January 20, 2013
Anglers –

As Icy winter conditions sweep across the U.S. and Canada, many residents are traveling south in search or warmth and the Los Cabos area is one of the most conveniently reached and popular destinations for winter time travelers. Increased crowds of visitors were seen in town, though this past week they were greeted with a cooler than normal weather front that swept in from the north.

North winds were relentless, with gusts to 25 mph, seemed like for most of the week, the San Jose del Cabo Port was red flagged (closed) for the day of Thursday, while Cabo San Lucas Port remained open, the same north winds were not hitting there, it was as calm as can be, a bit chilly, but ocean was smooth. This was an unprecedented Port closure for this time of year, typically when it is very rough offshore, charters would just be limited to options in the calmer waters close to shore. We hear that these orders came straight from Mexico City, which is a long ways away for officials to be able to judge the local weather patterns of Southern Baja. As north winds did reside some, on Friday the San Jose Port was reopened, though the actual red flag, which is flown above the La Playita panga dock area, could not be manually lowered because the cable had broken, so it will be interesting to see how long this flag will be stuck on the top of the pole.

With the north winds howling, this pushed in cooler water, temperatures readings were down to 66 degrees, currents were swift, high white caps whipping up on the outside, though there were warmer pockets of 70 to 72 degrees found. Clarity was still good, not like the deep blue summer time, but we did not see the murky green water that can plague the region at times.

As the weather front pushed through, fleets were scattered looking for action. Inshore it was sierra which dominated the action, they were striking on rapalas, hoochies and sardinas, most were smaller sized. Slow trolling baits produced roosterfish, most of them juvenile sized, with an occasional fish to 20 pounds reported. Dorado were still found, those numbers dropped off with the cooling waters, small schools were encountered, sizes averaged 5 to 20 pounds. The majority of the dorado were hooked in close proximity to shore, where bait concentrations were found. One dorado was reportedly caught by a local who was casting a jig off of the marina jetty.

Bait supplies remained plentiful for mackerel, chihuil, ballyhoo, sardineta, as well as the smaller sized sardinas, popular for the live bait wells, great all around baitfish, they are being netted off the beaches north of Punta Gorda. Large schools of mackerel are congregated several miles off of the San Jose del Cabo hotel zone. This attracted striped marlin and some dorado on these same grounds, even a couple of sailfish hanging around, unusual for the cooler current.

Rough conditions did not make it easy to scout out bottom options, for the few that did give this the extra effort, while using yo-yo jigs or bait, they did produce decent catches of cabrilla, with some pargo and others species mixed in. We expect to see more consistent action coming off the shallow water structure, should see some yellowtail showing up at anytime, red crabs came to surface a few days ago on the grounds north of Gordo, early in the season for them, always a sign the red snapper will not be far away.

Whales are the main attraction now for marine sightseeing enthusiasts, some porpoise and sea lions around as well. There were reports of charters out of Cabo San Lucas encountering yellowfin tuna traveling with large pods of porpoise, offshore, through to the 1150 to 95 high spots. Nice fish, up to 30 pounds, this is somewhat of a bonus opportunity, as tuna can become scarce during the winter months, maybe the range will shift to closer off of San Jose. The consensus is that people claim this is one of the cooler and windiest winters that they can recall, as global weather patterns continue to become increasingly more unpredictable.

The ocean conditions appear to remain favorable, clarity looks fine and there is a lot of baitfish in the vicinity, a reliable food source for migrating gamefish. Starting out to look like a good year for striped marlin, we expect that the rocky reefs will start to attract more species as well.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 62 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
1 sailfish, 5 striped marlin, 6 wahoo, 3 amberjack, 3 yellowfin tuna, 75 dorado, 245 sierra, 22 roosterfish, 21 cabrilla,14 bonito, 5 surgeon fish and 28 yellow snapper.

Good Fishing, Eric

January 12, 2013
Anglers –

Only moderate crowds of anglers are visiting the Los Cabos area now, this is the usual pattern to start off the New Year. We expect that as temperatures continue to plummet and freeze across the United Sates, that more people will be packing their suitcases and heading south in search of warm sunshine. Local weather has been mostly sunny, with highs into the mid 70s. Though coming days are forecast to be cooler, as a northern front will be sweeping our way, possibly several days of temperature in the high 60s, there are always a few days of year that are like this, after all we are in the midst of winter, sometimes we forget to realize that even pristine Southern Baja can have seasonal changes. Anglers need to remember to bring appropriate clothing, as early morning can dip to 50 degrees, without figuring the wind chill factor, but as the sun rises temperatures quickly become more comfortable.

The patterns of northern winds have continued, several days of winds, often 10 to 20 mph, then there will be a couple of nicer calm days, before the breeze prevails once again. Typical winter cycle, as water temperature are now averaging in the 70 to 75 degree range, depending on the location, warmest areas off of Cabo San Lucas. Despite this cooling trend the fishing has been very good considering the time of year, good number of dorado are being found throughout the region, with some nice sized fish of 30 pounds being encountered, lots of dorado in the 10 to 20 pound class. These fish usually start to migrate towards southern grounds soon, so we could be seeing the tail end of the season, then the dorado return later in the Spring. Dorado are striking on a variety of baitfish and on the normal array of lures, nicer quality dorado have been found offshore on the marlin grounds, where stripers continue to be found in good numbers, more so on the Pacific grounds.

