Anglers –
November 4, 2017

Large crowds of vising tourists are being greeted with pristine fall conditions. Winds have been somewhat unpredictable, at times from the north and then from the south, but as this week progressed conditions seemed to improve, colder mornings that had dipped into the 60s are now back into the 70s and daytime highs are still reaching into the upper 80s. Plenty of warm sunshine for all. The season’s final big tournament this week, the WON Tuna Jackpot, attracted some 146 teams, battling for high stakes, searching for the largest yellowfin tuna, with other jackpots for dorado and wahoo. Check the WON web site for overall results.

Surprisingly there still have been supplies of sardinas available, anglers are also using slabs of squid, some caballito, ballyhoo and chihuil as well. Fleets have been searching in all directions, as is common for this time of year, local charters from San Jose del Cabo have mainly been concentrating on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks to San Luis. Ocean water temperature are now in the 81 to 85 degree range.

Most common species has been the yellowfin tuna, sizes ranged from small footballs up to 90 lb. plus, including fish to over 300 lb. Tuning up for the WON tournament local panga skipper Chame Pino landed a 322 lb. yellowfin on Tuesday off of the Gordo Banks, while drift fishing with chunk bait from skipjack. Iman Bank has held the most numbers of schooling tuna, though of the smaller sizes. San Luis has produced tuna in the 70 to 90 lb. class, while the Gordo Banks are the grounds that have proved to the best bet of hooking into a cow, though again these big fish are not numerous, lots of patience and chumming is involved. Very heavy pressure now, as well as once again we are into the full moon phase, which can often cause the fish to be even more sporadic and finicky.

Early in the week the wahoo bite showed improvement, best spot being near Iman Bank, slow trolling with chihuil was the best technique, though these baitfish are not easy to come by, the wahoo also hit on rapalas at times, though not like on the live bait. Wahoo up to 45 lb. were brought in, some boats landing as many as four, though as the week progressed and the pressure was increased the wahoo action also tapered off. The water temperature is just starting to drop some and as it drops a few more degrees conditions will be ideal for peak activity for these prized gamefish.

Dorado are being found in limited numbers, the largest we saw were in the 15 lb. range, striking on lures and baits, no particular spot to specifically target them. Billfish was spotty as well, though some charters did report better action later in the week outside of Gordo Banks, where a few blue and striped marlin were found. Not much bottom action even being targeted now, more triggerfish, bonito and misc. pargo than anything else. Water still warm for much inshore action to start up, though it is a good sign that schools of sardinas are still in the area, despite the heavy pressure.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 144 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 blue marlin, 4 striped marlin, 36 wahoo, 580 yellowfin tuna, 66 dorado, 8 yellow snapper, 22 huachinango, 24 Eastern Pacific bonito, 9 cabrilla, 5 barred pargo and 84 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
October 28, 2017

Large crowds of anglers and visitors alike are arriving in Los Cabos, as we are now in the midst of the peak fall season. This past week the huge story was the Bisbee Black and Blue Tournament, which is the highest paying fishing tournament in the world, with this year’s event attracting 120 teams from across the globe, with over 800 participants. For final results you can check on Bisbee’s web site. Swirling winds from the north finally resided late in the week, with prevailing clear sunny skies and warmer than normal high temperatures, this all made for ideal conditions, actually still feeling almost like summer.

Heavy pressure now on bait resources, but so far supplies have held up, though if wishing to obtain sardinas, that meant traveling towards Chileno and waiting each morning as netters worked overtime to find enough bait to go around. Other options were caballito and slabs of squid. Some panga guides are starting to scout out chihuil options, as well as smaller sized skipjack.

Sportfishing fleets, as well as tournament teams, have been scouting fishing grounds in all directions. For fleets out of San Jose del Cabo, thought much of the week they were heading south towards Cabo San Lucas, in order to find calmer waters, since north winds had their normal grounds from Gordo Banks to Vinorama all stirred up and very choppy. Also with the sardinas now being located close to Cabo San Lucas, that is a long back tack, to travel that far south to wait around for sardinas and then motor back to grounds such as Iman or San Luis Banks, not a normal plan, this takes way too much time, not to mention how much extra fuel is needed. Charters were fishing areas from the Hyatt, Cabeza Ballena, Los Arcos and to el Faro around the corner on the Pacific. Main target species being the yellowfin tuna. Drift fishing with sardinas was the most productive technique, the tuna were seen in flurries, at times proved to be very finicky, catches ranged from zero up to ten fish per boat, depending where you happened to be at a given time, lots of black skipjack were mixed in with the yellowfin tuna. Average size of the tuna were 5 to 10 lb. though other larger fish were mixed in. The biggest yellowfin tuna for the week was taken Friday off of the Outer Gordo Banks, angler Bob Deeter hooked into the cow tuna while trolling a live chihuil, after a crazy surface battle, the fish actually expired and was subdued in relatively easier than normal manner. Back at the docks the yellowfin weighed in at 304 lb.

Dorado were very scarce early in the week off of San Jose del Cabo grounds, better chances were found trolling in Pacific waters, though later in the week we saw more dorado showing up, still not in significant numbers, but at least somewhat encouraging. Sizes ranged up to 15 lb. Wahoo action finally showed much more activity later in the week, as ocean conditions calmed down and charters were able to comfortably work areas such as the Iman Bank. With a slight change in climate as well, this seemed to trigger the wahoo. Many boats reported having six or more chances of wahoo strikes, most on baitfish such as chihuil or caballito. Other reported strikes on skirted lead heads and Rapalas. Of course as is usual with wahoo fishing, a higher percentage of strikes were lost, as compared with actually wahoo being landed. Several charters had two or three wahoo in the box, at least one had four. Sizes were not huge, but average of about 20 to 25 lb.

Bottom action was limited, one 60 lb. amberjack was accounted for, but only sporadic catches of snapper, cabrilla and triggerfish were reported. This is not the normal season for that type of fishing, with more surface action going on, nor has much at all been reported close along the beach stretches.

Billfish was spread out, but the tournaments have found a respectable number of qualifying black and blue marlin that have passed the 300 lb. minimal weight limits, Not many striped marlin now, water too warm for them, with temperatures now averaging 84 to 85 degrees.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 162 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 28 wahoo, 4 amberjack, 215 yellowfin tuna, 75 dorado, 11 yellow snapper, 34 huachinango, 2 pompano, 18 Eastern Pacific bonito, 13 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 6 barred pargo and 96 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
October 21, 2017

This week is traditionally really the time when things become very busy for local sportfishing fleets and sure enough the crowds have arrived in force, almost to capacity levels. The high stake billfish and yellowfin tuna tournaments are in progress, with the granddaddy of all events, the Bisbee Black Blue, scheduled for this next week. Weather conditions are near ideal now, though we have felt warmer than usual conditions recently, just the past couple of days we saw early mornings just slightly cooler, still in the 70s. We do believe the next couple of weeks should have pristine conditions. Ocean water temperatures have remained warm as well, with most of the region averaging from 85 to 88 degrees. Clean blue water now within a couple of miles from shore, swells were moderate, though slightly increased with the recent higher tidal swings, larger waves make it more difficult for the bait netters to safely reach where the schooling sardinas are. Most days they were able to find sufficient supplies of the sardinas, with schools found off of Palmilla, near marina jetties, as well as north near Vinorama. Squid has been the other bait that is being offered and if possible it is best to obtain both sardinas and slabs of squid in order to increase your chances, the more the better. This is always the time frame when bait supplies feel the heaviest demand, we will cross our fingers that supplies hold up throughout the fall season.

This week we saw scattered numbers of dorado up to 20 lb. accounted for, but as the week progressed we saw much fewer dorado, hard to say what the deal with that is. Only a handful of wahoo were reported for the entire fleet, warmer than usual water temperatures help make wahoo more sluggish. As currents cool down to the 80 degree range this will usually trigger more activity out of these highly sought after gamefish.

Most consistent action was for yellowfin tuna, bite was more hit or miss that the previous week, heavy pressure and long waits to obtain bait, just part of the factors that come into play this time of year. Best action was found near San Luis Banks. Though other areas also produced. The yellowfin were striking on sardinas and strips of squid while drift fishing over the grounds, sizes of the tuna ranged from 5 lb. footballs up to 100 lb. specimens. Catches varied from a few fish per boat, to easy limits, some days we saw a higher percentage of yellowfin in the 30 to 80 lb. class, while other days more numbers of smaller fish, with a handful of larger fish weighed in. Lots of tuna now in the area, though they can become even more finicky with increased angling pressure.

Very little billfish action reported, though tournaments teams are landing a few and there is definitely the chance that someone will be hooking into a big black or blue marlin during the big buck events. No inshore action to report, such as sierra or roosterfish, some big jack crevalle hanging around the marina jetty area. Off the bottom there was only sporadic catches of various pargo, cabrilla, bonito, pompano, amberjack and triggerfish

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 185 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 3 sailfish, 4 wahoo, 6 amberjack, 880 yellowfin tuna, 78 dorado,28 yellow snapper, 54 huachinango, 6 pompano, 95 Eastern Pacific bonito, 9 cabrilla (leopard grouper), 12 barred pargo and 140 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric