December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Another Christmas Season has crept up on us, this past week everyone has been very busy preparing for family events. Weather conditions were extremely harsh across the United States, freezing snow and ice, to flooding rains on the West Coast. Meanwhile in Los Cabos the temperatures have cooled with the official start of winter, but skies remain mostly sunny and high temperatures are reaching into the upper 70s, though early mornings were down in the mid 50s, crispy desert chill, visitors do need to remember their jackets.

Water conditions changed dramatically this past week, dropping off from an average of 75/76 degrees down to a low of 69 degrees, before now rebounding up to 72 degrees. Currents were strong and pushed in greener cooler water which scattered gamefish accordingly. The great bite for quality sized yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks came to a complete halt , as most charters were now concentrating closer to shore for a mix of sierra and other reef dwellers. Some yellowfin were being found further offshore moving with porpoise, but this was some 15 to 25 miles offshore and it was hit or miss for mostly smaller sized tuna. Striped marlin action was very slow as well, with the baitfish scattered the marlin seem to be holding down deep and not concentrated on any spot.

The wind has been light to moderate recently and anglers enjoyed comfortable conditions for the most part. Supplies of sardinas have rebounded some, as there is now less pressure from light crowds, schools of these baitfish have now been located off the local beaches from Punta Gorda to Palmilla and Chileno, most days the bait was plentiful and of good size. Best all around action in recent days was found directly off of Palmilla Point, using a mix of yo-yo’s, rapalas and sardinas anglers were finding quite a variety fo species, not large fish, but fun action on lighter tackle. There were huge schools of skipjack up to 10 pounds, mixed in there were some finicky yellowfin tuna that would disappear as fast as they would first come up, showing best a bit later in the morning, preferring the live bait, some did hit on lures as well. These tuna weighed 10 to 20 pounds, some boats having as many as 6 to 10 fish. A few medium sized dorado were also roaming this inshore area and off the bottom there were some fire cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack and snapper, most of these in the 5 to 10 pound range. Sierra were now moving in along the entire coastline, concentrated near areas holding baitfish, some of these sierra were larger 5 to 8 pound fish.

So we are now moving into our normal winter time type fishing, there can be good variety, typically the fish are not as large as in warmer months, but there can be many types of great eating species accounted for. We look for action to improve inshore, more yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin action should improve steadily offshore.

The year of 2010 turned out to be what most anglers would have to say is World Class. There were significant numbers of yellowin tuna brought in that were in the cow and super cow categories and the local bite for black and blue marlin was perhaps the best it has been for a dozen years. Wahoo action was spread out through the entire calendar year, not just in the fall when they normally bite most consistently. La Playita fleets found epic bottom action while drift fishing with Pacific moonfish, landing monster sized amberjack and dogtooth snapper on a fairly regular basis. At a point midsummer anglers found these same 20 to 70 pound fish directly off of the marina channel entrance, mainly locals capitalized on this opportunity during the late afternoon hours during the long days of July.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 21 dorado, 3 wahoo, 112 yellowfin tuna, 22 pargo, 8 cabrilla, 28 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 18 bonito, 188 black skipjack and 144 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric