Anglers –
September 23, 2017

Last week we were preoccupied following Tropical Storm Norma, local Ports were shut down for three days, Saturday thru Monday, due to higher storm swells, though the storm stalled and veered further off to the west and never did impact land. Hardly any rainfall at all was reported in Los Cabos and we felt 30 mph wind gusts, but basically we dodged a bullet this time. We have now officially started the fall season, though with the high humidity it still feels more like summer. Light crowds the past couple of weeks, with people being more nervous about traveling during possibility of storms moving through the area.

Fishing action has been mainly centered on the Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank. Early in the week water clarity was greenish near Iman and the better action was found on the Gordo Banks, most common catches were for yellowfin tuna in the 50 to 100 lb. class, drift fishing with strips of sardinas, no big numbers of tuna being landed, though at times lots of yellowfin could be seen breezing the surface, just very finicky in striking the baits that had hooks in them. Anglers were doing well to land one or two of these quality tuna. Later in the week bait suppliers found some sardinas off the beach stretches further to the north and with the water cleaning up on the Iman Bank the medium sized tuna in the 5 lb. to 30 lb. range bit well there. Also some dorado in the mix, but most all under ten pounds and not nearly as numerous as before the most recent storm system passed by.

Some days the yellowfin tuna were more active early in the day, especially on the Gordo Banks, but then things switched around and more action on these grounds was found later in the day. Tuna of 170 lb. and another close to 300 lb. were accounted for by groups of local anglers, specifically targeting these larger tuna, putting in long extra hours and bringing ample supplies of slabs of squid to continue chumming throughout the day.

Anglers using yo-yo style jigs had mixed success on various red snapper, pargo and amberjack, no big numbers, but a few nice fish accounted for, a handful of nice yellowfin were also hooked into on these jigs.

Not much billfish action reported, though this week most anglers were targeting the tuna or dorado action. There was a lack of skipjack and other baitfish on the grounds early in the week, but as the week progressed and water conditions stabilized, there was more bait schools being reported.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 wahoo, 44 dorado, 1 blue marlin, 3 rainbow runner, 9 amberjack, 144 yellowfin tuna, 4 yellow snapper, 25 huachinango and 85 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric