November 13, 2022
The annual largest tournaments are now over, though the busy fall season continues, as we are seeing crowds of anglers arriving to take advantage of great angling opportunities now available. The climate is almost perfect now, highs near 80 degrees and lows about 65 degrees, mostly clear sunny days.
Ocean conditions for the most part have been favorable, moderate swells, water tempera rue in the 78 to 81 degree range, clean blue water found close to shore, variable winds, predominantly from the north, first part of the week strong winds blew early in the days, limiting options at times, by the weekend conditions had laid down and seas were ideal.
Still no schools of sardinas being found, closest reports were from La Paz, far out of our range. Bait supplies have now consisted of caballito, ballyhoo, slabs of squid and offshore San Jose del Cabo hotel zone, 3 to 5 miles out, there have been schools of mackerel starting to appear, early season for these grounds, even though water temperature is still quite warm for this late in the month. More anglers are also now trying to catch chihuil , which are great mackerel sized baits that are like candy for wahoo and all other gamefish as well.
Overall this week produced great fishing action. Week started off with wahoo and dorado being the most common species, quite a few sailfish and striped marlin were found on the same grounds, with most charters now congregating on the various locations from the Gordo Banks, Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis and to Vinorama. Wahoo were striking on trolled rapalas and on trap hooked live baits. Sizes ranged to over 40 lb., average fish in the 20 to 30 lb. class. Dorado were found scattered throughout, striking on similar offerings, sizes up 15 lb.
Marlin action picked up in local waters, with the arrival of mackerel schools straight off the marina area, within several miles of shore. Off of the Gordo Banks this week a couple of quality black marlin in the 300 to 350 lb. range were landed and brought in.
After becoming scarce and finicky through much of the week mainly sue to north winds, the yellowfin bite picked up over the weekend, most popular spots being Gordo Banks, Iman and Vinorama. No big numbers, but there was a good chance at catching one or two nice ones. Quality of these fish were impressive, we saw tuna from 20 lb., up close to 150 lb., a high percentage of them over 100 lb. These yellowfin were hitting various baits, from live chihuil, strips of squid and old school chunk of skipjack. Either while drift fishing or on the slow troll.
Again not much along the shoreline yet and bottom action was limited, though we did see a few more bonito and amberjack, the most impressive structure fish was a whopper 60 lb. dogtooth taken off the Inner Gordo.
First pods of whales are now arriving back into local waters after having migrated north to their summer feeding grounds, the coming months we will see peak activity for these mammals.
Good Fishing, Eric
