Anglers –
September 15, 2018

We are starting to see the first wave of early fall anglers arriving, still only moderate numbers, but more people than we have seen in recent weeks. This is now the four year anniversary of when Hurricane Odile devastated the Los Cabos area. This week the weather has been calm, last week we saw some isolated unpredictable thundershowers that did bring some fairly heavy rainfall amounts in some areas. No new storms that we see presently on the forecast, but tropical systems can develop rapidly this time of year, another few weeks of the normal storm season, so we will be watching closely. Meanwhile the Philippines is now enduring the battering of a Super Typhon and the East Coast of the United Sates is dealing with Hurricane Florence. All is quiet in the Eastern Pacific at this time. Winds were very light this week, swells were moderate, supplies of sardinas were sufficient and anglers were enjoying great ocean conditions, though days were still very warm and humidity is high, as it normally is during the month of September.

Anglers were using both sardinas and strips of squid, some chihuil also now being caught for bait as well. Yellowfin tuna were found from the Gordo Banks to Iman and San Luis. Smaller football tuna mainly being found on the Gordo Banks, though on Iman and San Luis the yellowfin tuna were avenging 50 to 70 lb. Finicky at times, lots of patience and persistence needed, drift fishing while chumming, dealing with lots of triggerfish and needlefish stealing baits. At times tuna could be seen boiling and jumping out of the water, but proved to have lock jaw, but then would go on the bite sporadically, some days early, sometimes much later in the day. Anglers were doing well to land one, two or three of these quality tuna.

Only a few dorado being found, most of these were under ten pounds, most of these a bit closer to shore than where the tuna were schooling. Wahoo were very few and far between, though every few days we heard about someone catching one. Only a few small roosterfish found close to shore. Off the bottom we did not see any consistent action, though a couple of nice cabrilla in the 40 to 50 pound class were accounted for. A handful of red snapper, bonito and a couple of dogtooth snapper in the 20 to 30 lb. range.

Heard of great striped marlin action on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, our local grounds produced scattered billfish action for sailfish, striped and blue marlin.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 62 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 2 blue marlin, 3 wahoo, 14 dorado, 105 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 2 barred pargo, 14 red snapper, 2 dogtooth snapper, 12 cabrilla and 75 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
September 8, 2018

Light crowds of tourists now, will not be long before the busy fall season begins. Tropical storm season is in the peak period now, when historically the most Hurricanes have formed and also made landfall on the Southern Baja Peninsula. At this time there are no new systems threatening, Hurricane Olivia has headed far off on a westerly track heading for possible landfall in Hawaii. The next Eastern Pacific storm will be named Paul, hard to predict the weather more than a few days in advance this time of year. On Wednesday we did have some isolated heavy rainfall, but only in small areas, not widespread. This is the time of year when forecast call for almost daily scattered thundershowers, more often these form over the hills in the afternoon, but they are always very unpredictable as exactly where and when they happen. Ocean temperatures are warming, up into the 85 to 87 degree range. Swells were moderate for this time of year. Winds were gusting more than last week, mainly after mid-day.

Schooling sardinas were once again found in closer range, now off the San Jose Estuary. Slabs of squids were also a main bait source being used. Most productive area where local fleets are now fishing have been from the Gordo Banks to Iman and San Luis Banks. Yellowfin tuna remained the most common gamefish species being found. Sizes of the tuna have ranged from 10 lb. to 90 lb. Higher numbers of the larger grade of fish were found near Iman and San Luis Banks, but a handful of the nicer yellowfin were also found on the Gordo Banks. Gordo was producing a lot of the smaller sized tuna as well, while Iman and San Luis there were mainly larger sized fish being hooked into. The bite was sporadic, some day’s early, other days late, other day’s finicky, typical tuna fishing. The best method was to have both sardinas and squid, drift fishing while chumming. A few anglers reported success catching chihuil baitfish and slow trolling them, though these baitfish proved difficult and time consuming to try and catch. Anglers seriously targeting the tuna were accounting for an average of one to three of the nicer sized fish, when targeting the smaller tuna, often they were able to catch quick limits of five fish per person.

Very few dorado were seen this past week, we heard of reports of good numbers of these fish being found in the San Diego area, maybe this is where they all are, last season the better dorado action locally was later in the fall and through December, that might be the same pattern this season. Very few wahoo were reported this week, an occasional fish on the troll, but nothing consistent and no particular time of day either.

Bottom action was limited to a few bonito, cabrilla, red snapper, pargo and triggerfish. Not much inshore action seen, not the time of year for that.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 50 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 2 black marlin, 3 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 4 dorado, 3 wahoo, 112 yellowfin tuna, 9 bonito, 5 yellow snapper, 3 barred pargo, 10 red snapper, 2 African pompano, 7 cabrilla (leopard grouper), and 24 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
September 1, 2018

Light crowds of visitors now arriving, many families are now busy preparing for the start of the new school semesters, also waiting for cooler weather and for the tropical storm season to pass. At this time we are seeing a flare up of tropical storm development, we have Hurricanes Miriam and Norman, now farther off to the west, not impacting land, but increasing local humidity, now forming to the south we will have Olivia and Paul within the next week, looks like Paul might be the system the comes closest to land. Forecast do call for some scattered thundershowers in the coming week. More moisture is needed, but everyone is hoping that we do not see any damaging high winds, the next several weeks is when all eyes will be focused on the tropical weather forecasts.

Anglers were finding sardinas a bit harder to find, these schooling baitfish had been found off the northern shoreline near Vinorama, then off of the San Jose del Cabo Estuary and now they are finding them off of Chileno. This means bait netters are back tracking south, then back towards the marina in order to supply the sportfishing fleet, which have been fishing in the direction of the Gordo Banks, La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis Banks. Other bait option continue to be slabs of squid, also some skipjack, bolito and chihuil be found on the offshore grounds and used for slow trolling.

Main species being found were the yellowfin tuna, hitting on the strips of squid and sardinas, ranging in sizes from footballs, up to 80 pounds. Fish were finicky, some days being more active early, other days later in the day, moving around to the various spots, trying to find some cooperative fish. Catches ranged from one or two yellowfin, up to ten. Matter of being on the right sport, at the right time and having sufficient supplies of bait. This is normally the time of year where we see the largest of cow sized yellowfin tuna start to lurk around the local high spots. There were a couple of reports in recent days of large fish being lost after extended battles on the grounds near the Gordo Banks, presumably these were thought to be big tuna. The same Gordo Banks is now producing some action for larger marlin, including one fish landed mid-week from a 22 ft. panga that was an estimated 500 lb. black marlin. Best chances for these larger marlin is to slow troll larger sized baits, lots of patience is needed, but rewards can be high.

Only an occasional dorado being found, most of these under 15 lb. found fairly close to shore. Water is now clear and blue within one mile of shore, ocean currents are warming, now averaging 82 to 86 degrees. Moderate swells, could be increasing with all of the storm activity to the south, will depend on how close these system pass off of the Southern Baja Peninsula.

Limited bottom action, a few snapper, bonito, cabrilla, amberjack, but most charters are targeting the finicky tuna, which has proved to be the best bet for getting a nice amount of fresh fillets.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 51 charters for this week. Anglers reported a fish count of: 1 dogtooth snapper, 1 black marlin, 3 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 18 dorado, 108 yellowfin tuna, 12 bonito, 6 yellow snapper, 5 barred pargo, 3 amberjack, 8 red snapper, 11 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 6 roosterfish and 32 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric