the north, where fleets do regular concentrate their efforts, have been turned over with greener cooler currents, better looking water and more schooling baitfish are presently right off of the Marina entrance. Ocean is now in the 70 to 71 degree range through most of the region, the coolest currents are near Los Frailes and are pushing further south every week.

Off of San Jose del Cabo there continued to be sizable schools of mackerel and sardineta reported, also more black skipjack moving in on these same grounds. Bait vendors have limited supplies of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid.

The yellowfin tuna action stalled out through the week, also dorado became scarcer with each passing day. Early in the week a few wahoo were reported, also more dorado, but as week progressed with not so ideal conditions, ocean temperatures cooled and surface action slowed way down. Billfish was very slow as well, some days the striped marlin would be more active, but the very next day they could not be found, again more consistent early in the week.

Not much going close to shore, a handful of sierra, a few roosterfish, though the cooler off colored current slowed that action way down. There had been mid-morning frigate bird activity followed, with feeding dorado found close to shore, but that action faded, we hope that as weather settles and we see a slight warming trend, that action will improve.

Currents were swift, but there was a mix of bottom fish being found, not large fish, but a few quality leopard grouper to 15 lb., yellow snapper, with other pargo and cabrilla species.

The weather patterns in the coming weeks will be a factor as for how the fishing action shapes up.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 29 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 6 wahoo, 32 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 13 cabrilla, 9 bonito, 32 red snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 4 barred pargo, 1 halibut, 1 yellowtail, 2 amberjack and 26 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

January 25, 2020

Anglers –

We once again saw more numbers of tourists arriving, winter time travelers looking to enjoy the ideal local climate. Scattered early day cloud cover, plenty of sunshine, with high temperatures ranging 75 to 80 degrees. We continued to have the cycles of north winds, though by this weekend ocean conditions were ideal, no wind to speak of, as well as improved fishing action. Water temperatures were in the 71 to 74 degree range. Early in the week there was a particularly swift current sweeping through the grounds north of Punta Gorda and this made it tougher for anglers to do much. Overall the ocean clarity improved, but at times there were swirling greenish currents encountered.

Large concentrations of baitfish now congregating on the grounds just offshore of the San Jose del Cabo Hotel Zone, mackerel and sardineta. Other bait options included, caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid. With all of the food source concentrated in this area there were dorado and striped marlin found in good numbers on these same grounds. This is all in very close proximity of the local marina, a seasonal event that always gets the locals excited, sometimes this will only last for a week or two before baitfish schools migrate elsewhere, we will see how this season progresses.

Inshore there were roosterfish, sierra and a variety of shallow structure species. Most of these fish were smaller in size, though this past week a handful of much larger roosterfish up to 40 lb. were reported, also sierra to 8 lb.

The action for yellowfin tuna had stalled out during the past couple of weeks, due to weather conditions and changing water, etc. This weekend as the weather settled down for a couple of days, the yellowfin tuna became active Friday on the Gordo Banks once again. Anglers were drift fishing with squid and landed tuna up to 80 lb., all of these fish seemed to be in the 50 to 80 lb. class. Earlier in the week there were a few smaller football sized tuna found scattered, but these were the first nicer grade tuna found in recent days. No huge numbers, but there was a fair chance at catching two or three of these fish.

Wahoo were scarce with the cooler water, though a handful were accounted for on the grounds from Punta Gorda to Cardon. It seems that the ocean conditions near Vinorama is now cooler and dirtier, better looking blue water now found nearer San Jose el Cabo.

The highlight off of the bottom was a 70 lb. class amberjack, also we saw a few more leopard grouper, yellow snapper, red snapper and smaller amberjack in the mix. We anticipate more structure action in coming months, as that is the normal pattern as we near spring time. We heard about reports of smaller yellowtail on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, this is usually a sign that these gamefish are eventually moving in the direction of the Sea Of Cortez, it has been several years now since we saw a great run of these sought after gamefish.

Peak season now for whales, should be easy to spot these mammals for at least another month.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 80 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 16 striped marlin, 148 dorado, 20 yellowfin tuna, 5 wahoo, 18 sierra, 32 roosterfish, 12 cabrilla, 4 porgy, 6 bonito, 4 pompano, 38 red snapper, 8 yellow snapper, 2 dogtooth snapper, 7 barred pargo, 8 amberjack and 25 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

January 18, 2020

Moderate winter time crowds now, noticeably lighter, as schools return to session after traditional holiday seasons. Weather patterns are typically unpredictable, lows in 50s some days and highs up to mid-80s on others. Wind predominately from the north, in cycles of two, three, four days. Moderate ocean swells, with clarity fluctuating accordingly to running currents. Ocean temperatures have been in the 72 to 74 degree range, slightly warmer than normal for this time frame.

Bait options consisted of caballito, ballyhoo, slabs of squid, sardineta and some mackerel. Large schools of baitfish now congregating on areas off of San Jose del Cabo, more sardineta than anything else. No word on sardinas moving within range of local fleets.

Striped Marlin are following their food source in this same direction, though still not in big numbers, but more this week compared to last. Dorado were the more numerous gamefish at this time, found throughout the area, often close to shore, striking on a variety of lures, but more readily on available bait. Sizes ranged up to 20 lb., though the majority were averaging ten pounds.

Wahoo action rebounded somewhat this week, as we saw ocean temperatures remain warm enough to keep these fish in the area. Still this action was more sporadic, most strikes were reported from Punta Gorda to Vinorama. Sizes were all the way from sierra sized wahoo, up to 45 lb. Ballyhoo and caballito both produced a higher percentage of strikes.

Juvenile sized roosterfish and are now seeing more sierra found along local beach stretches. At times frigate birds could be seen circling and diving closer to shore, especially mid-morning, this activity was typically associated with feeding dorado.

Yellowfin tuna action was spotty, but we are seeing limited numbers of tuna in the 10 to 25 lb. class taken through the inshore zone, seen more near Cardon and La Fortuna recently. Striking on smaller sized lures and while drift fishing with strips of squid.

Not much going off the bottom, commercial fleet has concentrated on the red snapper, not much red crab surface activity this past week. A few cabrilla taken off of the high spots, bonito, pargo, but more triggerfish than anything else. We look for this bottom bite to improve in coming weeks, hoping for a good yellowtail season.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 68 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 11 striped marlin, 160 dorado,   42 yellowfin tuna, 26 wahoo, 38 pargo, 22 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 9 cabrilla, 4 jack crevalle, bonito 6 and  28 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric