More North Wind, Limited Options, Green Water ~ December 29, 2018

Happy New Year’s
Anglers –
December 29, 2018

Last week of the year, we are seeing fair number of families visiting for the holiday vacation, though with continued north winds the fishing has been subpar on the local grounds out of San Jose del Cabo and this has hurt the numbers of charters. Winds have been relentless since November, conditions have turned over, greenish, swift currents, water temperatures near 73 to 74 degrees.

Anglers are using a combination of caballito, slabs of squid and some ballyhoo for bait. There are now reports of mackerel showing up on bait grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, if conditions settle some, this could open up some new options and bring in gamefish species such as striped marlin.

The majority of local charters are fishing the grounds from Red Hill, Gordo Banks to Iman Banks. At times limited where boats could comfortably fish due to weather conditions. Air temperatures have been moderate, lows down to 55 degrees early morning, with mid-day highs near 80 degrees. Mainly sunny skies, morning cloud cover burning off as sun rises.

Yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo action were all very scarce. Best chances were for possibly a tuna or two near the Iman Bank, but only a handful of yellowfin tuna are being landed, lucky to catch one at this time. Most of the tuna landed were in the 15 to 20 lb. range, striking on strips of squid. There were a couple of tuna specimens in the 60 to 80 lb. class accounted for, so there still is a chance at a nicer grade of yellowfin. Only an occasional dorado being seen, even less talk of any wahoo.

The more productive action now was for a variety of structure species, the most common being the Eastern Pacific bonito, ranging up to ten pounds, striking various lures as well as on bait. Also red snapper (huachinango), glass eye snapper, baqueta, triggerfish, ocean whitefish, yellow snapper, flag cabrilla and tijareta.

More billfish action now being found on the Pacific, but some striped marlin were also encountered on the 95 and 1150 spots and now with the reports of schooling mackerel appearing off San Jose del Cabo, tis should mean that more numbers of striped marlin will be not too far behind.

Inshore action there were small sized roosterfish and some sierra, this provided some back up action on the days that proved too rough offshore.

The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 66 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 8 dorado, 29 yellowfin tuna, 145 bonito, 1 amberjack, 12 glass eye snapper, 16 red snapper, 8 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 14 baqueta, 6 ocean whitefish, 12 yellow snapper, 25 tijareta, 12 flag cabrilla, 22 sierra, 16 roosterfish and 80 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

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