San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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May 8, 2011

Anglers –

Crowds of tourists in the Los Cabos area continue to be substantially lighter than what you would normally expect during this prime time month of May. The combination of the bad economy and bad press alerts of warning people to not travel to Mexico has had a big local impact. We all want to accentuate that this region remains a safe travel destination and is not associated with any of the reports coming from other areas of this vast country. In recent days the spring time weather is feeling more like summer, as the first real heat wave of the new year developed. High temperatures reached into the 90s, this will certainly help to warm up water temperatures even more. The winds were a bit unpredictable to start the week, swirling from all directions, but by the weekend conditions calmed and ocean conditions were flat glass. Ocean water temperatures ranged up to 80 degrees in the direction of Gordo Banks and to the north.

Baitfish supplies consisted of sardinas, which were schooling near Palmilla Point, also a mix of caballito, moonfish and mullet. The fishing grounds have had larger schools of bolito and other unidentified batfish schooling, lots of food in the area to attract more gamefish. Last week was really the first time this season that the offshore action was producing much consistent action, this was mainly for striped marlin and yellowfin tuna, with a few wahoo and dorado in the mix The bite continued through this week, though the fish were a bit more spread out and all around it was not quite as productive as the previous reported period. Still the way the conditions are and with all of the baitfish being found on the fishing grounds we do expect we will have some great late spring season action.

The striped marlin action has been centering around the 1150 Bank and towards the direction of the Cabrillo Seamount, 18 plus miles from shore. The stripers were striking on trolled lures, but the majority of the solid hook ups were coming on various baitfish, being dropped back or cast to tailing fish. Only an occasional solitary dorado was being encountered, we look for the warming waters to bring in more of these prized fighters soon.

Yellowfin tuna were schooling near the San Luis Bank and anglers had success for them while trolling rapalas, hoochies, sardinas and bolito, action varied day to day, as to exactly where or when these tuna would bite, but at least we were now seeing them in the daily fish counts. With most of the yellowfin tuna being in the 20 to 40 pound range, some boats accounted for as many as six of these fish, while other felt fortunate to land one, two or three of them.

Wahoo activity has increased with the warming currents and healthy schools of bolito. No big numbers of wahoo were yet accounted for, for one reason there are not many charters that are specifically targeting them. The Banks off of San Luis to Vinorama produced wahoo strikes for anglers trolling with Rapalas, skirted lead heads and even on yo-yo jigs. One super panga charter from La Playita accounted for three wahoo, while losing other hooked fish, all strikes were on a cream/purple colored Rapala X Rap, strange that sometimes fish prefer that one certain color pattern. The wahoo we have seen come in were ranging from 25 to 40 pounds.

Bottom action produced mixed success for anglers soaking bait and working yo-yo jigs, various pargo species, amberjack, cabrilla and grouper rounded out this action. Inshore the mainstay continued to be sierra, jack crevalle and roosterfish, most of the roosters were still juvenile sized, though one day a charter did report releasing a handful of larger sized roosterfish. As mullet activity increases along the local beach stretches we will be looked to see increased numbers of the bigger roosters show up

The combined panga fleets that launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina area sent out approximately 52 charters for the week, with anglers reporting fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 10 hammerhead shark, 7 dorado, 5 wahoo, 30 yellowfin tuna, 8 yellowtail, 18 cabrilla, 7 grouper, 83 pargo(different species), 14 jack crevalle, 22 roosterfish, 8 bonito and 38 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric