November 17, 2012
Anglers –

Ideal weather patterns continue to attract crowds of anglers in the direction of Southern Baja California. Warm sunny skies with temperatures reaching into the 80s, variable winds, more predominate from out of the north. Ocean swells were minimal, tidal swings are high now and water temperatures are ranging from 80 to 84 degrees. Currents are appearing favorable for an extended fall season, possible into the new year.

Last week WON held their annual Tuna Jackpot Tournament, this event is the highest stake tuna tournament in the world and definitely lived up to its billing once again. The majority of the 121 teams concentrated their efforts on the Gordo Banks, as these fishing grounds had been the only place where larger yellowfin had been consistently found for the past month. Local knowledge would definitely be imperative, knowing exactly how to fish these particular grounds is an art passed down through the generations. In a story book ending, the local La Playita team aboard the custom sportfisher “Estrella del Norte” pulled off first place honors with an incredible super cow that weighed in at 372 pounds, walking away with a check for $223 thousand dollars. Great achievement for these local anglers, big congratulations goes out to team members James Rosenwald, Donald Luhita, Carlos and Eduardo Beltran.

There is only one drawback to this tournament being held during the busy fall season, as this puts tremendous pressure on the inshore bait source, namely sardinas, as scores of these teams spend days gathering as many freshly brined sardinas as possible in order to have the steady chum to give them the possible edge needed to hook that winning fish. We have noticed for the past several seasons that immediately following this event there has been a significant shortage of baitfish available to supply the busy charter fleets, commercial netters are scrambling to find sufficient sources. There is a combined factor that these same baitfish follow migratory patterns, but there is the issue of relentless pressure on the available source that should be addressed and there should be set limits of how much of a certain bait source a team can acquire.

Charter fleets have been fishing in areas where they have been able secure baitfish, some days near Santa Maria and once again they are finding batfish inshore near Vinorama, either spot has been a long run for boats departing out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina. Punta Gorda and Iman Bank has been producing action on yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 18 pound range, mixed with skipjack and at times the fish are just coming to the surface in brief periods of flurries. Some charters scratched to get three or four tuna and others had their limits per angler. The larger sized yellowfin remain on the Gordo Bank, but have become more elusive, heavy yacht pressure on the Outer Banks does not make it easy for the normal day charter boats to be able to drift fish how they normally prefer to do. Every day we are still seeing a few fish in the 100 to 200 pound class being accounted for, but this is for quite few boats, not a lot of hook ups considering how many lines are in the water. We expect these yellowfin tuna to continue to hold around the Gordo Banks as long as these conditions remain to their liking.

Wahoo have seemed to have had lockjaw this past week, there were scattered reports of lines being cut off and baits sliced in half, but very few wahoo have actually been brought in to the docks and this is the time of year when we expect to see more activity for these prized gamefish. Perhaps we will benefit from late season action, since water temperatures are still holding a bit higher than normal.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 215 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
4 striped marlin, 12 wahoo, 9 sailfish, 3 yellowtail, 105 dorado, 955 yellowfin tuna,
8 amberjack, 16 cabrilla, 45 sierra, 16 pargo, 22 rainbow runners and 850 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric

November 10, 2012
Anglers –

This time period always is one of the busiest of the year for the Los Cabos area, no exception this season, as anglers from across the globe are arriving by the plane load, with high expectations of fun times to be had by all. The weather has been ideal, sunny skies, with highs in the lower 80s. Some moderate winds blowing out of the north, but for the most part anglers enjoyed comfortable ocean conditions. The last event of this season’s high stake fishing tournaments is being held at this time, this is the WON Tuna Jackpot, with some 120 teams participating this year, surely there will be some monster fish stories developing.

Ocean currents are remaining a bit warmer than usual for this time period, temperatures have ranged 82/84 degrees throughout most of the region. Clean blue water is now moving right in close to the shoreline. Supplies of sardinas also become scarcer during these high pressure times, just too many charters to supply live bait to, the resource can be limited and these baitfish also have their migratory patterns. Waiting for bait was worth the time if you were after the fast action for the 10 to 20 pound yellowfin tuna, which were found within a mile of shore, several spots were holding schooling tuna, area off of Punta Gorda was one of the most productive, also the Iman Bank had good numbers.

The majority of charters out of San Jose del Cabo were concentrating on the inshore grounds, where the yellowfin tuna dominated the action, lots of skipjack were mixed in and there were scattered small schools of dorado. Wahoo were showing more signs of activity, The Iman Bank early in the morning was one of the reefs where these fish are now being encountered, many juvenile sized wahoo in the area, a few wahoo in the 40 to 50 pound class were landed. Slow trolling trap rigged larger baitfish or higher speed troll with Rapalas, purple once again has been the hot pattern.

The only place where anyone has heard about seeing or catching larger sized yellowfin tuna in the Southern Baja region has been on the Gordo Banks, this action has been going on for the last month, tuna to over 300 pounds have been taken, with scores of fish in the 150 to 250 pound class accounted for. Heavy pressure on these yellowfin makes them even more finicky. All of these tuna are striking on various baits, chunk, strip, whole baits, dead and live, active chumming necessary to entice the fish to feed. The panga fleets did account for several fish over 200 pounds this past week, the way the conditions seem now, this bite could last through the next month.

Only limited action being found off the bottom now, with a handful of amberjack, snapper and cabrilla being the most common species, most of these fish were in the 5 to 15 pound class. A few early season sierra are starting to patrol inshore waters.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 245 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
16 wahoo, 7 sailfish, 405 dorado, 1580 yellowfin tuna, 13 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 22 cabrilla, 22 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 20 pargo and 1250 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric

November 3, 2012
Anglers –

The Los Cabos area is now bustling with anglers, visitors are enjoying pristine weather conditions and with no new threatening storms forming at this time, it appears this same favorable pattern will continue. Mornings are cooler, light sweatshirt are recommended, skies have been clear, pleasantly warm, reaching the low 80’s. Trade winds at daybreak were from offshore and then the breeze would shift from out of the north/northeast. At times the seas were choppy in the direction of Iman and the East Cape. Ocean water temperatures were averaging 81/84 degrees and clean blue water is now found within a mile shore.

Anglers found comfortable seas, particularly closer to shore, where some of the most consistent fishing action for the past few weeks has been. The grounds off of Santa Maria to Cerro Colorado have produced a quality mix of yellowfin tuna, skipjack, dorado and wahoo. No significant numbers of wahoo yet, but everyday some are being hooked into on trolled lures, Rapala XRaps in purple have been taking a good share of strikes. The majority of the wahoo strikes reportedly were taken earlier in the day, then the action on the yellowfin tuna skipjack and dorado dominated the bite. Yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 16 lb. class were schooling with what the locals refer to as “white skipjack”, very feisty aggressive fish which are fair eating as well, unlike the black skipjack

The recent full moon was exceptionally bright and seemed to slow the action down a notch or two. Heavy boat pressure now as well, Los Cabos is no longer the small fishing town it was, hard to keep a hot spot secret, the word is out that the cow sized yellowfin tuna are schooling on the Gordo Banks. Everyday tuna of 200 pounds are being landed, no great numbers, but there are a handful of impressive sized tuna being landed daily. Some days more than others, at times the yellowfin would show breezing the surface or be seen feeding in the chunk bait slick, these fish are present in force, but are finicky to bite, all of these larger grade of tuna are striking on various baits, live, dead, chunk or combinations. Anglers are now mainly drift fishing baits while chumming, normally a recipe of sardinas mixed with chunks of skipjack. It is wise to use heavier 80 pound tackle, fluorocarbon 80 to 120 lb. has been most common leader, as these tuna became progressively more line shy through the past week. Largest yellowfin tuna brought in this week for the local panga fleet was landed by Michael Brady of Pasadena and weighed in at 280 pounds. Brady was fishing aboard the 23 ft. “Katie” with skipper Jesus Pino on the Gordo Banks, fish apparently hit on a couple of dead sardinas mixed with a piece of skipjack chunk bait. Other specimens up to 260 lb. were brought to the docks and of course many big fish were lost after long battles due to broken lines or pulled hooks.

During the full moon period baitfish are often harder to find, they seem to scatter into deeper waters. Despite having to search harder, bait netters were able to find sufficient supplies of sardinas and these have definitely been the choice of bait necessary for the inshore football tuna, skipjack and dorado action. Larger concentrations of schooling sardinas were found from Palmilla, towards Santa Maria, on some days pangeros were able to find the baitfish in close proximity of the PLC jetty entrance. Depending on where charters were able to obtain bait dictated on which fishing grounds were in practical range. For this reason not that many numbers of charters did fish the Iman to San Luis area this past week, those that did had mixed reports, encountering wind chop, some anglers reported one or two fish and others caught eight to ten. A mix of dorado, tuna and a chance at wahoo. The yellowfin found around Iman Bank were larger than the fish off of Santa Maria, some of these were to 20/25 pounds.

Not much bottom action these days, with tuna and other surface species now available most charters are targeting these fish. As water temperatures drop a few degrees we expect some better options for bottom dwellers to open up.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 182 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
20 wahoo, 8 sailfish, 355 dorado, 1160 yellowfin tuna, 6 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 16 sierra, 24 pargo and 1500 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric