November 29, 2020

Moderate crowds of tourists visited this Thanksgiving week, enjoying the fall conditions and multitude of outdoor activities. We felt persistent north winds through the week, finally tapering off some over the weekend. These conditions made for rougher seas, especially on the grounds to the north of Punta Gorda. Scattered morning cloud cover, giving way to plenty of warm sunshine, as daytime highs were in the low to mid 80s and ocean temperature was also averaging about 80 degrees. Still good amounts of sardinas found schooling around marina jetty, also caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid being offered.

Overall the fishing action was tougher this week, a lot of this due to the winds beating the northern grounds. On Monday there were two impressive cow sized yellowfin tuna brought in, one of 200 b., found outside of San Luis Bank during normal mid-day hours, the other tuna, which was hooked into on the Gordo Banks later in the afternoon and fought for 3 ½ hours before finally being boated, brought back in the dark after 8 p.m., this cow was estimated at well over 300 lb. It hit on a trolled skipjack for a team of local La Playita anglers, headed by legend Eduardo Aripez.

The rest of the week the tuna action was scarce, there were a couple of days when fleets found some smaller sized yellowfin associated with moving porpoise and a handful of tuna in the 40 to 70 lb. class were hooked into while soaking baits on the grounds from Iman to San Luis, but again most of the entire week these areas were very choppy due to the winds.

Dorado were scattered, some days we saw more than others, though again most of these dorado were under ten pounds. Wahoo action was encountered on the grounds north of Punta Gorda, to Vinorama, but action was spotty, mix sizes of fish were taken, from sierra sized 4 lb. fish, up to trophy sized tournament contending wahoo of 60 lb. These fish hit on Rapalas, sardinas, yo-yo and more anglers are now starting to try their luck at obtaining chihuil and using them for trap hooked trolling baits.

Not a whole lot of bottom action being done, winds did not make this an easy option, highlight were a handful of amberjack and dogtooth snapper, but more triggerfish, bonito or small pargo/snapper, compared to anything else. Closer to shore and mainly towards Cabo San Lucas we were seeing some sierra, most of these taken on sardinas, hoochies or small rapalas, sizes up to five pounds.

We have heard of wide open action for striped marlin being found on the Pacific banks, though off of San Jose del Cabo we saw more sailfish, a pair of black marlin, one blue marlin and also a few striped marlin were brought in from pangas, no big numbers like on the Pacific.

Good fishing, Eric