With the Easter vacation week now past and spring break holiday times coming to an end, things have quieted down locally. Actually now is a great time to visit, weather conditions are ideal, moderate crowds and fishing action has shown signs of improvement recently. Clear sunny skies with highs near 85 degrees, for the most part calm ocean conditions, with the exception of a couple of days of north wind earlier in the week.
Ocean water temperatures are now in the 70 to 72 degree range. Bait supplies have included caballito, jacks, slabs of squid and ballyhoo, no reports of sardinas showing, though there have been some mullet appearing. Most of the fishing activity has now been concentrated on the grounds to the north of Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman, San Luis and as far north as Vinorama.
Close to shore along the beach stretches there have been good numbers of roosterfish found, striking on caballito, mullet and other jack species. Most of these roosterfish are juvenile sized fish under 15 lb. Remember to always carefully release these fish so that they can grow to maturity and reproduce. Not many sierra are being seen now because of the lack of sardinas for bait.
Bottom action showed signs of improvement, even though the bonito were still the most common species found while working the rock piles with yo-yo jigs, we saw a few more leopard grouper, amberjack and red snapper (huachinango) in recent days. Also a mix of barred pargo, yellow snapper, triggerfish and others, all very good eating species.
We saw more yellowfin tuna action this week, no big numbers, but at least everyday we are seeing a handful of nice yellowfin brought in. Sizes were ranging from 20 to 60 lb. These tuna were striking on strips of squid, caballito, as well as a few on yo-yo jigs, they were found on various high spots from San Luis to Vinorama. This was an encouraging deal, since the tuna bite has been dead for some weeks now.
Scattered through these same grounds were a handful of dorado, a few of them over 15 lb. No wahoo were reported, though as the weather continues to warm we expect water temperatures will also warm up and the wahoo should become more active, as they typically do at the end of this month.
Not much billfish action reported close to San Jose del Cabo, except we did hear that some striped marlin were found on the 95 spot where charters from Cabo San Lucas were operating. Not much going on the Pacific now, as north winds were gusty and conditions were rough.
Very busy weekend locally, most of all small businesses were shut down and families were swarming and filling up all of the various local beaches. With limited numbers of charter captains even available there were not a lot of charters heading out the past few days, this next week we will see more anglers ready to go.
Earlier in the week there was more north wind that contributed to pushing in greenish waters. These turned over conditions shut down the surface action, particularly the wahoo that had been biting last week. Water temperatures were in the 71 to 73 degree range. So we are back in the seasonal transition period as is normal for this month. Anglers are searching the various rock piles for a variety of bottom species.
Highlights were a handful of nice leopard grouper and amberjack, up to 30 lb., as well as bonito, fortune jack, island jack, pompano, barred pargo and others. All very good eating fish. Anglers were using a combination of bait and yo-yo style jigs. Sardinas became scarce again, there were limited supplies of caballito, jacks, as well ballyhoo and slabs of squid.
The lack of sardinas put a damper on the inshore sierra action for the time being. Perhaps the baitfish moved further from shore during the recent full moon phase, we are hoping that this next week these schooling baitfish reappear. We greatly rely on the sardinas for this time of year for the inshore and shallow water structure fishing.
The whale migration is nearing the end now, the final few weeks before these mammals begin their migration north back to their summer feeding grounds off of Alaska.
As we have seen in recent weeks, fluctuating numbers of spring break crowds are arriving in Los Cabos. This coming week is when the local spring break officially starts, ending on April 9. Next weekend beach crowds will be at heaviest times for the entire year, as many local families go on extended beach camping trips and many of the smaller businesses in town will be completely closed down.
Weather patterns have been very pleasant, 85 degree highs, with morning cloud cover burning off, and a lot of sunshine. Some on and off north wind, which can still be expected for this winter to spring transition period. Ocean swells were minimal and water temperatures were in the 72 to 73 degree range.
Anglers have found a mix of bait available, sardinas, caballito, slabs of squid and ballyhoo being most common. Trying to jig up some chihuil was another hit or miss option off of the Gordo Banks. Most local fleets are now fishing areas from Punta Gorda,, Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. All around the action was scattered and no particular species was being found in big numbers, with exception perhaps the Mexican white bonito.
Highlight of the week were the wahoo that anglers hooked into while trolling closer to Punta Gorda or Cardon. Not the normal season for these highly prized pelagics, but it proves that you can never really know what might happen. These fish normally prefer warmer waters, bite was sporadic day to day and slow trolling live bait was the best bet, particularly the elusive chihuil. We saw one monster wahoo of 79 lb. landed and several others over 50 lb., so of the handful that were brought in they were of impressive size.
A few dorado up to 15 lb. were also accounted for and a couple of scattered striped marlin, but overall offshore surface action was limited, unless you were lucky enough to be in the right spot when one of these wahoo was ready to strike. Yellowfin tuna action was pretty much dead this past week.
Off the bottom there was a mix of various pargo, snapper, grouper, amberjack, but by far most prevalent were the bonito, striking on yo-yo jigs over the rocky high spots, sizes averaging 3 to 8 lb.
Inshore there was good action found for both sierra and smaller sized roosterfish, along the local hotel zones was where much of this action was found, while using live sardinas for bait.
