Anglers –
January 20, 2018

Another week with moderately light crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area. For those that did make the trip, they were enjoying very pleasant winter time weather conditions. Mostly clear sunny skies, light winds, minimal swells, with high temperatures averaging in the upper 70s. early morning there was now more of a chill factor, as we felt temperatures as cold as 53 degrees, so those getting up early to participate in outdoor activities do need to dress accordingly, once the sun comes up it warms up fairly quickly.

Ocean temperatures are now ranging 74 to 78 degrees, warmer currents found several miles offshore. Clarity was also good for this time of year, blue water within a few miles of shore, lighter northern winds have kept conditions more favorable closer to shore. Schools of sardinas were congregated now near Cabo Real, though the first part of the week the bait netters also found these preferred baitfish north near San Luis, but then again returned back to Cabo Real. Other bait options were caballito and slabs of squid, which once again were used for drift fishing for a late season run of quality grade yellowfin tuna to over 100 lb. on the Gordo Banks.

The bite for the medium sized tuna in the 15 to 25 lb. class that had been going on near La Fortuna and to Iman Bank, became much more spotty and problem with pesky sea lions and sharks continued. The highlight this past week was the resurgence of the bite once again on the Gordo Banks for yellowfin tuna that were ranging from 60 to 100 and even to over 150 lb. No big numbers, though anglers that specially targeting these fish were sometimes coming away with one, two or three quality tuna. These fish were hitting best on the Outer Gordo Banks for anglers that were chumming consistently and using strips of squid, dead sardinas and chunk of skipjack, the key was to be persistent, lots of pressure, as the word of this action spread, boats of all sizes converged on these grounds to take advantage of this unusual late season opportunity.

With the billfish action out of San Jose del Cabo now very limited, the next best option was to target areas within a couple miles of shore, such as Punta Gorda, Cardon and La Fortuna, this is where decent numbers of dorado up to 15 lb. were being found, more often striking while slow trolling of drift fishing various baits. Only a handful of wahoo were reported, though they still are in the area, as water temperatures are still holder warmer than normal.

Fishing fish chunk bait and on occasion yo-yo jigs produced varying results off of the rocky high spots for a mix of quality eating specimens, most of them under 15 lb. This past week there were also chances at encountered pelagic red crags drifting to the surface. They could then be used for bait and were deadly for the huachinango, the true Pacific red snapper. This still being a very hit of miss deal, as to when and where the red crabs would surface on a given day.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 5 wahoo, 15 sierra, 72 yellowfin tuna, 165 dorado, 6 amberjack, 22 yellow snapper, 18 barred pargo, 18 Eastern Pacific bonito, 12 white skipjack, 75 black skipjack, 6 roosterfish, 22 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 5 broom tail grouper, 72 huachinango (red snapper) and 95 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric