Anglers –
April 15, 2017

This is Easter week, through this weekend the entire area almost shuts down, as local families flock to the many beaches to enjoy their vacation time with family and friends. The weather is definitely cooperating, ideal climate now, lows near 60 degrees, quickly warming up into the 80s as the sun rises, winds picked up for a couple of days early in the week, but then laid back down and anglers enjoyed great conditions on the water.

Ocean water temperatures are in the 70 to 74 degree range, actually a bit warmer and clearer close to shore than it has been farther out. Most consistent fishing action recently has been found from the Gordo Banks, north towards La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis Bank. Main bait source the past week was red crabs, caballito and ballyhoo, not much effort put towards finding the schools of sardinas, since most charters were using the red crabs with good results for the red snapper. Surf conditions continue to be high enough that was more challenging for the bait netters to reach the areas where the sardinas are schooling.

The most productive red snapper (huachinango) action was found on the Gordo Banks, strong currents varied and it would vary from day to day as to where the better bite was found, either on the Inner or Outer Banks, also sea lions continue to be a nuisance, robbing more than their fair share of the catch. The whales have now pretty much vanished from our area, headed back towards their northern summer time feeding grounds. The unusual run of larger sized crabs continue throughout the region off of San Jose del Cabo, though the more usual smaller red crabs have been the mainstay for bait being use to catch the snapper. The fish are sometimes coming up near the surface, but more often holding in the middle of the water column. Average sizes ranged from 3 to 12 lb., these excellent eating fish are highly prized for commercial value as well and this has definitely been the main game going on now.

Minimal surface action was being found, a handful of yellowfin tuna to 15 lb. were taken on the troll earlier in the week, heard of one or two wahoo and a stray dorado offshore. No billfish action to speak of either, by the end of the month we expect to see improved surface activity, but in the meantime we will be concentrating over the bottom structure. A handful of amberjack, most of them under 15 lb., we saw one nice 25 lb. yellowtail, which was also taken on a red crab bait on the Inner Gordo Bank. Some yellow snapper, leopard grouper, bonito and triggerfish rounded out the bottom catch, anglers were using various whole and cut baits, as well as yo-yo jigs for this action.

Although we are not seeing many trophy sized catches recently, the fish that are being caught are of the very good eating variety, this season is turning out to be one of the better in many years for the amount of quality red snapper being accounted for. We expect we will start to see more amberjack and dogtooth snapper appear in these fish counts in the coming weeks.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 75 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 1 dorado, 8 yellowfin tuna, 1 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 40 yellow snapper, 14 leopard grouper, 1 golden cabrilla, 560 huachinango, 9 sierra, 48 bonito, 12 mojarra, 70 black skipjack and 140 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
April 8, 2017

With the spring season now officially arriving, belated daylight savings time also now adjusted, we continue to see increasing numbers of tourists, most schools have now taken off, or are in the process of their spring vacation break. Local schools will be out this coming week and this is also traditionally the period when families take extended time off from daily routines, majority of them going on beach camping excursions, hard to find locals that will be available to work this coming weekend, this is time to spend with family and friends.

Weather patterns have been very pleasant, still dropping down into the upper 50 early in the mornings, days have been mostly clear, plenty of warm sunshine, highs near 90 degrees and winds were moderate, southern swells are becoming more predominate in recent weeks. Businesses have been busy providing services for vacationers, a good percentage deciding to their luck at sportfishing.

With higher surf conditions, the bait netters were not able to reach the schools of sardinas, warmer currents, now up to 73/74 degrees, have brought in more caballito in the marina area, anglers are also using some ballyhoo and squid. Some bottom action is being found with yo-yo jigs and the open water trolling is starting to finally produce some action. The warmer current is now closer to shore, off of San Del Cabo and towards Los Frailes, offshore the water is cooler, down to 70 degrees.

The striped marlin action improved overall this past week, on and off action trolling with lures and dropping back baits, near the 1150 spot, also shifting north off of San Luis, encouraging sign to see some billfish activity, it had been very limited throughout winter, now every day you are hearing about people having opportunities at marlin. Also a few reports of dorado offshore. Yellowfin tuna are striking on hoochie type lures closer to shore near Iman Bank, smaller tuna to 15 lb. Some yellowfin to over 30 lb. were landed from the charters that tried drift fishing over the same grounds, strips of squid is what enticed these larger tuna, though this bite was sporadic, one day s few fish, the next day none.

This week the action improved as the water temperatures warmed, cleaner currents shifted closer to shore north of Punta Gorda and winds laid down. The grounds from Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis all showed better signs of surface action, wahoo even became more active later in the week, striking on trolled skirted lures and Rapalas, weighing to over 40 lb., also striped marlin were hooked into and smaller grade of yellowfin tuna striking on lures. These same grounds produced a mix of bottom species, a few more amberjack showing up, striking on yo-yo jigs, one amber weighed in at 90 lb. Heard of one nice yellowtail and a handful of leopard grouper. The big red snapper bite on the Outer Gordo Banks faded out, as the unusual run of larger crabs diminished, commercial fleet has been imported the smaller pelagic red crabs for use as bait for the snapper, though when the bigger crabs were drifting to the surface, those are what really produced the larger grade of red snapper, locally referred to as huachinango.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 14 striped marlin, 15 wahoo, 2 dorado, 36 yellowfin tuna, 1 yellowtail, 17 amberjack, 24 yellow snapper, , 15 leopard grouper, 380 huachinango, 12 sierra, 10 mojarra, 30 black skipjack and 80 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
March 25, 2017

For some reason this week was not so busy with tourists, in between waves of spring breakers perhaps. The annual San Jose del Cabo traditional Fiestas have come and gone now without any major incidents, though they are still in the cleanup process on the grounds adjacent to the baseball park. Ideal weather patterns continue, still a bit cool early in the morning, but daytime temperatures have been reaching into the mid-80s, clear warm sunny skies. Still good numbers of whales being seen, this now being their late season, getting ready to migrate back to the northern feeding grounds.

Ocean swells increased this week, making it very difficult for the bait netters to reach inshore rocky areas where the sardinas were schooling. Other bait sources included limited caballito, ballyhoo, squid and red crabs. Larger crabs were once again found drifting to the surface on the Outer Gordo Banks and were being gathered for use for bottom fish action. Currents have varied, not being quite as strong as they had been, winds were a factor later in the week, then settling down for the weekend. Ocean temperature ranged from 68 to 74 degrees through most of the region, with the warmest areas being offshore of San Jose del Cabo some 6 to 8 miles. Blue water has been found within several miles of shore.

Last week the big news was a great bite for wahoo during a time frame that is not typical for this elusive gamefish, as they were found in schools close to shore off of Punta Gorda. The combination of heavy pressure for multiple days and ocean conditions that cooled off and became a bit greenish contributed to that action fading out. This week the most productive bite was for red snapper, or locally called huachinango, these are the true Pacific red snapper, found over offshore structure, striking readily on various crabs baits, a few on yo-yo jigs as well, these extremely prized eating fish average in the 5 to 12 lb. range, very scrappy fighters on lighter tackle. The largest sized snapper were recently coming from the Outer Gordo Banks, while other areas closer to shore were producing a smaller grade or snapper.

Not much going on for any surface action now, anglers at times were seeing the yellowfin tuna showing on the surface, but they proved very finicky and with the lack of sardinas due to higher surf conditions, this made it difficult to entice any tuna strikes, very few were landed this past week. Dorado were even scarcer and the billfish bite has been late to get going. We did hear of reports of striped marlin near the 1150 high spot and even a couple of dorado, this area had warmer water temperatures, so maybe something will finally start to happen offshore.

Inshore there has not been much besides some sierra and triggerfish, as water starts to warm back up, we should see the juvenile roosterfish move in. Then later in the spring as the mullet show up, that will attract the larger roosters and other jacks.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 9 yellowfin tuna, 6 amberjack, 14 yellow snapper, 11 flag cabrilla, 13 leopard grouper, 420 huachinango, 21 sierra, 105 black skipjack and 95 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric