Anglers –
April 14, 2018
We did notice lighter crowds this past week. Visitors were greeted by cooler weather patterns, which started with winds switching from out of the south last Sunday, continuing through the first part of the week. This pushed in cold Pacific currents which turned over the ocean as far north as Los Frailes, green colored water and dropped water temperatures into the 67 degree range. Of course this did not help the surface fishing action much at all, basically shutting down the tuna and marlin bite, though the all-around climate was nice, lows of about 60 degrees and highs up to 80 degrees. Typical spring time conditions during this transition period.
Anglers found that sardinas were scattered as well, some of the clear type of sardinas which are used for dead baits, also some rigged ballyhoo, a few caballito. The best action found was for shallow structure species, using various baits, as well as more fish starting to strike on yo-yo jigs, particularly the bonito and leopard grouper, a few amberjack and yellowtail.
Last Sunday the yellowfin action was very good north of Vinorama and a few were caught on Monday as well, these were fish in the 30 to 60 lb. class. Since then the cold green water has shut this action down and now we are waiting patiently for the conditions to rebound. In the meantime the best bet has been to concentrate on bottom species over the various rock piles. The red crabs also were less active, but the fish were starting to strike the yo-yo jigs better. Several yellowtail up to 30 lb. were accounted for, a handful of amberjack, a variety of snapper and pargo and quite a few leopard grouper in the 5 to 18 lb. range. All very good eating fish.
Along the shoreline there were sierra, jack crevalle and an occasional roosterfish, this action was spotty though, but if you were at the right place at the right time there were some nice fish found.
Billfish, dorado, wahoo were not in the picture at all, with the exception of a few striped marlin and dorado early in the week before conditions completely changed.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 66 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 5 dorado, 18 yellowfin tuna, 32 yellow snapper, 20 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 42 huachinango (red snapper), 125 bonito, 7 amberjack, 9 yellowtail, 22 barred pargo, 6 roosterfish, 10 jack crevalle, 35 sierra, 1 halibut, 12 grunt, 15 flag cabrilla, 7 island jack, 6 surgeon Fish, 65 spotted rose snapper and 90 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric