Anglers –
January 5, 2019
The New Year started out with more of the same persistent north winds. Lots of families were in town as the holiday vacation were coming to an end. Cooler days, more cloud cover, some days we barely reached 86 degrees for the high. Ocean conditions were actually improving some, despite the wind, water clarity improved and was not so greenish, water temperatures ranged from 71 to 74 degrees.
Still no sign at all of sardinas, caballito in the marina area were also becoming more scattered, ballyhoo were available, also slabs of squid, though with the tuna action now at a standstill the squid is not really being used much. More reports of sardineta and mackerel schools moving in on the bait grounds off of San Jose del Cabo. It is the time of year we see this bait activity, should be around into February, unless the shrimp trawlers start working these same areas.
The striped marlin action is still going strong on the Pacific grounds, though mid-week there was a flurry of stripers found off of San Jose del Cabo, but this faded out as quickly as it had developed, we should start seeing more of the billfish moving in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, as soon as more of the bait schools shift in this direction.
The yellowfin tuna bite completely faded out at the start of the week, the Eastern Pacific bonito were hitting rapalas, hoochies and yo-yo’s on the Gordo Banks, but these were small fish in the 2 to 8 lb. class.
As the water clarity improved we saw more dorado and even the wahoo made a decent showing. Punta Gorda was one of the areas where some wahoo were accounted for, striking mainly on various baits, ranging in sizes up to 35 lb. As long as water does not become too much cooler and turns over to green again, we should still have chances at wahoo through the month. Dorado were spread out striking best on rigged ballyhoo, no huge numbers, though some charters did land as many as four fish and we even saw a couple of dorado that were actually heavier than 20 lb. Though most of these fish were averaging 10 lb.
Not too many sierra or roosterfish found close to shore, most of the sierra we saw were of smaller than normal size. Bottom fish action was limited to mainly triggerfish and various red snapper and pargo species.
The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 64 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 12 striped marlin, 37 dorado, 6 yellowfin tuna, 16 wahoo, 110 bonito, 5 glass eye snapper, 34 red snapper, 4 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 14 baqueta, 14 yellow snapper, 12 tijareta, 8 flag cabrilla, 45 amberjack, 26 sierra and 90 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric