Anglers –
December 16, 2017

Light crowds this week visiting the Los Cabos area, normal slack period for traveling, will pick up again over the Christmas Holiday. Cool climate has moved in, on and off winds out of the north, even some rain on Thursday, not enough to keep anglers from going out, but made conditions more uncomfortable, as high temperatures barely even reached 70 degrees. Ocean temperature has been in the 75 to 78 degree range, we expect to see this cooling trend to continue through the month. More whales are now arriving from their annual migration from the north, as sightings are being reported now every day.

This is now late in the season for warmer water gamefish such as yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, but there will still be opportunities for hooking into these fish as long as water stays in the 70s. The wahoo action slowed way down this past week, with only handful of these fish being caught earlier in the week, we do anticipate that these fish will become active once again, before cold water eventually sends them further south. Dorado actually showed up in more numbers, still varying from day to day, though many anglers were able to catch their two fish limit. Most of these fish were in the 5 to 15 lb., with an occasional fish to 20 lb. reported. Remember to release juvenile female dorado whenever you have the opportunity, this is beneficial for future fishery to maintain sustainable numbers.

Yellowfin tuna were one of the more common fish being caught on most days, though numbers were fewer this week compared to previous. Tuna were being found off the Arches near Cabo San Lucas, to Santa Maria, Palmilla, Punta Gorda, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. Sardinas were slightly harder to find in recent days, with Palmilla Point being the area where the schooling batfish were being netted. The sardinas were definitely needed for chances at catching the yellowfin, as very few were striking on squid strips or on trolled lures. Sizes of the tuna averaged 10 to 15 lb. though a few larger specimens in the 30 to 40 lb. range were accounted for, these larger fish were found on the Iman Bank. Mixed in with the schools of yellowfin tuna were white skipjack, a bit smaller than most of the tuna, but good eating, not like the black skipjack which are normally only used for cut bait.

Bottom action produced a variety of species off of the more shallow rock piles, wind was a factor on the grounds to the north. Leopard grouper, pompano, island jack, bonito, yellow snapper, barred pargo and triggerfish are were caught in limited numbers. Using sardinas and chunk bait produced, not much on yo-yo jigs at this time.

We continue to see some sierra coming from near shore grounds, though no big quantities yet. Also there were handful of roosterfish caught, up to about 10 lb. No billfish action being reported out of San Jose del Cabo now, best chances for striped marlin has been around the corner on the Pacific Banks.

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 wahoo, 32 sierra, 160 yellowfin tuna, 84 dorado, 4 amberjack, 20 yellow snapper, 15 island jack, 8 barred pargo, 10 Eastern Pacific bonito, 44 white skipjack, 5 roosterfish, 3 African Pompano, 16 cabrilla and 105 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric