April 14, 2013
Anglers –

As the spring break season has now come to an end and schools are all back in session, we have seen lighter crowds of tourists compared to previous weeks. Weather patterns continue to be unpredictable, changing rapidly, winds were now more predominate out of the south and actually gusts were so strong that port authorities decided to close the Cabo San Lucas Marina for a couple of days earlier in the week. Currents were pushing in warmer waters, then reversing and bringing back in cooler Pacific waters once again. At this time local ocean temperatures are ranging 68 to 71 degrees, actually warmer water was found closer to shore in recent days off of San Jose del Cabo and outside of three miles cooler water temperatures were present. Of course this pattern will surely switch around just as fast as it developed.

The up and down changing conditions has scattered fishing action some, the great striped marlin action slowed down to just a few fish here and there, some feeding marlin were found off of the La Laguna and Punta Gorda area, within several miles of shore, nice sized stripers up to 150 pounds. So far this season we have seen quality sized striped marlin, many of them in the 120 to 150 lb. class. We do expect to see the billfish action improve once again as conditions stabilize and the warming trend returns. Baitfish remain plentiful, more caballito now than mackerel, also some bolito, skipack and chiuil on the fishing grounds. For the past couple of weeks there have not been any sardinas available, this is because the schools are congregating along beaches far to the north, out of normal range for the commercial fleet.

No yellowfin tuna action was being reported locally, the La Paz fleet did report seeing yellowfin in the 50 to 100 pound class near Cerralvo Island, but few of these fish were hooked into, apparently too many skipjack were competing for the same baits. They also had a big bite on wahoo this past week, while off of the San Jose grounds there have been few wahoo in the counts, normally there is a time frame near the later part of April where the wahoo become more active on the grounds from the Gordo Banks towards San Luis, we have seen a taste of this and are anticipating more in the coming weeks.

Along the shoreline the juvenile roosterfish action continued, a few of these fish are now up to 15/20 pounds, though the majority are smaller sized. Sierra and jack crevalle are also being found in the same areas, as are a few roaming dorado, actually more dorado were found close to shore this week, than were found offshore, dorado always seems to go where more bait schools are congregated.

The bottom action was not as consistent as we would expect for this time of year, mixed success was reported on species such as pargo, amberjack, yellowtail and bonito. More of these bonito are appearing over the structure, bottom spot areas, they seem to prefer cooler waters, these are a good eating variety of bonito, not the same as found in So. Calif., they have been readily striking on smaller sized raplalas and are ranging in sizes up to ten pounds, similar fillets as found on small yellowfin tuna, sushi quality.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 4 wahoo, 28 striped marlin, 29 dorado, 9 amberjack, 14 yellowtail, 16 sierra, 165 bonito, 22 huachinango, 15 cabrilla, 124 roosterfish and 5 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric

April 8, 2013
Anglers –

Spring vacation is now winding down to the final days, large crowds of tourists have been arriving in Los Cabos, many college students on break and many families traveling together. They have all been enjoying the exceptional weather conditions, as winds have resided, sunny days have been warming into the upper 70s, perfect climate to get outside and enjoy all of the available activities. Beaches have been busy with crowds of vacationers taking advantage of the miles of pristine beaches that abound in this tropical desert paradise.

More anglers were in town this past week, appreciating the improved offshore conditions, calm seas for the most part, with sportfishing fleets concentrating on the grounds straight outside of Cabo San Lucas and north in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures as cool as 65 degrees were reported outside of Todo Santos on the Pacific and outside of the Gordo Banks there were readings of 75 degree water, most of the region is averaging in the 70 to 73 degree range. Currents have been moving swiftly, cooling off and then warming back up just as quickly, lots can happen from day to day during the spring season. Baitfish schools are also moving according to their preferences, this in turn have the gamefish scattered and following their food source.

This week there were schools of skipjack, mackerel and sardinetas encountered sporadically on the fishing grounds, also early in the week there were pelagic red crabs found drifting to the surface in a masses around the Gordo Banks, this natural occurrence lasted for a couple of days and anglers, both commercial and recreational, were catching good numbers of the true Pacific red snapper using these small crabs for bait, locally known as huachinango, this was the first significant bite on these prized table fare species for the season, encouraging to see these quality fish in the area. These fish normally range 6 to 12 pounds and are very fun sport on light to medium weight tackle and of course produce very fine eating fillets.

Dorado numbers were down this recent period as well, only a handful of these fish are being encountered, some on the offshore billfish grounds and others were found near the shore, where they were attracted by baitfish activity, sizes ranging up to 25 pounds. Same deal for yellowfin tuna, not many were found this past week, many reports of large pods of porpoise being found, but more often than not these was no tuna action was found associated with them. The main attraction offshore has now been for striped marlin, good concentrations of these billfish are now scattered on the fishing grounds off of San José del Cabo and north towards Los Frailes, many charters are accounting for multiple catch and release days. These fish were encountered in feeding frenzies at times, other times they came up as blind strikes on trolled lures, readily taking dropped back baits, it is shaping up now for some wide open marlin action in this same region for the next several months, as this is typically peak season for the striped marlin.

Yellowtail action tapered off, only scattered fish being found on the various rock piles, these jacks were not being found on the surface like during the previous week. Mixed in were some nice amberjack, a few cabrilla and various pargo species. Along the shore there were sierra and this week we saw more numbers of juvenile roosterfish moving in along the beach stretches. Live sardinas became harder to obtain in recent days, as these baitfish are now schooling off the beaches far north of Punta Gorda and this has not been practical for the commercial fleet to travel these distances. We do hope that these baitfish move back within normal range.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 88 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 46 striped marlin, 7 yellowfin tuna, 43 dorado, 22 amberjack, 18 yellowtail, 55 sierra, 225 huachinango, 12 cabrilla, 115 roosterfish and 6 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 30, 2013
Anglers –

This is Easter Weekend, probably the busiest period of the year when local families gather and enjoy fun times on all of the accessible pristine beaches. Many neighboring businesses shut down operations for a three or four day period, as they become short staffed due to the holiday. Lots of spring break visitors now in the Los Cabos area, majority here to enjoy the climate, outdoor sporting activities, all around ambiance and of course the famous night life, only moderate numbers of anglers in town at this time, even though the fishing action is shown signs of breaking wide open.

We are now witnessing crazy weather patterns during this seasonal transition period, the wind has not been as persistent as during the winter, though it still has been unpredictably picking up and swirling form different directions erratically. Days are progressively on a warming trend, perfect climate now, barely need a light jacket early in the mooring and with the rising sun the days have been comfortably reaching into the 80s. Next weekend is when the local time change will occur, clocks will be forwarded one hour, seems strange now as the sun is rising around 6:00 a.m. Ocean water temperatures had plummeted last week after a Pacific current was swept in, dropping to 65 degrees in places, now currents have switched directions and clean warmer water has pushed back in, average water temperature is now in the 70 to 75 degree range, there were isolated spots of even higher temps.

The majority of the sportfishing fleets are now spread out searching the offshore fishing grounds from straight outside Cabo San Lucas, to the 95 and 1150 spots, to the Gordo Banks and north towards Desteladera. The striped marlin action was more scattered than how they had found groups of feeders last week, the billfish were striking on lures in the bluer water, also taking dropped back baits, a few nice sailfish were reported in the warmer waters as well. Yellowfin tuna action was hit or miss, most of the tuna that were found were associated with porpoise pods, which were passing through anywhere from 8 to 20 miles offshore. Sometimes the yellowfin tuna were mixed underneath the porpoise and would readily strike on cedar plugs, feathers and bait, but other times no action at all was found and the better report for all around activity found was much closer to shore.

Inshore, off of the San Jose del Cabo grounds, anglers were finding lots of schooling baitfish breezing on the surface, they could be jigged up on sabiki type rigs, mostly mackerel and sardinetas, both great bait for a variety of species. Dorado were found in smaller sized schools and in no particular area from day to day, best bet was where the concentrations of baitfish were, these fish were ranging up to 20 lb, some charters landing three or four on an outing.

Anglers found the most exciting inshore action to be for the prized yellowtail, finally we are seeing some good numbers of these powerful jacks, quality sized fish, ranging 15 to 30 pounds, following the schooling baitfish. On Thursday, charters found great surface action for hog sized yellows just on the other side of Punta Gorda, casting fly lined baits into the baitfish schools resulted in solid hook ups. It is encouraging to see these gamefish finally making a significant presence in local waters, when we kept hearing about all of the wide open action for yellowtail off of Cerralvo Island, where they have been reporting an unprecedented frenzy on big yellows for several weeks.

Sierra and some impressive size jack crevalle rounded out the inshore action. Off the bottom there were some nice amberjack found, mixed in with the yellowtail and a variety of pargo, a few cabrilla in the counts as well.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 wahoo, 14 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 36 yellowfin tuna, 122 dorado, 18 amberjack, 68 yellowtail, 165 sierra, 45 pargo,14 cabrilla, 10 bonito, 8 roosterfish and 9 mako shark.

Good Fishing, Eric