Anglers –
December 12, 2015

Another quiet week for numbers of visitors arriving in the Los Cabos area, another ten days or so we should see more holiday travelers. Weather patterns were more like typical late fall season patterns, cooler mornings, predominate north winds, relentless for days, before diminishing for a period and then repeating the cycle. Air temperatures in the mid-80s and the strength of the sunshine has felt surprisingly intense for mid-December. Scattered clouds most days, threatening light rain later in the week. Lighter winds early in the week, increasing by week’s end. Ocean temperatures are ranging from 78 to 82 degrees, warmest currents being reported straight outside of Cabo San Lucas and towards the Pacific Banks. Overall ocean conditions are considerably warmer than what they normally would be for this time of year, definitely results from El Nino.

Local fishing grounds are still attracting pelagic gamefish such as yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, skipjack, sailfish, striped and blue marlin. We are anticipating on having summer and fall type fishing action lasting into this winter season, this as a result of warmer than usual ocean conditions. There are some cooler water species like sierra now appearing along beach stretches and bonito off the structure. No reports of any new resource for sardinas, we expect as the ocean temps eventually cool, schools of sardinas will return, hard to predict what is going on with these baitfish migrations, many factors involved. Whales are now arriving on their annual migration, numerous sightings, this activity should only increase in the next couple of months.

San Jose del Cabo fleets concentrated most of their efforts on the grounds from the Gordo Banks to Iman Bank. Action was somewhat sporadic, no great numbers of any particular fish, though there were some quality fish being accounted for every day, again the pressure was light due to minimal crowds of anglers at this time. There was good dorado action found early in the day, straight out front of Puerto Los Cabos Marina, 2 to 4 miles out, slow trolling caballito was the best producer, though some dorado also hit on trolled lures or ballyhoo, for anglers that were able to find any of these rigging baits. Most dorado were weighing in the 12 to 25 lb. range, nice sized fish, charters accounted for anywhere from one or two, up to four or five fish per day. On these same ground there were billfish, this past week anglers hooked into sailfish, striped and black and blue marlin. There was a story of a black marlin hooked later in the day anglers battled this fish until 8 p.m. before breaking it off, no moon at all and the crew did not seem to be making any headway.

Yellowfin tuna was a bit spottier, though in recent days this action did show signs of improvement. The key to this action was finding sufficient supplies of squid slabs, drift fishing while chumming was the method that was working. Both Inner and Outer Gordo Banks were holding yellowfin of 40 to 100 pound class, most likely much larger, most of the fish being landed from these grounds were in the 60 to 80 lb., we heard of a local pangeros last week who caught a tuna that went 180 lb. Other heavy hook ups were lost, included more than one big fish lost to cut lines, suspected that some lost commercial set gear could be the problem. Anglers were lucky to land one or two of these tuna and had to be specifically targeting these fish. The Iman Bank produced a grade of tuna in the 15 to 35 lb. range, also nice fish and chance at more numbers, some charters had as many as 5 to 8 of these yellowfin. These were the same grounds where wahoo have been holding, the bite has been on and off, mainly on trolled baits, caballito, skipjack or chihuil, not much reported on trolled lures recently, of course more anglers are fishing the bait, compared to trolling lures.

Some sierra now mixed with mostly smaller sized roosterfish found close to shore, inside the marina area locals are having a field day with the wide open barracuda bite. Bottom action consisted mostly for smaller sized pargo and triggerfish, a few bonito and cabrilla.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 56 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 11 sailfish 1 blue marlin, 17 striped marlin, 66 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 18 wahoo, 4 sierra, 28 pargo, 1 pompano, 10 cabrilla, 16 white skipjack, 8 bonito, 12 rainbow runner, 14 roosterfish, 4 surgeonfish and 20 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric