Anglers –

January 18, 2015

As we progress deeper into the winter season, we are now seeing light crowds of tourists arriving in Los Cabos. With airplane fares becoming more reasonable, as fuel prices drop, we expect more people will realize this and take the opportunity to visit this winter wonderland. We have seen varying weather patterns, some days with cloud cover, with some scattered rainfall earlier in the week, scarcely measurable, then again on other days there was plenty of warm sunshine, with highs reaching near 80 degrees.

Winds were variable as well, the week started off very tranquil, then later in the week there were stronger breezes blowing from the north. These patterns contributed to anglers adjusted their game plans accordingly, as to where they could comfortable fish on a given day. Options varied from offshore, inshore and reef fishing. Ocean temperatures were ranging from 74 to 77 degrees throughout the region, greener off colored currents now pushing in from the north.

Anglers enjoyed excellent action for yellowfin tuna during the first half of the week, tuna were striking on sardinas off of the normal grounds, such as the Gordo Banks, Iman, Vinorama, La Fortuna and Punta Gorda. Easy limits were taken on yellowfin that averaged 15 to 25 pounds, with a larger grade of fish mixed in as well, some 30 to 50 pounds and even a handful topping the 70 pound mark. A local angler reported one tuna over 100 pounds while fishing with slabs of squid on the Gordo Banks, so even though this is now very late in the season, there is still a chance at a larger sized yellowfin.

Dorado were more hit or miss, though there were actually more of these gamefish accounted for this week, as compared to the previous. Found in small schools. Many very close to shore, ranging 5 to 25 pounds. Wahoo were seen, but not many were being hooked into, remember last season, when the wahoo action went wide open during mid-February, we are hoping for a repeat of that non typical scenario.

Inshore action remained steady for sierra, scrappy gamesters, ranging up to eight pounds, striking on sardinas, trolled hoochies and Rapalas. Some juvenile sized roosterfish and various jacks also found close to shore. Off the shallow rock piles there has been a variety of structure species encountered, though this action was not consistent from day to day, depended greatly on how strong currents and winds were.

We are now seeing the main concentration of both humpback and gray whales arriving for their annual breeding and feeding voyage to Southern Baja. Sea Lions are bountiful as well remaining a pesky nuisance on the fishing grounds.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 2 wahoo, 365 yellowfin tuna, 134 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 38 dorado, 28bonito, 12 white skipjack, 42 miscellaneous pargo, 5 island jack, 16 amberjack, 18 cabrilla and 25 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric