December 22, 2012
Anglers –

While much of the United States is now feeling the freezing chill of harsh winter weather, just 1,000 miles south of the border, in the Los Cabos area, holiday vacationers were being greeted with sunny skies and high temperatures of 80 degrees. The previous week had seen cooler days and persistent north winds, this contributed to dropping ocean water temperatures into the 75/76 degree range, strong currents swept in off colored water and the Fall to Winter ocean transition period was developing.

Baitfish options included mackerel, sardineta, sardina, moonfish, bolito and skipjack. Some anglers were also using pieces of giant squid, which were imported from La Paz or purchased at local super markets. Schools of mackerel are now shifting onto the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, this always attracts pursuing gamefish, such as striped marlin, dorado and wahoo. While anglers battled with rough seas on the offshore areas like Gordo Banks, on the inside off of Punta Gorda, Cardon and La Fortuna they found comfortable conditions and despite the off colored and not so favorable water, the fish seemed to bite just fine.

Most common species were dorado, hooked on trolled lures and various baitfish, sizes ranged from 5 to 40 pounds and many anglers were easily landing their two fish limits, while releasing additional fish. Wahoo also went on the bite in recent days, hot spot was off of Punta Gorda and live bait, especially mackerel, were taking aggressive strikes, sizes were averaging in the 15 to 30 pound class, many charters were accounting for 3,4,5 or more wahoo, this is the best it has been for a while. Depending on water conditions and the persistence of northern winds, will dictate on how long we might expect for this type of action to continue.

Yellowfin tuna action dropped way down, though at times, anglers who happened to be at the right place, did get into some quality action, areas closer to shore produced sporadic counts for yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound class, while on the Gordo Banks there were several larger sized tuna accounted for this past week, the largest that we heard of was a 226 lb. cow, taken once again by skipper Chame Pino on the super panga “Killer II”. This fish hit on fresh squid that had been brought down from La Paz, where the giant squid have been plentiful. There was problem drift fishing, very swift current due to windy choppy seas. Forecasts call for a few warmer days, this could be enough to produce a few more big tuna in the coming days.

Only a scattering of bottomfish action, a few pargo and cabrilla being the main catch, also some of the good eating bonito now showing, these are a completely different species than are the bonito found off of So. Cal., these toothy fighters prefer cooler waters, as do sierra, which are now being found in good numbers close to shore, where their favored food source of sardinas are schooling.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 95 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
9 striped marlin, 2 yellowtail, 505 dorado, 52 yellowfin tuna, 62 wahoo, 68 sierra, 16 roosterfish, 24 bonito, 28 misc. pargo species and 50 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric

December 15, 2012
Anglers –

Chilly conditions across the United States are making temperate destinations more popular, wintertime getaways which are in close proximity; this definitely makes Los Cabos high on the list. With the Holidays just a couple of weeks away not many people are actually traveling at this time, crowds are light, should start increasing next week. Weather patterns varied from the start of the week, with clear sunny days, winds out of the north and then later in the week we saw steady rainfall throughout most of the day on Thursday, as a cool front from the west/southwest, moved through the region towards the east. So roads will be a bit messy for a few days, no significant rainfall, maybe an inch or more, enough to clean the landscape.

Ocean water temperatures are now on a cooling trend, north winds accelerated this pattern, currents are ranging from 77 to 79 degrees, from Todo Santos on the Pacific, to Los Frailes in the Sea of Cortez, not much variance, still very favorable conditions for a variety of offshore game fish. Most consistent fishing action has been found within 10 miles of shore and more often than not anglers are finding action within a couple of miles. Productive fishing grounds have been off of Chileno, to the Gordo Banks, La Foruna, Iman and to Vinorama. Most abundant supplies of sardinas were found inshore near San Luis and the commercial pangeros were delivering the fresh bait to the grounds off La Fortuna. A few wahoo have been accounted for from this same area, trolling lures before the live bait arrives, also a few wahoo were landed incidentally while using direct monofilament while target yellowfin tuna. Still no consistent action on these elusive wahoo, we are hoping that we see a strong late run of these fish, before water temperatures plummet and send these pelagics on a southern migration.

Mackerel and sardineta schools are now moving into waters off of San Jose del Cabo, this is attracting an early run of striped marlin to this area, also good numbers of dorado following this same food source. Many dorado were in the 15 to 25 lb. class, they were found from close off the rocky points, to the open blue water and on the high spots, a larger percentage were caught on bait versus lures. Average sized striped marlin was in the 100 to 130 pound range, striking on lures and bait, anywhere from 3 to 10 miles from shore.

Most consistent yellowfin tuna action was for fish in the 15 to 40 pound range, being found from Iman to Vinorama, these fish are hitting on live sardinas while drift fishing, fly lining while freely chumming baitfish. Action would happen in flurries and the bite was tough earlier in the week due to the north wind. Anglers accounted for catches from 1 or 2 fish, up to a dozen, when weather and fish cooperated at the same time. There seem to be good numbers of tuna, doado and skipjack in this area, now late in the season, if the northerlies do not become too persistent this action could last into the New Year.

There were cow sized yellowfin tuna still hanging around the Gordo Banks, early in the week there were a handful of nice tuna accounted for and on Thursday, during the rain, there was a 213 pound yellowfin brought to gaff aboard the 26 ft. super panga “Killer II”, just one of perhaps twenty cow sized tuna that this same boat and skipper Chame Pino has accounted for during the past couple of months. These fish are striking more often recently on chunk bait from either skipjack or chihuil, both of which are now concentrated on the banks. More nice sized dorado are now being caught while chunking for tuna, also a few bottom dwellers. Not many of these big tuna are wanting to bite baited hooks, though with the heavy presence of baitfish and light angling pressure, anything could happen on any given day, these big tuna continue to be in the area and they are feeding machines, that is the bottom line, would be nice to see another Gordo Banks 300 pound yellowfin tuna before the end of 2012.

The annual migration of whales is now in full swing, as many sightings of both humpback and grey whales are being reported daily.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 91 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
11 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 4 yellowtail, 460 dorado, 224 yellowfin tuna, 26 wahoo, 10 amberjack, 54 sierra, 14 roosterfish, 24 mixed pargo species and 350 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric

December 9, 2012
Anglers –

Pre Holiday Season crowds have been light, for the people making the trip to Los Cabos they have enjoyed great weather conditions, mostly sunny skies, highs up to 80 degrees and moderate winds, predominately from the north. Currents were quite strong and there was a anticipated drop in water temperature, with cooler early mornings and continual shorter days, it is time when we see rapid changes, local ocean temperatures is now averaging 78 to 80 degrees, which is favored range for many of the more sought after pelagic gamefish. If patterns continue on this same course, it appears we might have longer lasting fall season, another transition period, when water temperatures fall and migratory fish move on and other cold water species arrive. The first wave of whale migration is now being seen in the region, this the time when gray and humpback whales arrive after feeding throughout the summer in Alaskan waters, they typically stay in the lower Baja area until April.

Baitfish have been more scattered, sardina schools are now more prevalent off of the Palmilla Point, other bait options were caballito, mackerel, moonfish, ballyhoo and catching larger baitfish on the fishing grounds, typically bolito, skipjack or chihuil. Mackerel are being found in the cooler Pacific waters, mixed with sardineta. This is also where charters are finding some world class action on early season striped marlin, the old light house has been one of the most productive spots. In the direction of the grounds off of San Jose del Cabo there have been more sailfish than striped marlin, with cooling currents arriving these sailfish surely will start moving to southern waters soon. Overall it was the popular dorado that provided the most consistent action this past week, sizes ranged from juveniles up to 40 pounds, many fish were in the 10 to 20 pound range. These fish were caught on trolled lures, rigged ballyhoo and other baitfish, traveling in small schools most of the time. There were a series of set buoys off of the Desteladera grounds and these were holding better numbers of larger sized fish, long run though, not many charters were even going that distance.

You did not need to travel far to find dorado, some were caught very close to shore, often under circling frigate birds, remember the limit on dorado is two fish per person, smart practice is to release the easily recognizable females with their rounded off forehead, let them grow up and continue to spawn, in order to sustain future stocks. There were sierra now moving inshore as well, they prefer this cooling trend and should appear in big numbers soon, provided great light tackle sport, a few roosterfish were found in recent days, one 30 pound fish was landed right off the panga docks. Larger concentrations of moonfish in the marina now, this always attracts some predators. Make great bottom baits for amberjack, grouper, dogtooth snapper etc…A few nice amberjack were taken off of Iman and we expect this action to improve once the current slacks some.

The dorado took up the slack on where the yellowfin tuna action dropped off, the bite on Iman Bank has declined to an average of one or two tuna here and there, this is for the 10 to 20 pound models, which have been hitting on sardinas, these yellowfin have become more line shy, a times making strong showings, but not wanting to strike a baited hook, other days the tuna would not even show and only a few bonito, dorado and skipjack would bite. This is when anglers started targeting the more cooperative dorado, best chances usually are by either slow trolling baits or using lures, same methods that are used for targeting the elusive wahoo when they are in season, which in the Southern Baja Region typically lasts into the first part of January. So far wahoo action has not been as consistent as we would expect, though everyday there are stories of sliced baits, cut lines, etc, just not that many of these ‘hoo are being landed. Conditions are still favorable, we are optimistic that the coming weeks will produce some exciting wahoo action, these same local grounds is where the existing wahoo world record was caught.

The Gordo Banks is still the spot for anglers trying to join the 200 pound club for yellowfin tuna, this past two month period has produced more cow sized tuna that we have seen for many years. Getting late in the year now and action has slowed down, but everyday there are a handful of quality fish being accounted for, there have been several 200 pound fish landed this week, others weighed in the 100 to 180 pounds class, lots of baitfish on both the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks and the action has been switching back and forth. Other factors can be the presence of very pesky sea lions, they make it practically impossible to troll whole large baits, so being ready to move from one bank to the other has been wise. Most of the larger tuna hooked recently were on chunk baits versus whole baits. There is a new La Playa, Puerto Los Caught Tuna Tournament being held Saturday, excitement is high as there is a new Ford F150 4×4 up for grabs to one angler who catches the largest tuna, other side categories include dorado and wahoo, should be very competitive as well.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 122 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
7 sailfish, 5 striped marlin, 3 yellowtail, 575 dorado, 98 yellowfin tuna, 15 wahoo, 12 cabrilla, 6 dogtooth snapper, 16 amberjack, 35 sierra, 6 roosterfish, 45 misc. mixed pargo species and 330 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric