More crowds of tourists continue to arrive in Los Cabos, taking advantage of the great climate and all of the outdoor activities offered. We are seeing pristine conditions, clear sunny skies, highs of 80 degrees and lows averaging 65 degrees, last week we saw lows down to 55 degrees, though this week conditions warmed some. Ocean swells very slight, water temperatures dropping slowly, still in the 77 to 80 degree range.
Bait supplies remain steady for caballito and ballyhoo, with slabs of squid being offered, but with the lack of tuna action are not being used much. Another option is trying to chum up chihuil on the Inner Gordo, which takes extra time and is never a guarantee.
For local charters most action recently has been centered on the grounds from Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. This is where dorado and wahoo are being found. Anglers are using a mix of lures as well as rigged ballyhoo and slow trolling live baits, which have probably been the most successful technique. Lots of pressure on these same areas and fish have been increasingly more spooky. Average catches ranged from a couple of fish, up to 6 to 8. Dorado sizes were up to 20 lb. and wahoo to 45 lb., though average were more like 20 to 30 lb.
Tuna have been scarce, though we have seen a few, most of these under 25 lb., found on the same grounds as were the dorado and wahoo. We hear of reports of yellowfin tuna being far offshore traveling with porpoise, some 40 plus miles outside of Cabo San Lucas and about a 70 mile run each way from Puerto Los Cabos Marina, way too far for an average day charter, these tuna were reportedly in the 15 to 25 lb. class.
Billfish action was red hot on the Pacific side of the Peninsula, though we saw more this past week of the striped marlin showing off of San Jose del Cabo as well, with sizes ranging to about 130 lb.
Very little bottom or inshore action now going on. Whales have been a bit behind schedule for arriving, but are now showing slowly in greater numbers and will be around for the next few months.
As has been a ongoing deal the past five years or so the spear fishing crowds come out in numbers this time of year, going after the prized wahoo on the inshore grounds where all of the rod and reel anglers are as well. One of their favorite areas is close off Punta Gorda. This used to be a great place for fishing and have chances at catching the late season wahoo, but with so many spearos in the water in this relatively small zone the fishery can not sustain both forms of sport. It is to the point that authorities should place restrictions on certain regions on where spearos are allowed versus rod and reel anglers. But of course there has never been much thought of protecting future fish stocks locally, it is more of the attitude of what can be found today and who cares about the future.
We saw another wave of holiday vacationers arriving this past week. Weather patterns were great for the fall season, as much of the U.S. is now chilling off quickly. Relentless north winds were an issue, this limited where anglers could comfortably and efficiently put in their efforts. Ocean temperatures were still in the 78 to 80 degree range, warmer than usual for this time frame. This weekend we saw low early morning temperatures dip to 55 degrees, this cooling trend will most certainly contribute to an ocean cooling trend as well. Days were still mostly sunny and highs near 80 degrees.
Bait options remained the same, caballito, ballyhoo, slabs of squid and some charters were able to catch chihuil. The mackerel which had been schooling offshore of the marina area, seem to have temporarily scattered, in turn slowing the striped marlin action, we expect this action to rebound as water temperature cools some. No reports of any sardinas being found, have not seen these baitfish at all since mid October when big tournaments started.
Despite relentless north winds the local fleets were able to find calmer conditions close to shore on grounds such as Cardon, La Fortuna, at times outside on Iman Bank, but these grounds were more vulnerable to the winds. Wahoo and dorado were found closer to shore where winds did not hit too bad. Trolling live bait was most productive, dorado were found on these same grounds. More wahoo strikes were missed than were actual fish landed, as is normal for these elusive gamefish. Sizes of the wahoo averaged 20 to 35 lb., we saw a few nicer dorado to over 30 lb. this week, though the majority were more in the 10 lb. range. Numbers of fish per charter ranged from one or two to 8 or 10 in combination.
Tuna action still very spotted, a handful of yellowfin were accounted for, from the Vinorama and Iman Banks, these fish ranged to 60 lb. Though drift style fishing is never easy on choppy and windy grounds. The tuna are definitely in the area still and we are optimistic as wind patterns reside we expect this action to become more consistent.
Not much going on inshore or off the bottom now, most charters are targeting surface action for larger gamefish. Sardinas are always the preferred bait for late fall and winter action closer to shore and for off the shallow rock piles, so we are crossing our fingers that some schools of sardinas will reappear soon.
We are now winding down the busy fall season, typically after Thanksgiving we see a lull in tourist activity, as people begin planning for the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. There were moderate crowds of anglers this past week and weather patterns were increasingly unpredictable, more north winds, most of the week it blew, limited options for anglers, even on the days when forecast predicted lighter breeze. Ocean swells were minimal, except for wind chop on offshore grounds, water temperature was still averaging near 80 degrees. The wind contributed to pushing in currents that were not as clean blue as in previous weeks, a bit off colored. Weather was actually very comfortable now, highs about 80 and lows down to 63 degrees., scattered cloud cover, but also plenty of sunshine.
Sportfishing fleets were fishing the grounds from Palmilla, straight off of San Jose del Cabo, Gordo Banks, La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis and as far north as Vinorama. Most popular grounds were the Iman Bank where wahoo schools were concentrated, bite varied from day to day, as pressure was fairly heavy and these fish became finicky with all the boat traffic. Best chances were trolling live baits such as caballito or chihuil, though dead bait work at times, as did casting yo-yo jigs. We saw wahoo in sizes from 15 lb. on up to one monster 60 lb. ‘hoo that was weighed in on Saturday. On some days charters had as many as five wahoo, others were fortunate to land one, of course as is normal, many of the wahoo strikes were lost, one out of three always seems to be a pretty good average for hook up to actual landing ratio.
These same grounds also produced dorado, a handful of yellowfin tuna, sailfish and striped marlin. Dorado were not nearly as numerous as in recent weeks and most of these were under ten pounds and exception of a few to 15 lb.
Best local marlin bite was found straight off marina, 3 to 5 miles offshore, this is where schools of mackerel are showing and attracting striped marlin. A couple more black marlin were landed from off of the Gordo Banks, these were in the 300 to 350 lb. range. One 239 lb. yellowfin was also landed off of these banks, a couple of other cow sized tuna were lost after long battles, as they were seen circling near the boat but ended up breaking off. We expect that chances for these larger fish will continue as long as conditions remain favorable.
Not much to report off the bottom or near shore, a few sierra were brought in, bonito and triggerfish. Hopefully schools of sardinas will rebound soon, they always are a preferred bait for the inshore and shallow structure action.
