August 21, 2022  

Light crowds of anglers now, enjoying a quiet period with no tropical storms threatening, quite a bit of cloud cover this past week, with cooling afternoon breeze, perfect time to visit, with main highlight being the quality sized yellowfin tuna near the Iman Bank. No new storms at this time, of course the next four weeks are historically the time frame with the highest percentage of being impacted by hurricanes. We all have our fingers crossed, following the forecast closely.

Anglers are now using caballito, ballyhoo, sardinas and slabs of squid for bait. Just this past week the yellowfin tuna have begun to prefer the stripped squid over sardinas. Problem with schooling needlefish aggressively stealing the sardinas as quickly as you set your drift. Ocean water temperature dropped a few degrees this past week, as on and off south winds pushed in different currents. Water was now in the 82 to 86 degree range, warmest spots in the direction of Los Frailes.

With the cooler water we saw a few more wahoo being landed this past week, striking mainly on trolled rapalas, weights were up to 40 lb. Still no big numbers, but a couple charters landed as many as three wahoo in a morning. not many boats were strictly looking for wahoo, as the majority were putting in most of their time trying for the tuna.The yellowfin tuna were mainly concentrated on the Iman Bank now, sizes from 40 to 160 lb. were brought in this past week. Average fish in the 50 to 70 lb. class. Bite was sporadic, lots of patience and persistence needed. Also fairly heavy pressure since this was the first tuna action seen locally for quite a while and was the main action going on at this time.

Not as many dorado now, and the majority of the fish we saw were under ten pounds, only a handful of larger bulls seen, unlike the previous month where we saw significant catches on bulls of 40 to 50 plus lb.
Not much found off the bottom now, more triggerfish or various species of sharks, though there were a few nice dogtooth snapper hooked into on the same grounds where the tuna were, time of year when these largest of snapper love from near shore to offshore structure.

Not much going on with billfish either, again not many anglers have actually been targeting them. We did see a few striped marlin and sailfish. This is always the time frame when the big black and blue marlin move in on the local seamounts, normally we would see the football sized tuna showing up on these same grounds, which is a favorite food source for these larger pelagics. Everything seems to be running late this year, so hopefully this month we will see some more baitfish activity to attract the largest of gamefish.

Good Fishing, Eric

August 14, 2022  

We continue to feel tropical weather patterns in the Los Cabos area. At this time there is another tropical depression passing off to the west of the Peninsula, only impact we felt locally is some more cloud cover and increased humidity, no rain to speak of except early in the week some isolated rain showers near Cabo San Lucas. Ocean swells have been moderate and winds have not been much of a factor this past week. Ocean water temperature has been reaching the upper 80s, also now we are just past the full moon phase, which can often change fish feeding patterns during the daytime.

Bait options have been similar, with caballito found inside marina channel and sardinas along the beach stretch just to the north of marina entrance. Ballyhoo and slabs of squid were another option, as were looking for bolito schools on the offshore grounds. Center of activity this past week was near the Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank areas. This is where yellowfin tuna are now schooling, many fish seen boiling on the surface, but actually getting these finicky fish to strike was difficult. Though with persistence and patience everyday some of these yellowfin are being hooked up, some charters landing as many as three.

Best choice of bait seemed to be sardina, while drift fishing, live and dead bait both worked. Anglers were going down to 30 lb. and 40 lb. leaders to help entice bites, using any lighter was not worth it, since these tuna are averaging in the 50 to 70 lb. class. Mid week there was one tuna of 160 lb. landed, two hour battle on 40 lb. outfit. So this is encouraging news to see these tuna here in good numbers, optimistic that bite will improve as moon darkens. Though the pressure has also increased since news travels fast these days.

Dorado action continues, though more smaller fish ahve moved in, not nearly as many of the large bulls that we had been seeing in recent weeks, remember to always release the smaller dorado, especially the females (smaller head), these fish grow very fast and are always filled with eggs, give them a chance to reproduce.

With the water temperature so high now fish can become sluggish, especially wahoo, these fish are in the area and a few are being caught, but hard to target them specifically because bite is limited.
Billfish action was limited, with most charters trying for the possible tuna action. Though we did see a handful of striped marlin and one 200 lb. blue marlin brought in. More marlin action is now being found on the grounds off of Cabo San Lucas. This is the time when we usually see some black marlin showing up on the Gordo Banks, though you really need to target these specifically to have a chance, long hours of trolling larger sized baitfish.

Not much going on now close to shore or off the bottom, mainly just looking for the surface action. A few leopard grouper, bonito and snapper. Also saw a few late season roosterfish this week.

Good Fishing, Eric

August 7, 2022  

Southern Baja is definitely feeling more like the tropics this past week. Presently there is another Tropical Depression passing off to the west of the Southern Peninsula, again no impact with land is forecast, though swells will increase some and there are reports of isolated thunder showers. Last Sunday afternoon we felt thunder showers for an hour. on and off full blast, some areas recorded up to two inches of rainfall. Any moisture received now is much welcome, as the desert landscape has been scoring dry through the previous six months. Ocean water temperatures has been averaging in the 80’s, up to 86 degrees was reported.

We saw light numbers of anglers this past week, again the highlight was large bull dorado which have been found on local fishing grounds the last several weeks. This had been the best bite for larger size dorado we have seen in many years. Mixed sizes of dorado are being encountered, larger fish to over 50 lb. Most success has been while using bait, but a percentage of these fish are striking lures. Live caballito and sardina have been available, another option has been ballyhoo and jigging up bolito on offshore grounds and using them for trolling baits.

Dorado action was spotty, sometimes better than others.A few stray wahoo were reported, tuna were scarce as well, one monster yellowfin was hooked on the San Luis Bank, only to be lost after a several hour battle on heavy equipment, this tune had hit on a trolled bolito.
Not much inshore or bottom action going on now, as this is now more the season for targeting the offshore surface action.

A huge congratulations goes out to Team Stella June, along with with local La Playita legendary angler Hugo Pino, with their 375 lb. Black Marlin they won top honors and highest payout of over one million dollars during this past week’s Bisbee’s East Cape Offshore event.

Good Fishing, Eric

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