Anglers –

May 4, 2019

This week with the start of the new month we saw increased numbers of anglers showing up in town, along with hundreds of off road racing enthusiasts, here to celebrate the finish of the annual Norra Mexican 1000 five day rally. Weather conditions were excellent, nearly perfect climate now, hardly a chill early morning, with daytime highs reaching the mid-80s. Swells were slight, winds minimal, ocean temperatures ranged from 70 to 75 degrees through most of the region, with warmest currents found outside of San Jose del Cabo and towards the Gordo Banks.

Main baitfish being found have been the sardinas, a bit more spotty from day to day, the netters have been finding these schooling baitfish from near the marina jetty and off of Palmilla, though not in the quantity as in past weeks.

This week we felt a warming trend with different currents pushing in towards the Gordo Banks zone and this helped wake up the action some. Large whale sharks were also sighted on these grounds, slowly cruising around, not spooked of the any boat traffic, being larger than most boats themselves. No huge numbers of any particular gamefish species were being landed, though a variety of fish were being seen, including yellowtail to 30 lb. Early in the week some boats had as many as three yellowtail, since it has slowed, though these yellows are still in the area, downrigger proved to show best results, though not all bats use this method. Free swimming wahoo were spotted, but not on the bite, some tuna were seen working the surface, but they proved difficult, these was an occasional hook up reported. Jigging off the bottom produced some bonito and snapper.

A handful of yellowfin tuna were also found on the grounds from Iman, San Luis and Vinorama, a couple of tuna between 80 and 100 lb. were accounted for, most of these caught by local pangeros specifically targeting these fish for commercial value.

Closer to shore there was a variety of shallow water structure species found, drift fishing with sardinas worked well for this action. Species included sierra, yellow snapper, African pompano, triggerfish and a handful of amberjack.

Offshore there were reports of striped marlin activity from around the 1150 spot, this is just starting to develop and we expect to see this bit come on strong though the entire month, this is always the main season for stripers on these local ground off of San Jose del Cabo.

We expect to see schools of mullet to show in abundance later this month, which in turn will attract more inshore gamefish, such as dogtooth snapper, amberjack, jack crevalle and roosterfish. At this time main inshore action was for sierra mostly smaller sized roosterfish.

The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 64 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 6 yellowfin tuna, 11 yellowtail, 11 leopard grouper, 210 bonito, 22 red snapper, 12 mohara, 18 yellow snapper, 8 African pompano, 15 amberjack, 85 sierra, 10 glasseye pargo, 12 roosterfish and 95 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

Anglers –

April 27, 2019

For the entire month we have noticed far less tourists arriving than we would normally see, we believe that part of the reason for this has been the U.S. government threatening to shut down the border with Mexico and people are worried that they will become stranded or lose out on deposits paid, etc, many people have mentioned this and are waiting for the situation to stabilize before committing to their travel plans or simply just going elsewhere. We never thought the border would actually be closed, think it just was a scare tactic, anyway, this has hurt local businesses.

Weather patterns were typical spring time, actually still a little chilly early in the morning, down to 60 degrees, though skies are mostly clear and sunny with daytime highs reaching 85 degrees, ideal climate, only if it could stay like this year round. Winds were very moderate, ocean conditions comfortable, though water was still cooler, averaging 68 to 71 degrees through much of the inshore zone, we now see warmer water on the outside, up to 74/75 degrees, should move closer to shore soon, pushing in cleaner blue water and bring in more of the pelagic gamefish.

There continue to be schooling sardinas found around the jetty area of Puerto Los Cabos Marina, nice sized sardinas as well, this has been the main baitfish being used now, also some smaller sized mullet in the mix. New marina rules are not allowing bait netters to work inside the marina as they had in the past, this has limited opportunities for caballito, it is about time that authorities do try to control this marina and they could also work on wake speed enforcement.

Most consistent action being found now was for sierra and bonito, sierra mainly on the live sardinas, being found along many of the inshore stretches. Bonito were hitting the same baits and also readily on the yo-yo jigs, hanging over the various rock piles.

Areas north of Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank, were being targeted as well, catches included yellow snapper, amberjack, cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish. Later in the week a couple of yellowtail were reported from off the Outer Gordo Bank, so maybe something will happen on this, it has been another slow season for yellowtail, but still a chance they will become active in the coming weeks. There has been a noticeable increase in sea lion activity on these same fishing grounds, this can always put a damper on things in a hurry.

This year we have seen more fluctuating water conditions, has started to warm up, then just like that would turn over and cool back off, becoming greenish, has been on and off like this for weeks. With some more consistent warmer weather, less wind, we should see some stabilization and improved action before long. This can be the time where things can change quickly, increasing activity for the striped marlin, tuna, wahoo and dorado. We will hope this happens sooner than later.

The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 5 yellowfin tuna, 2 yellowtail, 15 leopard grouper, 125 bonito, 24 red snapper, 14 mohara, 14 yellow snapper, 22 amberjack, 165 sierra, 4 glasseye pargo, 7 roosterfish and 75 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

April 20, 2019

Anglers –

This is a busy week locally, Easter vacation time, many businesses shut down for the extended weekend holiday to be with family along the various beaches. We have not seen that many tourists arriving, who knows why, but seems to be much lighter than we would normally expect. Weather is back on a warming trend, highs of about 85 degrees, we felt unpredictable winds early in the week, coming from various directions, ocean water temperatures cooled down to 68 degrees, also greenish current pushed in. That time of year ocean conditions can vary greatly from week to week. Should settle down in coming weeks as warm calmer weather prevails.

Some quality sized sardinas showed up in the local marina channel area, nicest we have seen in a long time, also some moonfish and caballito. Best action was found from Palmilla Point north to La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis Banks. Mainly working the bottom structure with yo-yo jigs and various baits. Good numbers of the Eastern Pacific Bonito, some red snapper, cabrilla, pargo and amberjack rounding out catches. Catches of course varied day to day as to where the better action was found and at times wind was a factor as well.

Early week we did see a few yellowfin tuna in the 30 to 50 lb. range brought in, but since we have not seen any more, neither did we see dorado, wahoo or marlin. As conditions rebound these species should start to appear more regularly in the daily fish counts.

We also saw more numbers of sierra in recent days, the sardinas were the reason for this, sizes were also impressive, many fish over 5 lb. were accounted for. The Palmilla, Red Hill area was one of the better locations to find the schooling sierra. With the cooler water it was hard to find any roosterfish, this should change in the coming weeks.

Late in the season now, but whales were still being seen daily, maybe the colder water is keeping them around longer, because the majority of these mammals are now well on their way north, migrating to their summer feeding grounds off of Alaska.

The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 62 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 3 yellowfin tuna, 16 leopard grouper, 3 broomtail grouper, 155 bonito, 46 red snapper, 2 barred pargo, 4 African pompano, 12 yellow snapper, 8 amberjack, 72 sierra and 80 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric