March 22, 2013
Anglers –

This past week was super busy with all of the events going on during the annual traditional carnival days of San Jose del Cabo. There was a noticeable increase in numbers of tourists arriving in the area. Spring season is now officially here and this is the time when we see more spring break vacationers incoming. Just like clockwork the weather is quickly warming and we are seeing temperatures ranging in the upper 80s. Actually the climate is perfect now, great time to visit, before the heat of the summer arrives and when the humidity seriously rises.

Overall offshore conditions improved, as winds resided and warmer currents pushed into the region. Then we saw south wind that brought back in some cooler Pacific currents. So just like the conditions, the fishing action has varied from day to day, but we did see much improvement for a variety of species, from close to shore and on the offshore grounds. At this time local ocean temperatures are down to 65 degrees near the 95 spot and outside of the Gordo Banks there are spots up to 72 degrees.

Early in the week fleets found great yellowfin tuna action outside of the El Cardon area, about 10 to 14 miles offshore, schooling yellowfin in the 15 to 25 lb. class traveling with rapidly moving porpoise. These fish were striking cedar plugs, feathers and live sardinas. Later in the week this action scattered, this is the pattern we should see for yellowfin during the spring, scattered offshore, moving and feeding with porpoise. There are still chances at hooking into a nicer grade of tuna, on Sunday there was a 120 pound tuna landed off of the Gordo Banks, this fish was landed by team “Reina de Wahoo” and proved to be the winner of a local government sponsored tournament out of La Playita.

Dorado were harder to find this week, just a scattering of these fish being encountered, no particular place, inshore and offshore, weights up to 25 lb., a percentage are striking on lures and others on bait. As the ocean currents warm back up, there will be more of these gamefish moving in. Also this will be the time we start to hear reports of some wahoo. A few of these speedsters were encountered this past week, a couple them were hooked in an area very close to shore near Cardon, same spot where the sierras have continued to provide fun light tackle sport.

Yellowtail action started off with a fury for anglers that were lucky to just happen to get in on the action. Close by, off of the Estuary Hotel Zone, with a mile or two of shore, in about 150 feet of water, anglers landed good numbers of yellowtail in the 15 to 28 pound range. These fish were hitting best on larger baits, such as caballito, sardinetas, moonfish, jacks, etc.. Also some hit on yo-yo’s. Baitfish were not always easy to obtain, same with the smaller sardinas being netted off the beaches north of La Fortuna, increased swells and lower tides made it more challenging for the pangeros. This was the hot spot now, for close by bottom action, not the normal local grounds where yellowtail are usually found, so who knows where these migrating jacks will go next. We have perfect conditions now for more schools of yellows to arrive, encouraging to finally see these fish and of such nice quality.

Striped Marlin action broke wide open again off of San Jose del Cabo, from 3 to 15 miles out. Good numbers of marlin were found, sometimes free jumping in all directions, others seen feeding on the surface, as well as tailing on the surface and coming up into to trolled lure spreads was a common scenario, dropping back live baits resulted in solid hook ups. The striped marlin were ranging in sizes up to 130 pounds, many charters accounted for two, three or four fish per morning.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 96 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 wahoo, 42 striped marlin, 108 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 330 sierra, 3 amberjack, 86 yellowtail,32 various pargo,13 bonito, 3 mako shark and 30 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 16, 2013
Anglers –

Up until now we are only seeing moderate crowds of visiting spring break vacationers, though this coming week will be a very busy time for local residents. The annual San Jose del Cabo Fiesta Week has just begun, many events are planned, including a world class full length triathlon, off road vehicle race, carnival rides, fishing tournaments, etc.. Should be a fun time for all, but remember that there will be some annoying street closures during this period, traffic and parking will be challenging. The weather is now as nice as it gets, scattered cloud cover, residing winds, with high temperatures up to 85 degrees.

With the spring time fishing season just starting to show signs of coming to life, anglers are still finding the action to be up and down. Northern winds have been more persistent than usual this year, they do seem to be tapering off some now, ocean water temperatures are ranging 67 to 73 degrees, at this time there is a warming trend and this should help improve the all around conditions. Baitfish schools have become scattered for the past week, some days there have been reports of balled up mackerel found offshore and along the shoreline near San Luis is where schooling sardinas are being netted, tides and increased swell activity made this job tougher for commercial pangeros.

Charters launching from Cabo San Lucas Marina are finding large numbers of yellowfin tuna in the 15 to 20 pound range on the Pacific side near the San Jaime Banks, los of porpoise activity in this same area. This action is out of range for the San Jose fleets, though there has been a chance at hooking into a much larger sized yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks, only a few of these fish have actually been landed, but these tuna are all in the 50 to 200 pound class. We are hopeful that some warmer weather can help improve this action. There are some yellowtail on these banks as well, but only a handful are being landed, too many hammerhead sharks on the same grounds, makes fishing with bait impossible and the yellows are not consistently striking on yo-yo jigs at this time, preferring the same larger baitfish that the sharks do.

Fleets based out of La Paz and the East Cape region reported great yellowtail action on the days that the north winds allowed them to comfortably reach the grounds. The overall bottom action for the San Jose fleet has not been up to expectations, mixed success for various pargo species, amberjack, cabrilla and an occasional yellowtail. This is never peak season during this time frame and we do expect to see improved action with the arrival of spring just around the corner.

After last week’s wide open striped marlin bite around the Gordo Banks the cooler windy conditions over the weekend scattered this bite and just in the past couple of days we are starting to see more marlin showing up within local charter boat range. We do expect that the main concentration for striped marlin will now shift to the grounds from San Jose del Cabo towards the East Cape, this is the typical pattern. This is also the time when whales move out of this area and head to their northern summer feeding grounds.

The fishing close to shore remains consistent for sierra, with a few dorado mixed in. More sierra action than anything else, sizes ranging up to 5 pounds, using live sardinas for bait was the best bet, slow trolling or drift fishing. A handful of much larger dorado were found further offshore by charters targeting billfish.

This week the combined panga fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 16 striped marlin, 22 yellowfin tuna, 26 dorado, 315 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 16 amberjack,18 cabrilla, 33 various pargo species, 8 yellowtail, 1 wahoo, 15 bonito, 3 mako shark and 25 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 8, 2013
Anglers –

We saw weather patterns change during this first week of March, as conditions felt much more spring like, overcast, scattered clouds, increased humidity and high temperatures in the mid 80s. Not so cold in the early mornings, as near of a perfect climate as anyone could wish for. Great time to visit the Southern Baja area now, crowds are increasing as spring break has begun for some, not overly busy, just about right amount of visitors. North winds let up finally and this gave a chance for offshore ocean conditions to settle down and anglers reported having some epic marlin action on the fishing grounds of the famed Gordo Banks.

On Wednesday fleets fishing offshore of San Jose del Cabo reported finding concentrations of mackerel and other baitfish balled up on the surface and started to see number of striped marlin on these same grounds. The next day this baitfish activity switched to the Gordo Banks, where anglers were able to jig up their own mackerel in a hurry and then witness incredible marlin action, similar to what happens on the Pacific banks, such as Golden Gate. Striped marlin were seen in schools, at times by the hundreds and many charter boats accounted for multiple hook ups and three, four or five marlin landed in a short period of time. It is incredible how action can change just overnight, conditions switch around, currents move, cleaner water pushes in and with the huge influx of mackerel, the gamefish were right behind, following their food source. Will be interesting to see how long this action can sustain, local pangeros need to remember to not become overly greedy and take too many of these marlin for themselves, this is a good time for authorities to enforce regulations, such as no commercial sale of any billfish.

The marlin bite was definitely the highlight of the week, but the bottom action also started to heat up, particularly off of the rock piles further north, towards San Luis and Vinorama, this is where anglers reported quality action while using yo-yo jigs for amberjack up to 40 pounds, grouper, cabrilla, pargo and a couple of yellowtail in the mix. East Cape and La Paz areas are now reporting very impressive catches on large sized yellowtail and we are encouraged that these same fish will also take up residence on the local grounds off San Jose del Cabo. Promising signs now, with the winds residing, loads of baitfish on the fishing grounds, supplies of sardinas rebounding near San Luis, water clarity improving and with the weather now on a noticeable warming trend, these favorable conditions should only improve. Though we most certainly will have some more northern winds this month, it does appear that the worst of these persistent northerlies are over with and we will start to have more options open up as offshore conditions become more comfortable.

Ocean temperatures are now ranging from 68 to 72 degrees. There are still significant numbers of whales in the area, expecting that they will be headed north soon as the weather continues to warm. Sierra are the most common fish found close to shore, also some smaller sized roosterfish, jack crevalle and a handful of dorado found near shore, often seen chasing ballyhoo.

Not much yellowfin action found recently, though there were reports of seeing yellowfin outside of Gordo breaking the surface, but they were hard to hook into. On Thursday a couple of tuna up to 120 pounds were taken on chunk bait off of the Outer Gordo Bank,
first of these fish caught off of these grounds that we have heard about for over a week. This does provide proof that tuna are still hanging around the Gordo Banks, plenty of food on these grounds, so the tuna proved finicky as they normally are.

This week the combined panga fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of:
22 striped marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 46 dorado, 240 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 10 jack crevalle, 20 amberjack,19 cabrilla, 48 mixed pargo species, 5 yellowtail, 14 bonito and 16 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric