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

March 2, 2013
Anglers –

The month of February is now over, there was lots of wind throughout the period, this last week was no exception, as northerly winds up to 20 mph prevailed. This created very choppy ocean conditions offshore and limited options on where anglers were able to comfortably fish. Water temperatures were now ranging from 69 to 72 degrees throughout the zone. March is the time when we can see have unpredictable winds, most of the time from the north, but usually the worst of the winds are over with and we start to see warmer and calmer days. This is what you would call a seasonal transition period, winter to spring, great time of year to visit the area while the climate is so ideal and there will be a wide variety of fishing opportunities available, from offshore, inshore, as well as bottom action. Crowds remain light at this time, but we are starting to see the first wave of spring breakers arrive. Whales remain very active throughout local waters, this is the final period now, as these mammals will be heading north soon.

Schools of mackerel and sardinetas are now gone from the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, there are some caballito on these same spots and sardinas are being netting off the beach stretches near San Luis. Ballyhoo are also available for purchase and have been an option for enticing dorado.

This week there were reports of yellowfin tuna to 30 pounds being found in good numbers on the Jaime Banks, a long run for most charters and too far for San Jose fleets. Offshore marlin action slowed during the period, scattered fish, more billfish found off of the Pacific than towards the Sea of Cortez. This is the month we normally we would see the striped marlin moving in this direction, so we do expect to see this same pattern. No tuna found on the Gordo Banks this week and it was the same story on San Luis Bank, where the persistent winds made this area off limits most days.

Local fleets out of Puerto Los Cabos found the most consistent action to be closer to shore, in the direction of San Luis, Cardon, La Fortuna and Punta Gorda. There were more sierra than any other species found, striking readily on sardinas and also on rapalas and hoochies, some of these fish weighed up to 5 lb. Despite it being off season for dorado, there were surprisingly quite a few of these gamefish still being found, more of them close to shore where baitfish have been concentrated, compared to offshore where numbers were limited. Charters were accounted for as many as 4,5 or 6 dorado per day, average weights being 5 to 15 lb., with a few larger specimens mixed in. Some days these fish preferred the larger sized ballyhoo baits and on others sardinas worked just as well, a matter of finding the schools of these fish, not large concentrations of dorado, but when found the action was fast.

Bottom action was limited due to choppy conditions, but there was some quality eating fish available when conditions allowed, cabrilla, yellow snapper, barred pargo, huachinango and triggerfish were the most common species now accounted for off of the rocky structure. Anglers reported mixed success while using yo-yo jigs and various whole and cut baits.

This week the combined panga fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 62 charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of:
6 yellowfin tuna, 192 dorado, 255 sierra, 19 roosterfish, 12 jack crevalle, 3 amberjack, 16 cabrilla, 26 yellow snapper, 15 huachinango ( red snapper), 12 barred pargo and 16 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric