Anglers –

February 28, 2015

As the month of February comes to an end we have seen unpredictable crazy weather patterns continue. This week has been more like we would expect at this time, cooler currents, off colored ocean conditions, variable winds, predominately from the north. Though the climate has been very comfortable, lows in the mid-50s and high temperatures about 80 degrees, with plenty of sunshine. Whale watching is now at its peak, as scores of whale sightings are being spotting on any given day throughout the region.

Anglers encountered changing conditions and this meant tough times when looking for yellowfin tuna or dorado, those species have scattered and now we are finding more of the cooler water species as we would expect during the winter season. Catches have included bonito, sierra, roosterfish, pargo, red snapper, cabrilla, grouper, yellowtail, skipjack, triggerfish and others. The Eastern Pacific bonito has been one of the more abundant fish, striking off the high spots north of Punta Gorda on both sardinas and yo-yo jigs, average size is about 5 lb, some going as large as 12 lb. Good fighting fish and excellent eating, similar to tuna or even albacore. Supplies of sardinas were a bit harder to find, mainly because of the early low tides and the rocky areas where the schools of baitfish are now concentrated. They are finding some live sardinas, but supplies are not what they have been as in previous weeks.

A handful of nice yellowtail are just starting to show up, all of the fish landed have been in the 25 to 30 lb. class, from the Gordo Banks to San Luis Bank, these jacks should start showing in greater numbers. Live bait off the bottom and yo-yo jigs have both worked. A few sharks on the same grounds to deal with. Also the ongoing sea lion problem. The all-around bottom action is improving, we are now seeing red snapper (huchinango), barred pargo, yellow snapper, leopard grouper, pinta cabrilla, flag cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish.

Sierra have continued to be the main species running close to shore, most of these fish are averaging in the 2 to 5 pound range, though we saw one 15 lb. trophy brought in this week, also a couple of others near the ten pound mark. A few roosterfish in the mix, mostly smaller sized juvenile fish. Slow trolling with sardinas have proved the best bet for these fish.

Billfish action has been slow, a few scattered striped marlin, no feeding frenzies, as offshore bait schools have been hard to find, no concentrations, we expect the coming months will bring more consistent offshore action. There has been a lack of mackerel this season so far.

We have seen significant progress on rebuilding efforts of the panga dock area in Puerto Los Cabos Marina, in another month or so we are hoping things will be much improved. Local road crews in La Playita had dug up and closed the main access road, beginning work on the final long overdue pavement section from the Marine Group to Hotel El Ganzo, planned to install new drainage, water pipe work etc… Though the crew completely abandoned all efforts of this project and have left us with an embarrassing mess. Someone has got to step in and fix this situation. Another disaster is the gill and drift net operations going on in local waters, reports of netters filling pangas with thousands of pounds of so called protected species such as juvenile roosterfish, this just does not make any sense at all, where are the authority’s priorities, is there any thought at all about the state of the future fishery?

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 96 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 5 yellowtail, 18 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 235 sierra, 310 Eastern Pacific bonito, 9 amberjack, 55 cabrilla, 58 huachiango, 12 roosterfish, 35 yellow snapper, 12 hammerhead shark and 80 skipjack.

Good fishing, Eric