Anglers –
October 10, 2015

With crowds of anglers now arriving for the most popular Fall Season sportfishing fleets are now very busy. At this time we have no new tropical storms threatening from the south, only one low pressure area that is already located far off to the west, half way to Hawaii. Local weather conditions remain warm and humid, there has been quite a lot of cloud cover, threatening rain at times, last weekend we did receive significant rainfall, but we did not have any rain through the week, until this next weekend. Presently we are having wider spread thundershowers throughout the whole area, accompanied by lightning and thunder, mostly lighter rainfall, though in Cabo San Lucas they reported heavier rain than in San Jose del Cabo. Sportfishing fleets continued to operate with caution. Tropical weather patterns are persisting late into the season. So we are hoping that the weather settles, days are now starting to cool down, as we get further into October we regularly enjoy ideal weather. With ocean water temperatures still ranging in the mid to upper 80’s, all around conditions can be that much more unpredictable.

Since the passing of stormy squalls last weekend we have seen very pleasant conditions throughout this week, moderate ocean swells, no strong winds, all around good environment for ocean fishing. Action was more spread out in recent days, obtaining sardinas became harder, no guarantee, anglers using squid strip were not doing as well as previous weeks. Hard to say what the reason is for a slower week, yellowfin tuna were being seen surfacing at times in sizable schools, but were finicky, one of the main reasons being that there were no quantities of sardinas to freely chum with. The majority of the yellowfin now being found on local grounds were ranging in the 5 to 25 lb. class or in the range of 50 to 60 lb., we did hear of unconfirmed reports of a larger grade of yellowfin hanging around the Pacific San Jaime or Golden Gate Banks.

The later part of this past week did show improvement for the yellowfin tuna action, later morning bite off of Punta Gorda, sardinas were the best, fish were also hooked on strips of squid, These tuna were in the 10 to 25 lb. class, boats were accounting for anywhere from a couple of fish, to as many as ten. With more sardinas this would be a hot bite. We hope that more sardinas move into our range.

A group of local commercial pangeros were finding the 50 to 60 lb. tuna biting on strips of squid underneath moving porpoise pods on the grounds near La Laguna to Cardon, though this has been a late afternoon bite, during normal morning, mid-day hours there has not been this porpoise activity. Only sporadic catches, some charters finding three, four, five fish and others not being able to find any at all. Most consistent grounds were from the Iman to Vinorama Banks.

The action off of the Santa Maria area slowed way down, better chances were not north of Punta Gorda, still no guarantees though. Only a few scattered dorado being found and most all of these have been under 15 pounds. Wahoo were even scarcer, though they are in the area and we expect any slight cooling trend in water temperature could trigger them into being more aggressive. Other action was for miscellaneous structure species, most common being triggerfish or snapper, an occasional dogtooth or amberjack, even one yellowtail.

Crazy year, with all of the dorado and wahoo, as well as striped marlin being in the direction of Southern California. Eventually these gamefish will migrate back in our direction. Local conditions are great though and anything could happen on any given day. We do hope that we find a better source of sardinas, recently these schooling baitfish have moved into the protected zone of Cabo Pulmo National Park and bait netters were allowed to target them from these waters

Main action locally for billfish was for sailfish, no huge numbers, but most days these fish were being hooked into on the same inshore tuna grounds. We did see a private boat land a 300 lb. class blue marlin. Other anglers trolled large baits on the Gordo Banks and reported not finding any action for the larger marlin or cow sized yellowfin tuna, lots of natural bait in this area, so you never know, but there are likely be some large predators nearby on these same grounds.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 128 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 13 sailfish, 2 blue marlin, 260 yellowfin tuna, 28 dorado, 7 wahoo, 1 yellowtail, 44 white skipjack, 24 bonito, 7 dogtooth snapper, 22 yellow snapper, 7 amberjack, 75 triggerfish, 16 cabrilla and 19 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
October 3, 2015

With the summer season now officially over we have started the busy Fall Season. Weather remained calm in the Eastern Pacific through most of the week, no rain until Saturday, when the remnants of Hurricane Marty swept by and left scattered thundershowers and wind gusts to 30 mile per hours in certain isolated areas, by later in the day conditions settled down and that seemed to be the end of this system. Heat index still over 100 degrees, with very high humidity. The climate should become more comfortable in the coming weeks. We were closely watching the development of Hurricane Marty far to the south early in the week, this system quickly dissipated mid-week, after slowly progressing through apparently unfavorable environment for further strengthening and for progressing northward. A great thing for us, we hope these storms continue to go elsewhere, we expect in several more weeks the chances of any further tropical storm activity will be slim, though with these strong El Niño conditions you never really know what might happen.

Ocean water temperatures are now in the 85 to 88 degree range, clean blue water is found within several miles of shore, strong currents have slackened some. Full moon phase recently passed and contributed to a few tougher days for anglers, coinciding with early morning low tides and higher surf conditions, this made the sardinas much harder to find and net for the commercial fleet. Another option for bait was slabs of giant squid, not easy to obtain though, local super markets carry them and some bait vendors are starting to also offer packages of squid in the same marina launch area.

The yellowfin tuna were the main species now being cooperative and for this reason targeted, only an occasional dorado or two and wahoo have not been active this past week either. Working the bottom structure anglers found a scattering of miscellaneous species, main catches were small to medium grade pargo and snapper species, a few decent cabrilla and amberjack also in the mix. Local fleets have been fishing in different directions, most consistent action was found from close to off of Santa Maria, to the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. In recent days the bite near Cabo San Lucas for the smaller 5 to 15 lb. yellowfin tuna, has faded compared to previous weeks, lots of pressure and limited supplies of baitfish, as well as there now being a problem with aggressive sea lion activity, these pesky predators have just returned recently and are waiting on the same fishing grounds for their chance at any possible easy meal.

Action near Vinorama improved for tuna in the 10 to 20 lb. class, with an occasional fish to 50 or 60 lb. mixed in, chance at a wahoo or dorado from this same area as well, though not many were actually landed, these fish are on the grounds, being seen free swimming and feeding on chum. These yellowfin were striking mainly while drift fishing with squid or sardinas. Proving to be finicky earlier in the week, making a big showing on the surface but not wanting to strike. The bite on the Gordo Banks improved through the week, with a quality grade of 50 to 90 lb. fish being accounted for in decent numbers, strong group of fish, with most anglers now using gear ranging from 40 to 80 lb. The key on the Gordo Banks has been having the squid, the more the better, lots of chumming involved.

Marlin action seemed to slow down this past week, one smaller blue marlin was caught from La Playita, and a handful of sailfish. Some of the yellowfin action late in the week was found under pods of traveling porpoise on the outside of Gordo Banks, drift fish squid underneath the porpoise, fast moving deal, who knows where this action will be the next day.

Overall with the weather remaining calm, this is allowing the ocean conditions to become more favorable and we are anticipating a great fall bite, continuing through and into winter.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 119 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 1 blue marlin, 356 yellowfin tuna, 28 dorado, 3 wahoo, 35 white skipjack, 18 bonito, 10 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 26 yellow snapper, 6 amberjack, 38 triggerfish, 14 cabrilla and 13 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric

Anglers –
September 26, 2015

The closer we reach to the month of October we expect the tropical storm season will be over with, though with ocean water temperatures still holding in the 84 to 88 degree range, we must still monitor all Eastern Pacific forecasts with caution. At this time there is a pair of low pressure areas far to the south, off of the Mexican mainland, will be interesting to see what develops of these systems. Presently, local conditions are calm as can be, in the early morning there is that hint of Fall Season in the air, though mid-day heat and humid index is still reaching over 100 degrees. Last week we had some heavy rainfall, scattered throughout the region, not much wind associated with the passing of this storm front, though rainfall of up to four inches were recorded. The desert landscape will definitely be turning a fresh shade of green in the coming weeks.

These latest rain squalls, with strong currents pushing in, contributed to off colored water closer to shore, this seemed to have slowed down action for species such as dorado and wahoo, though a handful of these fish are being accounted for almost on a daily basis. Some wahoo up to 40 pounds were accounted for, a handful of anglers were fortunate to land one of these elusive speedsters. Most of the dorado being found now are small juvenile sized fish. Supplies of sardinas were now more scattered, off of La Playita area, only the smaller clear type sardinas were available, these baits do work as dead bait for tuna, but are not the same as the normal sardinas we find, this preferred species has moved south out of our range at this time. Other options for bait has been to search local super markets for giant squid slabs, which is never a guarantee. Caballito also have been available, as well as chihuil or skipjack on some of the fishing grounds.

The inshore grounds off of Fiesta Americana Resort near Cabo San Lucas continues to produce good numbers of yellowfin tuna up to 20 pounds, also with an occasional dorado or wahoo from this same area. Iman Bank has been another productive region, with a bit more of an opportunity of finding some bottom structure species, as well as tuna, dorado or wahoo. The best place to have a chance at hooking into the larger grade of yellowfin tuna has been off of the Gordo Banks, though we have not heard of any monsters this past week, many tuna in the 50 to 70 lb. class and a few up to 150 pounds were reported. Some days single boats had as many as four or five nice tuna, other days were tougher and landing one tuna was considered good. These yellowfin are definitely holding on these Banks, though are fighting strong currents and at times seem to be filled up on the natural food source that is present.

Billfish action was somewhat scattered as well, though on any given day you could hook into a striped, blue or black marlin, also chance at sailfish, just no big numbers of any of these species at this time. The black and blues have been lurking around the high spots where the food chain is concentrated.

Reconstruction crews are pressing now to finish up the work on Hotel El Ganzo, which was devastated by last year’s Hurricane Odile. La Playita Panga area work is progressing as well, still has a ways to go to have all of the necessary conveniences.

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: 7 sailfish, 1 striped marlin, 480 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 8 wahoo, 15 white skipjack, 22 bonito, 14 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 18 yellow snapper, 2 amberjack, 10 cabrilla and 15 barred pargo.

Good fishing, Eric