July 16, 2023

As we are now in the heat of the summer and weather conditions continue to be hot and humid. Distance tropical storms and hurricanes are increasing the humidity and overall hear index, though we have seen no more rain this past week. Light crowds of anglers now, but there are quite a few people at local resorts. Ocean swells resided some and winds were light on the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula, though persistent north winds were reported on the Pacific.

Ocean water temperatures are very warm, many zones now reading at 87 degrees, this can throw off the whole ecosystem, oxygen levels, etc… Overall fishing action was tough, though though were a wide variety of species in the area, hooking into them was a different story. Live bait supplies consisted mainly for caballito, jurelito, some moon fish, a few mullet and ballyhoo were being offered as well. Sportfishing fleets were spread out in all directions, searching for more opportunities. 

Bottom action was not very productive at all, lots of currents running, which never helps that, also the heat factor of just drift fishing with no breeze to cool you down.. Most charters were doing more surface trolling with various baits of higher speed lures.

Heading further offshore, anywhere from 5 to 20 miles out anglers were finding fair chances at hooking into billfish, more striped marlin than anything else, despite the very warm water temps. There were some blue marlin now being hooked into as well, most of these that we saw were in the 100 to 160 lb. range, though we did see one charter bring in one about 300 lb. earlier in the week. Some scattered dorado on these same grounds, though more dorado were now found closer to shore, but most of these were small juvenile schoolies under 8 lb.

Charters found smaller football sized yellowfin tuna while trolling open waters, but this was hit or miss, a matter of being in the right place at the right time and anglers were fortunate to land several of them. The larger grade of tuna which had been hanging near Iman and San Luis Banks just have not wanted to do much at all. Lots of sharks in the area, many anglers that did hook into the football sized tuna lost these fish to mass congregations of pilot sharks. Same with trying to slow troll larger baits, such as bolito, more often than not the sharks would make quick work of these rigs.

A few wahoo striking rapalas, but these speedsters typically become sluggish in such warm waters as well. Close to shore there were still chances for late season roosterfish and of course the hog sized jack crevalle were ever present. This whole season for roosterfish was not up to normal local standards. Never really saw the mass schools of mullet congregating on the beach stretches.

Average catches per boat was now several fish in combination, probably easier to find a marlin than any of the other closer to shore species.

Good Fishing, Eric