February 15, 2014
Anglers –

With freezing conditions persisting throughout much of the United States we have seen more crowds of tourists arriving in Los Cabos. Travelers have been greeted with pristine winter time weather conditions, sunny days, with high temperatures close to 80 degrees. Winds continued to be a bit unpredictable, at times from the north, switching out of the south, though they were moderate and anglers found great ocean conditions most days.

Ocean temperatures ranged from 70 to 76 degrees, higher than normal for this month, clarity was clean, even very close to shore. Baitfish have been scattered, no live sardinas, few mackerel or caballito, with ballyhoo proving to be one of the better trolling baits and as another option there were also a mix of jacks and moonfish being used.

Depending on what fishing grounds anglers targeted, there was a variety of species being found. Striped marlin were now shifting in the direction of the San Jose del Cabo grounds, from the 1150 spot, to off of the hotel zone and towards Punta Gorda, some success was found trolling lures, casting baits to tailing fish and soaking baits down deep, the striped marlin especially were attracted to moonfish this past week, it was more productive early in the week, later in the week the full moon seemed to affect the bite, fish were more finicky..

For the local panga fleet, the most productive action was found within a couple of miles of shore, from right off Punta Gorda, to Cardon and La Fortuna. Dorado and wahoo were the main species striking, ballyhoo, moonfish, jacks, rapalas and even casting jigs. This seemed more like fall action, crazy to see this type of action in mid February, it doesn’t happen every year, with water temperatures holding higher than normal and the clarity of the water, these fish have decided to hang around and not migrate to southern waters, at least for the time being. There were more numbers of dorado caught than wahoo, though on Thursday and Friday many boats did have multiple wahoo days, one charter had eight wahoo on Friday. Sizes ranged up to 40 pounds. Hard to say how long this action will last, would be something if this lasted throughout the month and into March.

Not much action off the bottom, strong currents and warmer water temperatures have been more suited for surface action. A few yellowtail were reported, no pargo bite at this time. Sierra have dominated inshore action, though dorado are being found very close to shore as well, there were large concentrations of half beaks (ballyhoo) moving along the beaches areas, this can bring gamefish very close in. A few jack crevalle and smaller sized roosterfish in the mix.

Still peak season for whale activity, though with waters warming, these mammals will most likely start migrating north soon.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 90 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
18 striped marlin, 37 wahoo, 8 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 48 bonito, 18 jack crevalle, 68 sierra, 265 dorado,18 roosterfish and 12 cabrilla.

Good fishing, Eric