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

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