May 19, 2012
Anglers –
The weather is often unpredictable during the late spring season. Normal patterns for the Los Cabos area, is that we see the ocean water temperature hold on a steady warming trend through the month of April and through the first half of the month of May, then as winds and currents shift, there is cold water that sweeps in from the Pacific, within a day water temperatures can drop by fifteen degrees. This current typically does not reach any further than Los Frailes. With the IGFA Tournament being held this week we did notice an increase of visitors. During the first two days of the tournament anglers witnessed near record paced striped marlin action, teams faced much tougher conditions on the third and fourth day, though many marlin were still tagged. Weather patterns changed on Wednesday, relentless winds from the west, shifting to the south and persisting through the week. Overnight the ocean water temperatures dropped from being in the upper 70’s to a chilly 60 degrees off of Cabo San Lucas, off San Jose del Cabo the water is now in the 65 degree range. Marine fog also moved in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, had previously been hanging over the Pacific. Some thirty miles offshore, near the Cabrillo Seamount the water temp is now about 72 degrees. Anglers will need patience for patterns to stabilize and wait for the ocean to warm back up. Could be a matter of days or weeks, hard to predict, but things can change rapidly during transition periods, we must remain optimistic.
Before the mid week weather change it was feeling more like summer, air temperatures into the 90’s, clean blue current in the 75 to 80 degree range found within miles of shore. We were starting to see a few wahoo showing, even some action for yellowfin tuna was encountered, along with some great variety off of the bottom spots and continued wide open marlin action on the offshore fishing grounds. On Thursday the wind gusted from the south and this made for a tough day with limited options. Most charters ended up trolling close to shore, where most found wide open roosterfish action, some larger sized roosters were accounted for, including one 60 pound specimen landed and released by John Hefty of Cabo San Lucas while fishing with skipper Chame Pino. Trolling with caballito was the most consistent deal for the inshore action. Sardinas had been available again, but with increasing southern swells this is a day to day situation, as to if the live sardinas will be available.
Early in the week there was great striped marlin action encountered off of the San Jose del Cabo grounds, fish were striking on practically anything, lures, ballyhoo, caballito, bolito and skipjack, multiple catches were common. Only an occasional dorado was found, a few wahoo strikes were being reported, as these elusive speedsters were becoming more active in the warmer waters. Several groups of a half dozen or more wahoo were seen slowing swimming on the surface, in shallow waters off of Cardon, these fish would not strike on anything presented to them, but one resourceful pangero rigged up a small treble hook from a yo-yo jig and successfully snagged two wahoo, we won’t mention any names, this technique of hooking a fish might not be legal, but it sure made for an exciting story.
Early in the week anglers reported tuna strikes while trolling with live bolito outside of San Luis, these yellowfin were found traveling with larger sized porpoise and were in the 70 to 100 pound class, limited numbers were landed, but other fish were lost and many strikes were missed, it was encouraging news, but now we will play the waiting game for conditions to become favorable again.
The Gordo Banks were really showing a lot of early in the week, tons of baitfish on the surface, red crabs and whale sharks cruising about, not many gamefish caught, besides striped marlin later in the day, but sure was a promising sign.
Construction on the new hotel in La Playita continues at a rapid pace, apparently no problem with funding here. We have heard it is going to be a Four Seasons Resort, do not see their sign up yet. Apparently some eighty rooms, three to four stories, all are overlooking the Puerto Los Cabos Marina.
Local Marina officials have become stricter with the commercial pangeros bait sellers, now enforcing that no netting or selling be done inside the boundary set near the channel entrance. These local are not easy to persuade into conforming to new rules, kind of like the Wild West was..
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 77 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of: 28 striped marlin, 7 yellowfin tuna, 15 dorado, 2 wahoo, 28 cabrilla, 85 various pargo species, 14 jack crevalle, 2 yellowtail, 19 amberjack, 135 roosterfish, 12 pompano, 8 bonito and 14 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric