Anglers –
December 20, 2014
Similar scenario this past week, with lighter crowds of tourists enjoying great late fall weather conditions, taking advantage of all of the outdoor activities now offered in this world class travel destination of Los Cabos. Skies remained mostly sunny, scattered cloud cover, high temperatures reaching 80 degrees. Some wind out of the north, but not too strong like we can see during this time period. Ocean water temperatures are still holding in the 78 to 80 degree range and anglers were finding a variety of pelagic gamefish on local fishing grounds.
Sardinas continue to be available and have been the bait of choice for having success on the yellowfin tuna and skipjack. This action has been found near Iman and towards Vinorama this week, drift fishing with sardinas proved the best way to entice these fish.Most of the tuna have been weighing in the 15 to 20 lb. range, with a handful up to 50 lb. mixed in. There have been some healthy sized white skipjack to over 15 lb. on the same grounds. Dorado were not as easy to find, no particular place, scattered in small schools, some charters would have two or three dorado and others would not see any. Sizes averaged 10 to 20 lb.
Wahoo activity improved in recent days, the normal areas north of Punta Gorda were producing action for wahoo ranging from 15 to 50 lb. Anglers had strikes while trolling with Rapalas, but the best chances were taken while trolling with live chihuil, which were not that easy to come by. Offshore of San Jose del Cabo there were schools of sardineta baitfish showing, this has attracted striped marlin to this area, surely other gamefish will follow, as these are a preferred food source, also this is normally a sign that schooling mackerel will be moving into local waters soon.
Inshore action for sierra, jack crevalle and some roosterfish has been steady, though not many people are concentrating efforts inshore, as offshore action has been very good. Bottom action improved this week, species such as snapper, cabrilla, bonito, pompano, hogfish and triggerfish were landed. Mid-week there was one day where some pelagic red crabs were found drifting to the surface and these made excellent baits for red snapper, the next day no one reported finding any of the red crabs.
We are anticipating great winter season action for this season, seems to be following same patterns as last year. As long as warm currents prevail, there will be dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna and billfish hanging around. Whales are showing now in greater numbers, many sea lions as well, actually too many, have been a nuisance on the fishing grounds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 66 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 32 wahoo, 65 dorado, 225 yellowfin tuna, 110 white skipjack, 26 bonito, 55 sierra, 15 roosterfish, 24 cabrilla, 65 huachiango (red snapper), 8 pompano, 4 hogfish, 45 triggerfish and 18 yellow snapper.
Good fishing, Eric