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

October 27, 2012
Anglers –

The Los Cabos area is now bustling with visiting anglers, this is peak fall season, weather conditions are once again ideal, after last week’s deluge from Hurricane Paul, the horizon remains clear, days have been sunny, cooler early in the morning, but by afternoon temperatures warm to 85 degrees. Over 700 anglers participated in this year’s Bisbee Black and Blue event, look for many stories to be told, as there is always some sort of drama involved. Sportfishing charters are traveling in all directions now, from the Pacific grounds to Los Frailes, in search of that special catch of a lifetime.

There are more persistent winds now starting to blow out of the north, typical fall conditions, maybe a bit earlier than normal. This combined with shorter daylight hours has also contributed to a cooling trend for the ocean, now averaging about 80 degrees outside of Cabo San Lucas and up to 82/84 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.

This annual cooling trend of local ocean currents is what usually triggers the elusive wahoo into becoming more active. We have seen more wahoo in recent days, still not a wide open bite, but considering the heavy pressure and still slightly off colored post storm waters, there has been some decent action found for these speedsters. Some charters reported as many as a half of dozen strikes and up to four wahoo landed. The ‘hoo were striking various baitfish, as well as trolled skirted lead heads or Rapalas. Most of the wahoo landed were in the 20 to 40 pound class, there were some small juveniles mixed in, nice gesture to release these, also there were at least several wahoo over 50 pounds accounted for. We look for this action to peak during the next couple of months, wahoo typically stay in the Southern Baja area until the ocean temperatures drop into the lower 70 degree range, which on a warm water year can be into January.

This past week started off with a flurry of big yellowfin tuna being landed off of the Gordo Banks, there were several fish in the 250 pound class weighed in, with others in the 100 to 230 lb. range. There were reports of a couple of super cows over 300 pounds accounted for by private sportfishers. There has been a better chance now at hooking into a big tuna as a big marlin, which are the species that tournament teams are searching for, only marlin weighing over 300 pounds count in the Bisbee Jackpot. The yellowfin were striking on chunk bait, sardinas, chihuil, skipjack and cocinero. The tuna bite slowed during the heavy pressure of the Bisbee, this next week will be the time WON Tuna Jackpot teams search out and plan strategy for the big Tuna event slated for the second week of November, looks like this year our local teams will have an advantage, having the knowledge of how to fish the Gordo Banks when the fish become spooked form heavy boat pressure.

Normal everyday charters have been fishing off of Santa Maria for a combination of skipjack, yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, this action is all within several miles of shore. The yellowfin tuna have had to battle the aggressive skipjack to reach the bait, most of the yellowfin in this area have been 10 to 15 pounds, striking on sardinas. Dorado and wahoo are also hitting baits, as well as lures being trolling around the perimeter of the charters that were drift fishing with bait. The Iman Bank was another popular area being concentrated on, slightly larger grade of yellowfin, up to 25 pounds, with skipjack, dorado and wahoo in the vicinity. There has been only an occasional amberjack, cabrilla or dog snapper off the bottom.

The bait situation for obtaining live sardinas always become stressed during this busy period, on some days the commercial netters found sardinas off of the PLC Marina jetties, but this has not been as consistent as the sources found from Palmilla towards Santa Maria, this situation has a direct bearing on which direction the boats launching out of La Playita can practically reach once they do secure their daily bait rations.

The combined panga fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina, sent out approximately 212 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
7 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 42 wahoo, 165 dorado, 512 yellowfin tuna,10 amberjack, 3 dogtooth snapper,18 pargo, 6 sierra and 1600 skipjack .

Good Fishing, Eric