Anglers –
March 30, 2019
Despite the local spring break not happening until second and third week of April, we did see a flood of spring break vacationers arriving from northern states. Visitors were greeted with great weather conditions, mostly clear sunny skies and high temperatures averaging 80 degrees. Ocean conditions were relatively calm, moderate swells and winds were not much of a problem, though currents remain swift. We are now still in a transition period, with ocean conditions slowly rebounding, now up to 72 degrees and much cleaner, blue water returning, more signs of batfish, flying fish, etc , all good signs that spring season is arriving and we are optimistic that the fishing action will be very good.
In recent days, bait supplies were limited, ballyhoo, some slabs of squid, very little activity for any sardinas, many charters are caching some of their own chihuil or mackerel out on the grounds near the Gordo Banks. Overall the action this week was tougher than last, but a variety of fish were found and there some quality specimens accounted for.
Billfishing was very spotty and scattered, though every day there are reports of striped marlin being seen, just not in any numbers and much of the time they were not in the mood to strike, though a handful were landed, weighing in the 90 to 110 lb. range. With the ocean now on a cleaning and warming trend we do expect to see improved billfish action soon.
Species such as wahoo, dorado or yellowfin tuna were hard to find now, on Thursday we did have one 40 lb. yellowfin brought in, it was taken near Cardon on a trolled chihuil for bait, other tuna were lost this same day, then on Friday bite picked up with some more quality tuna in the 40 to 60 lb. class were accounted for. So this bite seems to be developing once again. Off of Cabo San Lucas we heard reports of some tuna, we assume that these fish were being found further offshore and most likely associated with moving porpoise. We are only seeing an occasional dorado, and had no wahoo to report.
The best chance of catching fish now has been to concentrate over the structure, with the more productive areas being from the Gordo Banks to the San Luis Bank. Using various whole and cut baits, as well as yo-yo style and flat fall jigs, anglers found a variety of species. Early in the week we were seeing a handful of quality sized yellowtail, in the 25 to 35 lb. range, most of these hooked into on live baits off of the Gordo Banks. Later in the week this action seemed to stall out, as more sharks and other species were found. The Eastern Pacific bonito was the most numerous, most of these in the 3 to 8 lb. range, an occasional larger fish. A few broomtail group, amberjack, leopard grouper and various pargo species were also found.
Closer to shore over the rocky areas, there were more triggerfish than anything else, a few nice island jacks found as well, only an odd sierra being reported, as well as a handful of jack crevalle and smaller sized roosterfish.
There are still some whales being seen, but this is now the final time frame for these mammals, as the majority are already on their northern migration and the rest of them will be following soon. More sea lions starting to hang out on the same popular fishing grounds, this never seems to help the fishing any.
The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 85 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 6 dorado, 9 yellowfin tuna, 12 yellowtail, 8 leopard grouper, 245 bonito, 26 red snapper, 3 island jack, 16 roosterfish, 2 surgeonfish, 6 barred pargo, 9 yellow snapper, 22 amberjack, 12 golden eyed tilefish, 4 glasseye snapper, 7 baqueta grouper, 6 sierra, 4 jack crevalle,3 broomtail grouper and 80 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric