February 2, 2013
Anglers –

Winter time weather has persuaded more people to pack their bags and head south, travel in the direction of warm sunshine, more numbers of tourists are now arriving in the Los Cabos area. This week started off with warmer days, then a cool front swept in from the north, gusty winds, to over 20 miles per hour, tapering off by the weekend. This is the time of year we see rapidly changing weather patterns, daytime temperatures ranged from 68 to 82 degrees, lows to 56. Northern winds were persistent, creating choppy ocean conditions through most of the week, strong currents with very high tidal changes coinciding with the full moon all contributed to more difficult challenges for anglers. Ocean water temperatures ranged from 69 to 74 degrees, warmest zones found outside of the Cabo San Lucas area.

Despite not having ideal conditions, charter fleets did manage to find a variety of action for their anglers. Fleets were searching in all different directions, some days they stayed close to shore, in more protected areas, this was an option when offshore conditions were just too rough to be comfortable. Sierra were the most common fish schooling along the beach stretches, anglers found best success using live sardinas for bait, these baitfish were being netted daily by the commercial pangeros near Vinorama, most of the days they would deliver the bait to off of Cardon, this is where charters were finding very good action on the sierra, weighing to 4 lb. Same spot produced a handful of dorado, but dorado numbers are much lower due to cooler currents.

The water clarity seemed to improve later in the week, cleaner blue water was reported on the La Fortuna and Iman Banks. This is where yellowfin tuna were encountered in limited numbers, up to 20 pounds, striking on sardinas, windy weather limited this action, but this proved that there were still yellowfin in the area and the weather patterns in the coming weeks will dictate what happens with these fish. If ocean currents remain stable these yellowfin might just stay in the region through the winter.

Bottom action has begun to be another available option, but this action is greatly dependent on the ocean conditions and proves very difficult in high winds. We should see more consistent action off the rock piles in the coming weeks. Yellowtail should be moving into the area soon, snapper, cabrilla, grouper, pargo, amberjack and bonito can all be found on these same grounds, there can be a smorgasbord of quality eating fish. Recent catches have included pargo and leopard groupers, striking on whole baits and yo-yo style jigs, most of these fish are in the 10 to 15 pound range, some to 30 lb. and other much heavier fish were hooked and lost to the rocks in short notice.

Schooling mackerel and sardinetas are still abundant on the bait grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, same areas where commercial shrimp trawlers operate with drag nets during the winter months. With all of this food source on the local grounds, certainly this should attract more gamefish into the region. At this time the striped marlin action has been much more consistent for the boats launching out of Cabo San Lucas, but with the quantity of baitfish holding off of San Jose del Cabo, it will be only a matter of time for the billfish bite to break wide open, perhaps just as the ocean clarity improves slightly, could happen overnight.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 7 striped marlin, 12 yellowfin tuna, 68 dorado, 36 roosterfish,
1 yellowtail, 26 cabrilla, 136 pargo (various species) and 330 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

January 26, 2013
Anglers –

It appears that the coldest days of winter time in Southern Baja may be over, we are now in the cycle of slowing gaining more daylight with each passing day and this past week there was a noticeable break in the weather patterns, daytime highs climbed back up into the 80’s. Early morning lows of about 60 degrees. Ideal conditions now, winds have been much lighter and forecasts look favorable for the next week or so. There are only moderate crowds of tourists now, great time to leave the icy conditions and head south for some fun in the sun.

Ocean temperatures are ranging from 72 to 78 degrees, in the direction of Los Frailes is where the cooler currents are and outside of San Jaime Bank on the Pacific is where the warmest water now is, average temperature throughout most of the region is presently 73/74 degrees, which is warmer than the previous week. Inshore waters have become increasingly greenish, this is the usual result created by the persistent north winds, this off colored cooler current seems to scatter the dorado, as well as any late season wahoo action that anglers had been finding. These pelagic species migrate according to where their preferred habitat is, which in winter time, are the more temperate zones to the south.

There has been clear blue water found anywhere from 5 to 15 miles offshore, this is where the warmer currents are attracting good numbers striped marlin, in recent days fleets found consistent action off of the Santa Maria and Chileno areas, many charters accounting for multiple billfish days. There were some yellowfin tuna being encountered traveling with porpoise, hit or miss bite, but at certain times these tuna did provide fast action for anglers, the tuna were weighing in the 15 to 50 pound range. Early in the week there was a 100 pound tuna caught off of La Playita charter on the Gordo Banks and there were reports of seeing yellowfin briefly showing on the surface, but these fish have proved very finicky and elusive. The tuna found moving with porpoise were in closer proximity for Cabo San Lucas charters than they were for charters departing out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina.

Schooling sardinas were found off the beaches to the north of Punta Gorda and mackerel are still found on the local bait grounds, though for the past couple of days, with the brighter moonlight, they proved harder to catch in the early morning hours. Commercial pangeros are finding quantities of giant squid off of Los Frailes, but so far they have not been reportedly found locally.

Sierra weighing up to five pounds continue to be the main species encountered close to shore, striking best on live sardinas. There have been some jack crevalle and roosterfish found as well, most of the roosterfish found at this time of year are smaller sized, though some of the jack crevalle are reached up to 25 pounds.
This is now the season when more bottom action options start to open up, so far this action has been limited to a mix of yellow snapper, barred pargo, triggerfish and smaller cabrilla. No bite has developed for yellowtail, amberjack or nicer grade of grouper and snapper. Typically through the next few months we do see more consistent action develop off of the various rock piles.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 12 striped marlin, 35 yellowfin tuna, 21 dorado, 265 sierra, 28 roosterfish, 20 jack crevalle, 18 cabrilla,18 bonito, 32 triggerfish, 12 barred pargo and 38 yellow snapper.

Good Fishing, Eric

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