Anglers –
December 12, 2015

Another quiet week for numbers of visitors arriving in the Los Cabos area, another ten days or so we should see more holiday travelers. Weather patterns were more like typical late fall season patterns, cooler mornings, predominate north winds, relentless for days, before diminishing for a period and then repeating the cycle. Air temperatures in the mid-80s and the strength of the sunshine has felt surprisingly intense for mid-December. Scattered clouds most days, threatening light rain later in the week. Lighter winds early in the week, increasing by week’s end. Ocean temperatures are ranging from 78 to 82 degrees, warmest currents being reported straight outside of Cabo San Lucas and towards the Pacific Banks. Overall ocean conditions are considerably warmer than what they normally would be for this time of year, definitely results from El Nino.

Local fishing grounds are still attracting pelagic gamefish such as yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, skipjack, sailfish, striped and blue marlin. We are anticipating on having summer and fall type fishing action lasting into this winter season, this as a result of warmer than usual ocean conditions. There are some cooler water species like sierra now appearing along beach stretches and bonito off the structure. No reports of any new resource for sardinas, we expect as the ocean temps eventually cool, schools of sardinas will return, hard to predict what is going on with these baitfish migrations, many factors involved. Whales are now arriving on their annual migration, numerous sightings, this activity should only increase in the next couple of months.

San Jose del Cabo fleets concentrated most of their efforts on the grounds from the Gordo Banks to Iman Bank. Action was somewhat sporadic, no great numbers of any particular fish, though there were some quality fish being accounted for every day, again the pressure was light due to minimal crowds of anglers at this time. There was good dorado action found early in the day, straight out front of Puerto Los Cabos Marina, 2 to 4 miles out, slow trolling caballito was the best producer, though some dorado also hit on trolled lures or ballyhoo, for anglers that were able to find any of these rigging baits. Most dorado were weighing in the 12 to 25 lb. range, nice sized fish, charters accounted for anywhere from one or two, up to four or five fish per day. On these same ground there were billfish, this past week anglers hooked into sailfish, striped and black and blue marlin. There was a story of a black marlin hooked later in the day anglers battled this fish until 8 p.m. before breaking it off, no moon at all and the crew did not seem to be making any headway.

Yellowfin tuna was a bit spottier, though in recent days this action did show signs of improvement. The key to this action was finding sufficient supplies of squid slabs, drift fishing while chumming was the method that was working. Both Inner and Outer Gordo Banks were holding yellowfin of 40 to 100 pound class, most likely much larger, most of the fish being landed from these grounds were in the 60 to 80 lb., we heard of a local pangeros last week who caught a tuna that went 180 lb. Other heavy hook ups were lost, included more than one big fish lost to cut lines, suspected that some lost commercial set gear could be the problem. Anglers were lucky to land one or two of these tuna and had to be specifically targeting these fish. The Iman Bank produced a grade of tuna in the 15 to 35 lb. range, also nice fish and chance at more numbers, some charters had as many as 5 to 8 of these yellowfin. These were the same grounds where wahoo have been holding, the bite has been on and off, mainly on trolled baits, caballito, skipjack or chihuil, not much reported on trolled lures recently, of course more anglers are fishing the bait, compared to trolling lures.

Some sierra now mixed with mostly smaller sized roosterfish found close to shore, inside the marina area locals are having a field day with the wide open barracuda bite. Bottom action consisted mostly for smaller sized pargo and triggerfish, a few bonito and cabrilla.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 56 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 11 sailfish 1 blue marlin, 17 striped marlin, 66 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 18 wahoo, 4 sierra, 28 pargo, 1 pompano, 10 cabrilla, 16 white skipjack, 8 bonito, 12 rainbow runner, 14 roosterfish, 4 surgeonfish and 20 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
December 5, 2015

This week like clockwork the numbers of visitors were far fewer than in previous weeks, this is normal for immediately after Thanksgiving and prior to the Christmas Holiday season. Last week we were all caught off guard by the latest forming major Hurricane ever recorded in the Eastern Pacific, Hurricane Sandra reached category four strength and initially was forecast to pass very close to Cabo San Lucas on Saturday, the system followed a unpredictable course, it then collided with a powerful wind shear from the north, which stirred the storm further south and caused rapid weakening. Southern Baja was spared of any devastation, there was a fair amount of rainfall recorded in the Los Cabos, possibly up to three inches in certain areas. Winds never reached much more than 30 mph gusts, but storm swells did kick up to about four meters and both local ports were closed all day on Friday and Saturday, rainy day schedule, finally opening Sunday morning. Since the passing of this storm front there have been persistent northerly winds, ranging 15 to 25 mph and this created choppy conditions on the open grounds north of Punta Gorda. The winds did slack later in the week, helping to settle seas, air temperature are still reaching into the 80’s and lows dipped to 60 degrees. Ocean water temperature was now ranging 79/80 degrees throughout most of the region. North winds pushed in slightly greener current close to shore.

The week started off with the wahoo being aggressive and very active early in the day on the Iman Bank. Best action was on slow trolled baits, either caballito or chihuil, not much reported on trolled artificial lures. Some charters landed up to five wahoo, with that many other strikes lost, weights for the ‘hoo averaged 25 to 40 lb. Not as many numbers of dorado were found from these same grounds, though the other fleets fishing on the Pacific did find more numbers of dorado, but not many wahoo or other species, besides billfish.

Yellowfin tuna action became hampered by persistent winds, harder to find porpoise activity, and not favorable for drift and chum style fishing. Other days anglers could see tuna breezing on the surface, but these fish were just not interested in striking any offerings. A handful of yellowfin tuna have been landed, some smaller grade football, but other quality tuna in the 40 to 120 lb. class were accounted for. The day before the recent storm struck there was a report from commercial pangeros based out of Los Frailes, who landed one yellowfin tuna that weighed 378 lb. while fishing on the San Luis Bank with squid. If weather does cooperate we do expect to have more quality yellowfin tuna action opening up.

The bottom action showing a little more promise in recent days, but again you need calmer conditions to really have better opportunities. A few species of pargo, bonito, amberjack, triggerfish and cabrilla, no big quantities, but better than what we have seen off of the bottom for the past month, we expect to see improved bottom action, though this will depend on how persistent north winds prove to be. Normal fall/winter wind patterns have been harder to predict this year, winds usually blow for several days, then we have a few nice days and cycle repeats itself, not like these seven to eight day blows we have had this fall.

Bait supplies remained plentiful for live caballito, not much else was available, no ballyhoo or sardinas to speak of. With changing ocean conditions we hope to see sardinas move back within our range.

Surely we will see the annual migration of whales start to arrive soon, warner than normal water might delay this, but these mammals will arrive soon enough. Great time to visit now, ideal climate, crowds of anglers are light and fishing is liable to break wide open on any given day.

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: 1 blue marlin, 13 sailfish, 7 striped marlin, 34 yellowfin tuna, 39 dorado, 49 wahoo, 9 sierra, 46 misc. pargo species, 1 amberjack, 12 cabrilla, 13 bonito, 6 roosterfish and 25 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
November 28, 2015

This year of 2015 will be remembered for all of the rebuilding efforts created from Hurricane Odile devastation in September of 2014. This year there was record early forming hurricanes in May and now the Los Cabos area has just dogged a major hit by one of the latest Hurricanes to ever form in the Eastern Pacific. This storm named Sandra, follows Rick of last week, which never impacted land, though Sandra strengthened to a category four storm and appeared to be on a collision course with the Southern Baja, but the system was pushed away by strong shear, which also caused Sandra to weaken rapidly and pass far enough to the south to not cause any local damage. Los Cabos ports were closed for at least Friday and part of Saturday, by Sunday sportfishing fleets do expect to be back operating as normal. Swells increased to 10/12 feet, though wind never amounted to much and rainfall was not significant either.

We are now just winding down from our busy fall season, there always is a slack period after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, family priority shift directions. Though this past week was busy with visitors. The week started off with persistent north winds limited options for anglers and making the overall action more spread out, by mid-week, the conditions calmed before the storm and we saw improved fishing action. The most common catches were wahoo, yellowfin tuna, dorado, sailfish and striped marlin, also some roosterfish found near shore. For the most part there were no large numbers of any particular species, though there were some quality fish being accounted for, many days charters would just account for two, three or four fish in combination, though there were dorado to 25 lb., wahoo to 50 lb. and tuna to 80 lb. all accounted for.

Dorado were harder to find compared to previous week, though wahoo became more active around the Iman Bank, early in the morning was best and you had to capitalize and make the best of the chances that you did have. Trolling with caballito, chihuil and various lures all produced wahoo strikes. Dorado were found scattered, no hot spot, though we did hear of more numbers of dorado found on the Pacific. Ocean Temperatures were ranging 79 to 82 degrees through most of the region. Still no reports of any new resource for sardinas, tuna action would be more consistent if this bait was available, most tuna are still be taken on strips of squid. The Inner Gordo Bank produced yellowfin tuna over 80 lb. and some days schooling tuna to 100 lb. could be seen surfacing, but were very finicky to bite any offerings. The action for tuna found under the porpoise became more sporadic, but was still an options when anglers found themselves in the right place at the right time.

More striped marlin appeared on local grounds, not always in the mood to bite, as they can be near full moon. There were two black marlin reportedly landed from private boats out of Puerto Lo Cabos Marina and there was a blue marlin landed from a panga that was estimated to weigh close to 500 lb., this blue was hooked on a trolled caballito late in the afternoon about five miles off of Red Hill and was not landed and brought back to the docks until midnight. With the warm waters there are still quite a few sailfish in the area for this late in the year, most of these in the 40 to 80 lb. class.

Not much off the bottom now besides triggerfish, small cabrilla and pargo, also a few bonito. A few charters reports good success on roosterfish while slow trolling caballito near Punta Gorda, surprising to see roosterfish at this time, some of them to 20 lbs. Lots of barracuda keeping anglers busy off the marina dock area, also a few sierra showing up.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 89 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 black marlin, 1 blue marlin, 15 sailfish, 19 striped marlin, 90 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 39 wahoo, 13 sierra,, 35 misc. pargo species, 14 cabrilla, 22 bonito, 28 roosterfish and 44 triggerfish

Good fishing, Eric