December 14, 2019

Anglers –

Limited number of tourists now arriving, as Christmas time and New Year nears we do usually see greater numbers of people arriving, especially family groups. Now is the perfect time to visit, ideal weather, despite dipping down to 55 degrees early morning, daytime highs have averaged in the upper 70s, plenty of warm sunshine. Early in the week there was more wind from the north, but by the weekend we saw much calmer ocean conditions. Average water temperature was about 77 degrees, with some isolated areas up to 80 degrees, surf was minimal, though tides were extreme with passing of recent full moon, the last one of this decade.

Bait vendors are finding caballito in the marina area, also offering ballyhoo and slabs of squid. Off of the San Jose del Cabo Hotel Zone the schools of baitfish, mackerel and sardineta, are moving in and this will become an option for the next month or two. The overall fishing action was more scattered this week, perhaps the moon was affecting feeding habits, also there was a noticeably stronger current sweeping through local grounds, as well as winds being a factor at times. The majority of local charters were working the grounds from the Gordo Banks, to La Fortuna, Cardon and close off of Punta Gorda.

Main target species continue to be yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, also some billfish and limited bottom action to round out the options. Yellowfin tuna varying in sizes up to 75 lb., the larger fish were found on the Gordo Banks and other mixed grade of yellowfin off of La Fortuna. Though there was a major issue with sharks attacking hooked fish and they got more than their share, these were not little sharks either, we saw quality sized tuna bitten completely in half or swallowed whole, they were even attacking wahoo or dorado if they had the chance. It has been a while since so many aggressive sharks were found on these same fishing grounds, hard to say how long they will be around, they now know that they are able to find some easy tasty meals. Hopefully when the water temperature cools off the sharks will move on.

Wahoo were more finicky this week, though they have not gone anywhere, just were more wary about striking. Some hit on strips of squid while anglers targeted tuna, other on trolled baits, a smaller percentage were striking on lures. The largest we weighed in recently was a 48 lb. specimen. Sunday is the local wahoo tournament, which was original set for Nov. 17, but had to be rescheduled due to Tropical Storm Raymond. Will be interesting to see how many teams enter, since it is now during a not so busy tourist time frame.

Numbers of dorado were down compared to last week, though these fish are still scattered through the area in smaller sized schools, the larger sized dorado were now found on the Pacific, though off of San Jose del Cabo we did see some fish up to 20 lb.

Billfish action now seems to be transitioning from the Pacific to the direction of San Jose, these fish follow their food source. Though the bite is spotty, has not been wide open yet, there are striped marlin being found within several miles of shore, the majority were in the 70 to 120 lb. range. Also saw at least one sailfish in recent days.

Not much going off the bottom, an occasional leopard or baqueta grouper, various pargo, bonito and triggerfish. More whales definitely now showing up, peak season will be here now any week, as these mammals are now arriving for their winter’s stay.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 70 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 1 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 38 dorado, 78 yellowfin tuna, 14 wahoo, 5 yellow snapper, 3 pompano, 4 golden eye tile fish, 6 barred pargo, 9 cabrilla, 2 amberjack, 8 bonito, 5 sierra, 5 roosterfish, 6 baqueta, 2 surgeonfish and 45 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric