Anglers –
March 4, 2017

Similar pattern continues, many tourists arriving from northern territories to enjoy the ideal Southern Baja winter time climate. Not a large percentage of these visitors are serious hard core anglers, though many are deciding to give sportfishing a try as one of their many activity options to choose from. Scores of whales, as well as manta rays, sea lions and sea turtles are an added attraction for sightseeing. As we now transition towards the late winter season, low temperatures early in the morning are much milder, clear sunny skies have prevailed and daytime highs are near 80 degrees and this next week is forecast to be even warmer. Ideal time now to visit this resort area, surely the first waves of spring breakers will be arriving soon.

Ocean swells are moderate, water temperature is now on a slight warming trend, now averaging in the 71 to 73 degree range. Winds were predominately from the north, coming in cycles of two or three days, then diminishing for a period before returning, but for the most part the conditions were favorable for anglers to target what available options there have been. The red snapper bite had slowed over last weekend on the Outer Gordo Banks, but picked back up to start this week, the rare run of larger sized crabs were again present and were being netted and used for baits to drop down for the huachinango action, limits of these true Pacific red snapper were the rule, early in the day these fish were also readily striking on yo-yo style jigs, one California sheepshead weighing close to 30 lb. was also accounted for. This action for the snapper faded out again later in the week, north winds contributed to this and the crabs became very scarce as well, hard to say how this action will pan out in the coming weeks. Not much else going on for a variety of bottom species, a mix of yellow snapper, a few amberjack, cabrilla and the ever present triggerfish off rock piles closer to shore. No yellowtail action be reported this past week.

Sardinas have continued to found schooling close to shoe along stretches from the Regina Resort to Chileno and this was the bait of choice, with squid strips as a backup. The yellowfin tuna action has starting back up off of the Cabo San Lucas Arches, picked up strong mid-week for fish ranging 20 to 40 lb., quality sized yellowfin within a stones through of the shoreline. Wind was not a factor on these grounds, very calm, though once the word got out on this bite developing again the crowds swarmed, of course the sea lions and sea gulls were all in on this action as well. Anglers were doing best while slow trolling the live sardinas, but had to deal with the birds and sea lions taking their baits and then once actually hooking a tuna had to be fortunate to escape from having a sea lion grab the battling fish. Overall charters were accounted for an average of three to six tuna per morning trip, with many black skipjack in the mix.

With very limited billfish action being found throughout the area and no dorado or wahoo to speak of, this bite for the yellowfin was definitely the best option presently. During this transition period a lot can happen from week to week, still hoping to see some yellowtail of decent size show up, have not seen any numbers of them now for several years, with water temperatures starting to rise hard to say what will develop.

Limited action close to shore now for mainly sierra, along the beach stretches from Palmilla towards Cabo San Lucas, no word of roosterfish recently, though warming water should start to bring in more roosters.

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: 1 sheepshead, 1 wahoo,170 yellowfin tuna, 8 bonito, 11 yellow snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 124 huachinango, 15 sierra, 4 amberjack and 80 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
February 25, 2017

There did seem to be larger crowds of tourists in town this past week, enjoying the spring like weather conditions, though not many anglers are in these numbers of people, as amount of charters are slower, not that unusual for this time frame though, this is never considered to peak season for any of the more glamorous gamefish species. We did have a day of rainfall last weekend, isolated showers that really did not amount to much, also more winds, both from the south and then returning from out of the north, this combined to slow down the all-around fishing action. Water temperature has been averaging about 69 to 70 degrees through most of the region, currents have been strong at times and swells also increased during the previous week, before residing back down. Crazy weather this time of year, as we begin to transition from winter to spring.

Bait netters are finding sardinas still near Palmilla and towards Regina Resort, other options have been strips of squid and we are starting to use some yo-yo jigs more as well. The tuna action has been centered near the Iman Bank, where fish up to 60 lb. were landed, though the past week this action did slow way down, with anglers very fortunate to land one or two of these yellowfin, which were most of the time averaging 20 to 30 lb. More charters are also starting to work the bottom for various pargo, snapper, amberjack, cabrilla, bonito, yellowtail and other species. You have to have calmer conditions to be able to really have good chances for this type of action. Lots of sea lions to contend with as well, getting more than their share of the catch.

There has been a great bite for huachinango (red snapper) on the Outer Gordo Bank, not many people even knew about this. There was an unusual run of larger size reddish crabs drifting to the surface, averaging two to three inches in size, much larger than the more common pelagic red crabs that we see this time of year, these crabs found in recent days are a much rarer occurrence. The deal was to cruise around these grounds and net what crabs you could and then rig them up with sinkers and drop towards the bottom. The few charters that did try this did very well on quality snapper up to 14 lb. Though they also had to battle the sea lions, who also knew about these schooling snappers and were waiting for their chance at easy pickings of hooked up fish. Big numbers of humpback whales also still congregating on these same popular fishing grounds.

There were some smaller sized yellowtail, most in the 4 to 8 lb. class off of Palmilla, still waiting for larger fish to move in. Also some amberjack in the 5 to 25 lb. class, an occasional leopard grouper or yellow snapper, of course many triggerfish in the mix as well. Not much going on for inshore action, only a few boats even trying, mainly for limited numbers of smaller sized sierra.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 63 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 29 yellowfin tuna, 10 bonito, 14 yellow snapper, 13 leopard grouper, 165 huachinango, 18 sierra, 12 yellowtail, 26 amberjack and 55 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
February 18, 2017

We are now in the middle of the unpredictable month of February, last week weather patterns felt more like late springtime, this week conditions were cooler, more typical to what they usually would feel like, with low temperatures close to 50 degrees and highs in the mid-70s, still very pleasant conditions compared to areas across North America. Winds this past week were mild, though later in the week the ocean swells increased and this made it hard for the bait netters to reach areas where the schooling sardinas were holding. The sardinas had been found off of the Melia to Chileno beach stretches, but a new resource of larger sized sardinas had been found to the north, off of San Luis, which is directly inshore of the preferred fishing grounds.

So now we will be waiting for surf conditions to reside some so the bait can be netted again, in the meantime anglers were relying on what bait was available, some caballito and squid. Also it was time to start using yo-yo style jigs off of the bottom structure. With ocean temperatures now in the 69 to 71 degree range, it is the season where charters are commonly targeting a variety of good eating bottom species and this is what is going on now. We are seeing better catches of red snapper, yellow snapper, amberjack, yellowtail, cabrilla, triggerfish and bonito. Still a little up and down from day to day, though this fishery is showing promise of getting on track, after not showing much activity through last month. Fishing grounds from Palmilla, La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis all had better signs of action recently.

The yellowtail that have been found have been smaller sized, most of them under five pounds, though at least we are seeing them showing up and we are optimistic that lager sized fish will move in soon. A mix of leopard grouper, red and yellow snapper, amberjack, bonito and triggerfish has rounded out the bottom action, many of these fish are striking on yo-yo jigs and others on various whole and cut baits. One amberjack of 80 lb. was reported, though most of the ones we saw were more in the 10 to 15 lb. class.

With the billfish bite being very limited now off of the San Jose del Cabo area and the dorado bite being dead as well, the highlight for any surface action has continued to be the yellowfin tuna. Last week the tuna were found off the Cabo San Lucas arches, this week the local sportfishing charters have been concentrated back on their normal grounds to the north of Punta Gorda, with the Iman and San Luis Banks being the better options. Yellowfin tuna up to 50 lb. were accounted for, though the average size of the yellowfin were more in the 15 to 25 lb. class. These fish were striking on sardinas, when they were available, also on strips of squid and the yo-yo jigs. Catches ranged from one or two fish, up to five or sox, not off the map wide open, but nevertheless good for this time of year, when we often do not even see any tuna. A few wahoo were seen free swimming and were also hooked into, resulting in cut lines, a bit surprising to see these fish still hanging around in the cooler water, most of them would be in southern waters at this time.

Not much action close to sore now, this is the time for sierra, so far just a few here and there, most charters have been out trying for the tuna or bottom species. Cooler water now for roosterfish, though there is always a chance. Considering the water temperature, the conditions have showed cleaner bluish water through much of the area, spots of greener currents in places.

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: 2 striped marlin, 160 yellowfin tuna, 1 wahoo, 32 bonito, 18 yellow snapper, 17 leopard grouper, 82 huachinango, 32 sierra, 18 yellowtail, 22 amberjack and 90 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric