Anglers –
January 6, 2018

The New Year started off with continued large crowds of Holiday tourists visiting Los Cabos. Though next week numbers of visitors will be much lighter, as it will be time when people return to work and school classes resume. While people across North America were enduring frigid record setting icy cold temperatures, local weather has been very ideal considering this is the middle of winter, though low temperatures dipped down into the upper 50s, daytime highs reached near 80 degrees. Mostly sunny skies with variable clouds, light wind and swells in recent days made for great conditions for anglers taking advantage of great late season action for a variety of gamefish. Ocean temperature were in the 74 to 78 degree range, warm enough to keep action hot for the surface pelagic species.

With the Pacific being the best area to find striped marlin action in recent weeks, particularly towards Golden Gate Bank, though this action for the billfish is now switching closer to Cabo San Lucas and on to the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, because the schooling mackerel, the favored food source, are also now abundant off of San Jose del Cabo. We anticipate to see the marlin bite open up in coming weeks

The most common action being consistently targeted has been the bite for yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, with the most productive grounds being from off of Palmilla, Punta Gorda and to La Fortuna, all within a couple miles of shore. Sardinas are being netted in the surf zones, from Palmilla to Cabo Real, these are now the best bait for having success on the yellowfin tuna, as well as dorado, though caballito, mackerel and sardineta are also being used. The yellowfin are striking best while drift fishing baits, at times they are seen feeding and proving to be finicky, lots of boat pressure this past week, but with patience many nice tuna in the 10 to 25 lb. class were being landed.

Best chances for dorado were on the same grounds where the tuna were found, running in smaller sized schools, striking the sardinas and the larger baits, slow trolling was the belter technique for the dorado, sizes ranged 5 to 20 lb. Nice late season bonus, actually for the past month we have seen better dorado action than during the previous fall months.

Wahoo action rebounded again this past week, though as we know, these fish are especially susceptible to becoming finickier when there are larger crowds of boats. For anglers that specifically targeted the wahoo while slow trolling larger baitfish either off of Punta Gorda or Palmilla, they did well, landing as many as two, three or four or five wahoo per morning, with other strikes lost. Handful of these fish also hit on cast yo-yo jigs or higher speed trolled lures, but by far the best chance was on larger baits such as caballito, mackerel, sardineta or chihuil.

There were many wahoo coming in that were in the 10 to 25 range, but there were also equal numbers of fish in the 30 to 45 lb. range accounted for. We expect the wahoo action to continue through the month, as long as we do not get blasted too much from frigid north winds. Water conditions are ideal now, as clean blue water is found within one mile of shore, also an abundance of baitfish in the area, these factors contribute to making the wahoo even more active.

Bottom action was spotty, even though winds were moderate, there was still strong currents running. Best action was found off the shallower rock reefs, using chunk bait in about 70 to 90 feet of water, a variety of snapper, pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito and a handful of amberjack, including one we saw in the 60 lb. class.

Good numbers of juvenile roosterfish moved in off of the hotel zone, remember to release these prized fighting gamefish when at all possible, they are not known for their eating quality. Only limited numbers of sierra now being encountered, as water cools we should see increased numbers of these.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 160 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 72 wahoo, 15 sierra, 470 yellowfin tuna, 310 dorado, 11 amberjack, 21 yellow snapper, 17 barred pargo, 24 Eastern Pacific bonito, 35 white skipjack, 42 roosterfish, 28 cabrilla and 160 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
December 30, 2017

Christmas week we saw many more tourists arriving, the majority of these visitors were coming from climates far cooler than what we have in Southern Baja and were happily enjoying the great local climate and with all of the outdoor activities offered, There was a mix of cloud cover and still plenty of warm sunshine, up to 80 degrees, winds were far lighter this past week and ocean water temperatures ranged 74 to 77 degrees. Besides finding a variety of sport fish, there were increased sightings of whales, as well as other sea life, including, turtles, manta rays, and sea lions.

Local fishing fleets were concentrating on the fishing grounds from Chileno, Palmilla Point, Punta Gordo to La Fortuna. Bait options included sardinas, caballito, mackerel, sardineta, chiuhuil and slabs of squid. The schools of sardinas were now further south off of Cabo Real and with the heavier pressure you needed patience to wait and get in line for these preferred bait fish.

Most productive fishing grounds this week ranged from Palmilla, Punta Gorda and La Fortuna. Yellowfin tuna and dorado were probably the common species, though the wahoo action also rebounded this past week. Despite the winds not being as strong as the previous week, there was still a swift current running and this made it harder to try and do much bottom fishing, though for the anglers that did try drift fishing over shallower rocky reefs, they had some success for a variety of quality eating species, such as leopard grouper, yellow snapper, triggerfish, barred pargo, island jack and others.

