February 13, 2022 

We have seen light crowds of tourists recently, despite some chilly early morning conditions in the lower 50s the weather has been very pleasant, sunny skies warming up into the 70s. Winds have been on and off, predominantly from the north, swells have been slight, overall anglers found good conditions on the ocean. Fleets were fishing in all directions, currents switched around and brought back cleaner blue water right off of the San Jose del Cabo area and this in turn improved the action for striped marlin, dorado and even some wahoo. Ocean water temperature was in the 69 to 73 degree range.

Bait supplies remained the same, mainly caballito, ballyhoo and some mackerel. We heard reports of sardinas found schooling further to the north but so far the local bait netters have not been motivated to scout out these options, since business is limited for numbers of charters to supply and they are doing well selling the bait found right in the marina area. 

Striped marlin was the most active bite going on now, especially on the Pacific  Golden Gate Banks, where some boats were catching double digits of these billfish. Though in recent days the action also busted wide open around the Gordo Banks, good numbers of marlin in the 70 to 100 lb. range were being accounted for. Dorado were mixed in and spread out, found in limited numbers, mostly solitary fish or in small groups, on the same marlin grounds, as well as closer to shore, we actually saw a few impressive sized bulls over 30 lb. 

Big surprise was the wahoo going back on the bite, February not being the normal season for these pelagic gamefish. They were being found closer to shore off various points, such as Punta Gorda, Palmilla and Santa Maria. These were smaller size fish in the 6 to 15 lb. range, though they were still wahoo, striking best on baits and cast and retrieved jigs. Many of these wahoo were hooked and lost, bony mouths and they can easily spit out the hooks or cut lines, some charters did report up to five of these ‘hoo.

Not much off the bottom, more bonito than anything else, though a few amberjack up to 20 lb. were landed, as well as a handful of leopard grouper. Did see a few California sheepshead, Pacific tile fish, triggerfish and yellow snapper. Some red crabs were spotted and  commercial pangeros were able to use these for red snapper action.

Closer to shore it was mostly small sized roosterfish found while trolling baits, not many sierra being seen, we are missing having the smaller sized sardinas for this inshore winter time action, hoping something will happen with these baitfish moving into closer range for our local fleets.

Good Fishing, Eric