There has been a variety of baitfish now available, but not all types on every day. Sardinas are being netted off the beaches near San Luis to Vinorama and then are brought south to off of Cardon or Punta Gorda in order to supply morning charters. Live mackerel, caballito are sometimes available and fresh ballyhoo is another option for targeting a variety of species, particularly dorado. The traditional baitfish ground off of San Jose del Cabo have been less consistent for the last two weeks, this is where more numbers of striped marlin had been found, now the marlin are scattered, further offshore and on the Pacific grounds.

Yellowfin tuna action has been slower now for the past several weeks, we are hearing about an occasional hook up on the Gordo Banks on yellowfin in the 40 to 150 pound class, but these are few and far between. There were schooling football sized tuna found congregating around tuna pens that were slowly be tugged north to new location, this was far offshore, 20 plus miles and at this time this option is now near Los Frailes and out of range. This lasted for several days though, but was never really a practical morning charter boat deal, more of a private boat option.

Wahoo are still in the area, everyday there are limited numbers encountered, some landed and more of them lost, typical thing when encountering wahoo, fish ranged from 10 to 40 pounds, striking yo-yo jigs, ballyhoo, sardinetas and a variety of lures. Anglers were fortunate to land one of two of them, they were elusive as usual.

Not much going off the bottom yet, though some anglers did find mixed action for pargo and cabrilla on days the winds allowed them to reach the structure. Sierra are now found schooling along the beaches, using sardinas have been the best choice of bait for finding this inshore action, with some juvenile sized roosterfish mixed in. There is incredible whale watching opportunities now, peak migration is in full swing, these mammals will be in local waters for the next several months.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 107 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
2 sailfish, 17 striped marlin, 27 wahoo, 455 dorado, 125 yellowfin tuna, 88 sierra, 24 roosterfish, 12 cabrilla,15 bonito and 22 pargo

Good Fishing, Eric

January 5, 2013
Anglers –

As the annual Holiday Season now winds down, there are many groups of families in Los Cabos enjoying their final days in the warm sunshine of Southern Baja before returning home to their normal daily routines. As the winter season has now officially started, local weather has been unbeatable, sunny days with high temperatures averaging 75 degrees. As is the normal pattern for this time of year, there have been persistent northerly winds developing; this contributes to a rapid cooling trend of ocean waters. Currents sweeping in from the north are now averaging in the 72/73 degree range from Los Frailes to Chileno, while offshore of San Jose del Cabo and south towards Cabo San Lucas, on the fishing grounds of the 95 and 1150 areas, there is warmer 75/76 degree waters found.

Conditions are changing now, cooler waters moving in, unpredictable baitfish migrations, currents and winds also running strong. This is the normal pattern during winter time, lasts through March and then slowly begins the spring time warming trend, another transition period. Every year there are unpredictable trends which constantly change what exactly happens. So far this year seems to be following on a normal track.

While yellowfin tuna have become harder to find for the past few weeks, some tuna are being found further offshore with porpoise, though choppy seas made this hit or miss, still an odd yellowfin being landed off the Gordo Banks, but we have seen this bite fade out now for the past month. In the mean time there have been good numbers of striped marlin, a few late season sailfish, dorado and wahoo keeping anglers occupied. Inshore there are now more sierra appearing, these fast fish are readily striking sardinas, hoochies and rapalas. Some juvenile sized roosterfish scattered along the beach stretches, along with some jack crevalle.

There had been great marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo, this was prior to the most recent full moon, when there had been concentrations of schooling mackerel and sardinetas holding a few miles from shore. This action has faded for the time being and now the better billfish action has been found off of the Pacific grounds and around the 95 and 1150 spots, when weather conditions allowed. Stripers were striking best on cast or dropped back baits, with most marlin weighing in the 80 to 120 pound class, surprisingly a few sailfish also hanging around in the cooling waters.

Dorado are still being found in respectable numbers, most of these fish weighed 5 to 15 lb., a few larger bulls mixed in, these gamefish were found throughout the region, from close to shoe to the offshore marlin grounds. From Punta Gorda, Cardon and La Fortuna, this was perhaps the most productive area in recent days, protected from the northern winds, dorado were found while trolling both lures and bait. Wahoo made a strong showing on these same grounds, most of these fish were relatively small sized, 8 to 15 lb., but there were a handful of respectable 30 to 40 lb. wahoo mixed in with the same juvenile schools. The ‘hoo hit on a wide variety of lures and baitfish, including cast and retrieving jigs, slow trolling with small sardina baits, as well as on rapalas and ballyhoo. With the rapid cooling trend of northern currents, this could be the final bite for these pelagic, which do prefer currents closer to 80 degrees, not 70.

We do expect that there will be more bottom action taking place, as well as increased inshore surface action for the coming months. Striped marlin is always the main offshore target species, now through April. Global weather is increasingly more unpredictable, who knows, maybe another el Nino current could develop at any time. Be it offshore, inshore of off the bottom, there is always a variety of action to be found during the winter months for anglers wishing to get out of the snow and feel some warm sunshine.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 98 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
5 sailfish, 11 striped marlin, 116 wahoo, 6 yellowtail, 374 dorado, 13 yellowfin tuna, 115 sierra, 32 roosterfish, 18 bonito, 18 jack crevalle

Good Fishing, Eric