The action for the larger grade of yellowfin tuna which had started back up last week on the Gordo Banks, again faded out in recent days and now the better bite for tuna was either off of Palmilla or at La Fortuna, with Palmilla being a hot spot one day and maybe not so good the next, also tons of black skipjack to deal with, which were mixed in with the yellowfin. There were decent sized tuna in the 15 to 40 lb. class found on La Fortuna, though the situation on these grounds were that there were a lot of aggressive and hungry sharks that were grabbing any hooked tuna that they could get a hold of, so more fish were being lost than were actually landed. Other grounds such as Iman or the Gordo Banks reported far less shark activity but more sea lions, which were also playing havoc and attacking any struggling fish they could. Many anglers also reported that besides dealing with natures predators like the sharks and sea lions, there are now numerous spearfishing operations offering chartered free diving trips right on the same local grounds where the rod and reels anglers are concentrated. This used to be only a limited sport on the local grounds, but now is a heavy factor of added pressure on the same already fragile areas. This region is filled with rod and reel anglers and now to bring in so many divers has only made for greater conflicts of interest.

Dorado were being found throughout the inshore areas, most of them caught on sardinas or caballito, sizes ranged up close to 20 lb. Please remember to help conserve this once abundant species and release all of the females as possible, these are easily identified by the different shapes of the head, the male having the squared off forehead and the female more rounded.

Wahoo action came back to life off of Punta Gorda and Palmilla. With greater pressure as well, the word now travels more quickly and these elusive gamefish can become very spooky with the added pressure and even increasingly so with so many spear fishermen swimming around on the same fishing grounds. Best bet for hooking into the wahoo was by slow trolling rigged baits such as chihuil or caballito, sizes ranged to over 40 lb.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 118 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 38 wahoo, 11 sierra, 320 yellowfin tuna, 145 dorado, 6 amberjack, 28 yellow snapper, 2 island jack, 14 barred pargo, 12 Eastern Pacific bonito, 3 dogtooth snapper, 18 white skipjack, 14 roosterfish, 26 cabrilla and 125 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
December 23, 2017

Again this week we saw lighter crowds, we do expect increased numbers of tourists to arrive over the Christmas and New Year’s Holiday. Weather patterns were feeling more like winter, on morning we felt a low of 53 degrees, some days the highs reached only into the low 70s, also had winds from the north on and off, hard to predict from day to day. Ocean water temperature was still in the 75 to 78 degree range and swells were minimal.

Despite the days not being ideal with really warm sunshine, as is normal for the Los Cabos area, anglers actually did very well for a variety of species. Dorado numbers were higher than they have been and often these fish were found within a half mile of shore, with many charters limiting out on these prized gamefish, average fish was weighing in the 10 to 15 lb. range, with some even larger. Best bet for these fish was using either sardinas or caballito for bait. Caballito were being netted inside the marina area, while sardinas were found schooling near Palmilla Point and south to Cabo Real, this area was hit harder by early morning wind from offshore and made it tougher for the bait netters to obtain sufficient quantities, so patience was needed to obtain these preferred baitfish.

Yellowfin tuna action rebounded on the Gordo Banks, but not every day, it was still a bit hit or miss and there were sharks to deal with as well. Though for anglers that were on these grounds at the right time, they accounted for some quality yellowfin to over 80 lb. Also tuna were found on the spots of La Fortuna to Iman Bank, but those areas had larger numbers of sharks and sea lions to shut down the action.

Inshore, closer off of Punta Gordo was one of the best areas producing dorado, a few wahoo were also in the mix, as well as a variety of excellent eating bottom species, striking while drift fishing with chunk bait in about 60 to 80 feet of water, included were yellow snapper, barred pargo, African pompano, triggerfish, leopard grouper and amberjack.

Billfish action was more on the Pacific now, where charters found fair action for striped marlin. Though in recent days a few striped marlin were seen in the direction of the Sea of Cortex, out of San Jose del Cabo, where the first reports of mackerel and sardineta being found off the Hotel zone were being jigged up on sabiki rigs. So this should be favorable for the coming weeks, where the bait goes, so do the gamefish.

Whales continue to move into the region in greater number, the next couple of months will be the peak season for the activity of both gray and humpback whales, whom both arrive here for their winter migration from their northern summer feeding grounds.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 wahoo, 14 sierra, 88 yellowfin tuna, 215 dorado, 14 amberjack, 28 yellow snapper, 4 island jack, 11 barred pargo, 9 Eastern Pacific bonito, 5 dogtooth snapper, 12 white skipjack, 8 roosterfish, 4 African Pompano, 24 cabrilla and 110 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric