Anglers –
September 4, 2017

Late report this week. On Wednesday evening Tropical Storm Lidia swept directly towards the Los Cabos region, with wind gusts to 70 mph and dumping almost unprecedented amounts of rainfall, with up to 27 inches of rain being recorded. Main Mexico Highway 1 Bridge collapsed near Santa Rosa, wide spread flooding was felt, arroyos turned into raging rivers, it will take major rebuilding and cleanup efforts. Some areas are still without basic utilities. Our sportfishing charters are resuming operations this week, as ongoing cleanup continues, from the tonnage of debris from inside the marina, hanging on the boats slips, major mess.

Weather is clear now, but through the month of September we always have to follow forecasts closely. Surf has resided now, though who knows what the bait situation for finding any sardinas will be. Could be relying more on strips of squid, until later in the fall, when cooling currents bring back more sardinas.

Before the storm, charters were catching good numbers of yellowfin tuna, while using sardinas and some on squid, off of the Iman Bank mainly, tuna ranged in sizes up to 60 lb., most averaged in the 12 to 16 lb. class, Other anglers were trying the Gordo Banks, but not much had been going on after a flurry of action on cow size tuna during the previous week. There could be the big cows just lurking around the banks, this is the time of year, as long as the weather cooperates, we anticipate some great yellowfin action in the coming weeks.

Dorado were scattered throughout the zone, though mostly smaller sized fish, a few exception of fish over 20 lb., most were under 10 lb. Not as numerous as were the tuna, striking on trolled lures, as well as on various baits once fish were found. Only a few wahoo strikes were reported, more of the ’hoo were concentrated north in the Vinorama region. Maybe the slightly cooler water pushed in from the storm will trigger a wahoo bite.

Black marlin were being found near where the schooling skipjack and yellowfin tuna are. For the anglers that did try trolling larger live baits, many reported strikes on black and blue marlin, most were lost, some were landed through, a few striped marlin hanging around, as well as some sailfish.

Not much consistent bottom action, a few dogtooth snapper hook ups, an occasional amberjack on yo-yo, yellow snapper, cabrilla and triggerfish, but no big numbers.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 36 charters for the shortened week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 black marlin,1 blue marlin, 4 sailfish, 38 dorado, 2 wahoo, 2 dogtooth snapper, 6 yellow snapper, 210 yellowfin tuna, 45 white skipjack, 2 barred pargo, 9 cabrilla, 12 huachinango, 3 amberjack and 32 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 25, 2017

There were greater crowds of anglers arriving this past week, possibly taking advantage of the calm weather patterns and wide open yellowfin tuna action. With no new tropical storms having developed on the horizon at this time, all looks okay for the coming days. This time of year the weather can change quickly, so you have to work when the conditions are favorable. Tropical conditions continue, high humidity, scattered cloud cover, light winds, calm ocean swells, all making for great conditions offshore for anglers.

Charters have been relying on slabs of squid and live sardinas for bait, surprising to actually see the sardinas this time of year, usually these baitfish would be scattered by this late in the summer, mainly due to higher surf conditions and too warm of water temperatures for their liking. Surf conditions have been unusually light recently, this has given the commercial bait fleet more opportunities to net the schooling sardinas.

The main action this past week was for the yellowfin tuna, an influx of smaller sized fish in the 10 to 15 lb. class dominated the bite on the Iman Bank, where fleets from as far as way as Buena Vista have been getting in on this action. Best bet was drift fishing with free lined sardinas, limits were the rule. Mixed in with the football sized tuna were white skipjack up to 8 lb. and an occasional much larger yellowfin tuna in the 50 to 80 lb. class, though those were few and far between. One tuna in the 150 lb. class was also reported early in the week off of the Gordo Banks. This time of year we would expect more numbers of quality sized tuna, we do believe they are still in the area, but are hanging lower in the water column perhaps, not wanting to compete with the greater number of smaller tuna, who knows what is up with that.

With all of the yellowfin tuna around there have been more reports of black and blue marlin being hooking into, early in the week there was one black marlin brought into the scale that weighed in at 547 lb. Others in the 200 to 250 lb. range were also landed. Most of these marlin strikes came while slow trolling larger baits, such as skipjack or yellowfin tuna.

Only a couple of wahoo strikes were reported all week, these fish are just not very active now in the warmer waters. Though we did see fair numbers of dorado spread throughout the region, striking on trolled lures and various baits. Average size for these fish was under 10 lb., with some exceptions reaching up close to 20 lb.

This week we saw more dogtooth snapper than we have seen all summer, still no significant numbers, but at least we are seeing them. These fish hit while anglers were drift fishing and targeting yellowfin tuna, snapper up to 45 lb. were landed, the Inner Gordo Bank produced the majority, but others were also hooked into on the grounds from La Fortuna to the Iman Bank.

Not much inshore fishing being done now, this action does usually fade out this late in the season. Most fishing activity is now centered on the high spots offshore.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 85 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 2 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 162 dorado,1 wahoo,9 dogtooth snapper, 8 yellow snapper, 660 yellowfin tuna, 125 white skipjack, 5 barred pargo, 13 leopard grouper, 1 pinto cabrilla, 13 huachinango, 5 amberjack and 44 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
August 19, 2017

Another relatively calm week, tropical conditions prevailing, scattering of clouds, higher humidity and late in the week there were some isolated thunder showers, felt mainly over mountainous regions. Presently there is a newly forming tropical depression off some hundreds of miles to the southwest, forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it heads off to the west, too far to cause any impact to land. Ocean swells were now moderate, some afternoon winds picking up, related to passing thunder clouds. Water temperatures ranged from 83 to 87. Cooler greenish water found closer to shore.

Bait suppliers were selling slabs of squid, some caballito and also finding some nicer sized schooling sardinas off the beach stretches near San Luis. In recent days the most consistent fishing action was coming when using these live sardinas. Most common species have been yellowfin tuna and dorado, a few wahoo and bottom species also in the mix. Chance at hooking into a larger size black or blue marlin as well. This week we definitely saw increased numbers of dorado, the majority were smaller sized fish, under ten pounds, but there were some larger specimens accounted for, up to over 20 lb. The dorado were striking on various trolled lures and on bait. Found throughout the zone, but more concentrations encountered within a few miles of shore, rather than far offshore.

Yellowfin action was concentrated from the Iman Bank to the Gordo Banks. Early in the week there was a higher percentage of finding a few yellowfin tuna in the 40 to 80 lb. class, but later in the week we saw smaller schooling football sized tuna dominate the action, particularly near Iman Bank, limits were the rule, same areas produced good numbers of dorado, outside chance at hooking into a wahoo. The Gordo Banks produced more sporadic action, seemed to be the area where the better chance at hooking into a larger sized fish might be. Some locals were reporting better activity later in the day, after the main charter fleet moved off the grounds.

Not much inshore action being found this time of year and with strong currents continuing to sweep through, this has made the bottom opportunities more difficult. Main species that were accounted for off the rocky areas, were triggerfish, pargo and leopard grouper, no big numbers, but a handful of quality eating fish being accounted for, anglers used yo-yo jigs and baits for this bite.

We heard of several hook up on larger sized black marlin, though these battles were lost. With the influx of smaller yellowfin tuna moving in, these are a favored food source for the largest of all pelagic gamefish. This is also the time we normally expect to see some of the 200 to 300 pound yellowfin tuna taking up residence on the local high spots.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 73 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 205 dorado, 7 wahoo, 4 surgeonfish, 2 dogtooth snapper, 16 yellow snapper, 490 yellowfin tuna, 17 leopard grouper, 3 pinto cabrilla, 15 huachinango and 78 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric