San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

March 27, 2011

Anglers –

Warm sunny days dominated the first week of spring, crowds or tourist were lighter than normal and anglers found that the all around fishing action was slower than the previous week. Perhaps the larger than normal full moon had something do with this, hard to say. This period is always the time when conditions are rapidly changing, winds have been light, though currents have been pushing in off colored waters and there has been a lack of baitfish on the offshore fishing grounds.

Water temperatures continue to fluctuate, one day there is a warming trend, the next day cooler waters push back in, up and down, water temperatures have ranged from 65 to 72 degrees, the coolest areas around the corner of Cabo San Lucas, on the Pacific and the warmer waters being encountered offshore of San Jose del Cabo. Supplies of sardinas were scattered, these baitfish were more prevalent near Vinorama, but those schools have moved on and recently more bait is being found off of Palmilla Point. No schooling mackerel in local waters and only minimal supplies of caballito are being found.

The only real action that anglers found with any consistency was close to shore for sierra and shallow water structure species, though this bite was hit or miss as well. Charters had average combined catches of 3 or 4 fish, up to 20, with the most common fish being sierra or pargo. Anglers had best success using sardinas, though a percentage of fish were hitting on rapalas. Most of the sierra caught were in the 2 to 4 pound class, with a handful of exceptions on specimens up to 10 pounds accounted for.

Off the shallow rock piles there were various pargo species, triggerfish, pompano and cabrilla found while drift fishing with dead or live bait. These fish were mostly under ten pounds, but provided fun action and great eating fillets. During the later part of last week larger sized yellowtail in the 25 to 35 pound range were found schooling on the Outer Gordo Banks. These yellows would come to the surface chasing baitfish, but would vanish as quickly as they appeared. They were striking on fly lined sardinas, but they proved finicky and anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these fish, some boats accounted for up to five fish, many other fish were lost due to broken lines, these yellowtail always seem to know exactly where the closest rock out cropping is. Extremely powerful jacks, after being hooked up on the surface in 200 feet of water they are still able to peel the 40 to 60 pound line off far enough to reach the structure and eventually their freedom. These particular fish only would take the live sardinas, no yo-yos or anything seemed to work. This bite tapered off through the week, with only a few fish accounted for and most of them were early in the day.

There was better yellowtail action reported out of Cabo San Lucas, just around from the Arches, yo-yos, rapalas and bait were working on these fish. Though offshore action was tough, very few dorado, tuna, wahoo or marlin to speak of. With the warming days we will surely see action improve in the coming weeks. March is always a hit or miss time for offshore action in the Los Cabos area, this slow period is not unprecedented, bottom line is if the food source is not here you just are not going to find many game fish.

The combined panga fleet launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 10 hammerhead shark, 3 mako shark, 28 yellowtail, 91 pargo (red snapper), 25 cabrilla,12 bonito, 125 sierra, 18 roosterfish and 16 jack crevalle.

Good Fishing, Eric