Anglers –
February 6, 2016

The first week of February brought light crowds of tourists, the all-around climate was very pleasant considering this is the midst of winter time and daytime highs were reaching 85 degrees. The period started out with calmer days, but quickly these calm ocean conditions deteriorated, as the north winds picked up to near gale force, on Wednesday it blew 30 mph, with even higher gusts, then weakened later in the week to about 15 to 20 miles mph., this continued through into the weekend. As a result we saw ocean water temperatures drop suddenly into the 74 degree range and it appears this cooling trend might continue.

This sudden change did not help the fishing action at all, in fact not many charters were even braving the elements. Bait fish became scattered, though local bait vendors did make the extra effort to travel to the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas at night where they found good numbers of schooling mackerel, though with the stirred up conditions anglers did not find much with these lively bait fish. There were limited supplies of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid also available.

No particular species of fish was very active at all this week, even the triggerfish were not eager to eat. Yellowfin tuna were still hanging around the Iman Bank, but not many were landed, these grounds were practically unreachable for several days and the hungry sea lions were more aggressive than ever. The tuna that were landed ranged up to 25 lb., striking on strips of squid. A handful of yellowfin also were taken from other areas. Dorado became even scarcer than they had been, the few that were accoutered for were in the 10 lb. range.

Striped marlin action slowed compared to last week, though these billfish are still being found in varying numbers throughout the region. The ocean clarity is still good and these marlin to not mind cooler currents, they just need to have their steady food supply.

Wahoo became more finicky with cooling waters, also the word was now out, as to where most of these wahoo were hanging out off of Punta Gorda and the pressure was heavier on these grounds. Too many spear fishermen these days, not easy to fish where there are also people spear fishing. Many of the wahoo they hit with spears end up ripping free, only to die of their injuries and this makes the entire school of wahoo even that much spookier. The large needlefish have returned in force, striking on trolled baits and making a mess of things as they like to do.

Bottom action was showing improvement last week, before this latest blow, maybe cooling waters will get some yellowtail action going. Inshore there were some sierra caught, trolling baits and lures, hard to really get these fish going without the sardinas available.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 38 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 11 wahoo, 18 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 18 rainbow runner, 4 amberjack, 6 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 17 huachinango, 26 other pargo/snapper species, 8 bonito, 9 sierra and 12 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric