August 3, 2012
Anglers –

Summer season is progressing rapidly, crowds of tourists are predictably light at this time of year, days are very warm and the humidity continues to rise. The tropical storm patterns from the south have remained quiet for the past couple of weeks and presently there are no new systems seen developing, of course we all know that conditions can change rapidly during the next couple of months. The region is in desperate need of rainfall, in the midst of a parching drought cycle for several years now. Ocean water temperatures seemed to have stabilized into the 82 to 88 degrees range, from Cabo Sano Lucas to Los Frailes, as normal, the warmest summer currents are found in the direction of the East Cape. Clean blue water is now moving closer to shore and ocean swells are moderate. Still some unpredictable winds swirling from all different directions, mornings have been mostly calm for anglers, with variable breezes picking up later in the day.

Sportfishing charters are mainly concentrating on the fishing grounds from the 95 and 1150 spots, to outside of the Gordo Banks, to Iman, San Luis and north to Los Frailes. Action has been spread out. There was one monster 750 pounds class blue marlin landed out of Cabo San Lucas this past week, but for the most part the billfish bite has been for striped marlin, sailfish and a handful of smaller sized blue marlin, very few black marlin in the area yet. There is an abundance of baitfish activity on the grounds, concentrations of such a food source normally attracts the larger gamefish.

This recent full moon phase seemed to have slowed the offshore activity down in recent days, we are looking forward to improved action soon, conditions are just too ripe now for the bite to not bust wide open. Average fish counts now have ranged from two or three fish, up to a dozen fish per charter. Most common catches have been for dorado or yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound range, the bite has not been consistent from area to area or day to day. Anglers did find decent numbers of yellowfin tuna on the 95 spot outside of Chileno and also near Los Frailes, which is out of range for normal charter operations, more often than not these schooling tuna were encountered without porpoise, though at other times they were found associated with fast moving pods of these mammals, feeding on the same source. When found near the surface the yellowfin were striking on a wide variety of small to medium sized lures or baits. For the past week now the larger tuna in the area of San Luis have not made much of a showing, though a few missed strikes on trolled bolito were reported in recent days, so we at least know that these 100 pound plus fish are still in the area and when conditions are to their liking we should see some quality action. The month of August is typically the time when anglers report the largest numbers of quality grade tuna.

The first light of the day bottom action for red snapper has shown signs of tapering off, but the true early birds fishermen have been producing fair numbers of these huachinango at first light on yo-yo jigs, mainly a commercial fishery, they are leaving PLC Marina at 5:00 a.m. to reach San Luis Bank, not a normal charter deal. A handful of cabrilla, grouper and amberjack were rounding out the bottom bite, this is always the time of year when anglers have the opportunity of hooking into a big grouper, drifting with whole large baits over the rocky outcroppings is a proven method of getting bent by one of these brutes, whole other story actually battling them to gaff, even on the heaviest of tackle.

Roosterfish and jack crevalle were the main species found close to shore, this action typically starts to slow down at this time, as schools of mullet and other baitfish begin to migrate elsewhere. Depends on heavy surf conditions, which tend to scatter bait schools, as this time surf is lighter, hard to predict for how long, southern swells continually arrive during the summer months.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 40 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
3 striped marlin, 5 sailfish, 76 dorado, 66 yellowfin, 11 amberjack, 8 grouper, 12 cabrilla, 18 roosterfish, 12 jack crevalle, 56 huachinango(red snapper), 30 yellow snapper and 22 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

July 28, 2012
Anglers –

This week we saw varying summer weather patterns, started with calm days, warm and humid days, highs of 95 degrees, clear blue ocean water was found close to shore, then later in the week, gusty afternoon breezes from the south attributed to churning seas, pushing in greenish water and now we wait for conditions to return to how they had been, and at this time of year this can happen within a day. Presently the ocean temperatures are ranging from 80 degrees near Cabo San Lucas, up to 86 degrees towards Los Frailes. To the south, there is no Tropical Cyclone activity at this time, sunny skies with some intermittent scattered clouds and at times there was a cooling afternoon breeze from the Pacific that helped give welcome relief to the sticky weather.

This week officially marks beginning of the summer/fall Southern Baja Tournament Season, as the Bisbee’s East Cape event is being held, with some sixty teams participating for a share of the prize money. Should be a fun time for everyone involved, this tournament is a warm up event, preparing for the even larger stake tournaments coming in the Fall.

Sportfishing fleets were covering a wide area in search of the best opportunities, from the Pacific, where there were reports of tuna, dorado and billfish, much of this was close to 20 miles from shore, in the vicinity of Jaime Bank, but the majority of charters were heading in the direction of the fishing grounds such as the 950 & 1150 spots, to the Gordo Banks, San Luis and Desteladera. San Luis Bank was holding more schools of bolito baitfish, which were being caught and used for slow trolling on the surface for a variety of gamefish. Although at this time there were not large numbers of any particular species being found, there was definitely a variety of quality fish being encountered. Everyday this week we have been hearing reports of large yellowfin tuna being hooked into, in the 150 to 200 plus pound class, these fish were striking on live bolito in and around the Iman to San Luis Bank, so for a handful of these fish have been landed, specimens of 150 and 213 lb. in the past few days, but many other stories were told of massive missed strikes or big fish being lost for various reasons after long battles. There was a grand slam mix of sailfish, striped marlin, blue and black marlin on these same grounds, all hitting on the same baits. Several marlin in the 300 pound class were caught and released from charters based out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina.

Live caballito and mullet were available from the marina area, but these baits were not what the offshore species preferred at this time, anglers reported much more success using the freshly caught lively bolito. This is now the style of fishing where you need patience while trolling around waiting for strikes, most boats were averaging several chances on big fish each day. There was no particular spot where a lot of numbers of smaller sized fish were found, so it is basically the same chance at hooking into a larger of smaller fish. Though if specifically targeting larger fish, you do need to be using gear that is capable of having the chance at actually landing the fish. Dorado are very spread out, bulls up to 40 pounds were accounted for, though no numbers and the majority of the do-do s found were medium sized. Trolling with bolito is a very good method for finding big bull dorado.

Early in the week there were schools of smaller sized yellowfin found on San Luis Bank, they hit on hoochies, as well as other small lures and for the few charters that were able to purchase live sardinas from commercial pangeros that had come from the north near Los Frailes, they really did well on these yellowfin. Then this action faded and larger tuna all of sudden made a presence, apparently attracted to the large concentrations of food, particularly their favored bolito.

Bottom action was not consistent, though there continued to be an productive early morning bite happening for huachinango, the true Pacific red snapper, this action was found at first light on the San Luis Bank and these fish were only striking on yo-yo style jigs, weighing up to 12 pounds, and excellent eating. There was only an odd amberjack or grouper being found, more triggerfish that any other species now being found off of the shallow rock piles. This is the time when larger grouper move onto the shallow water structure to feed on the abundant food available and anglers use larger whole baits for drift fishing over these rocky areas, hoping to hook into a monster that will truly test their skill in trying to win the battle of not being broke off in the rocks.

Roosterfish are still patrolling the shoreline, but not as numerous as they had been off of San Jose del Cabo and to the north, there were reports of wide open roosterfish action found out of the East Cape, though most charters from this area are having to traveling further south than Los Frailes in order to find any offshore action.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 48 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
8 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 1 black marlin, 1 blue marlin, 38 dorado, 26 yellowfin, 12 amberjack, 9 grouper, 14 cabrilla, 16 roosterfish, 44 huachinango (red snapper) and 24 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

July 21, 2012
Anglers –

We are now into the heat of the summer, there was never any rainfall felt in the lowlands of Los Cabos from recent tropical activity, north of the International airport there was some significant rain accumulations, enough water that even the San Jose Arroyo ran off towards the ocean, under the new bridge leading to Puerto Los Cabos Marina, slight as this was, any little bit to help water tables, since there has not been much rain water seen in recent years due to extended drought conditions. Days are now mostly clear, though it is the time of year that afternoon tropical clouds develop over the mountains. At this time there are no new tropical storm systems developing to the south, conditions have settled down, warm days with little wind, many surfers in town now taking advantage of ideal surf conditions. Offshore ocean conditions really came into shape this past week, progressively clearing, clean blue water can now be found close to shore, from Cabo San Lucas towards Los Frailes water temperatures are averaging 82 to 85 degrees. Ocean currents continue to be strong, but have shown signs of weakening some.

There was an abundant supply of caballito and mullet, but no sardinas were now available south of Los Frailes. Good news was that schooling bolito were now being encountered on the local fishing grounds, these are always one of the preferred and most productive baitfish during the warm water months. This season has been plagued with swift currents, rapidly changing, at times very dirty water, green and sometimes brownish, but we do finally have blue water now and we are optimistic that this will help the fishing action to get back on track and up to Cabo standards.

There were good numbers of striped marlin now being found throughout the area and not too far offshore, trolling lures anglers have been taking strikes, as well as casting baits to tailing fish, the majority of the stripers recently have been of smaller sized, 50 to 100 pounds. Some sailfish were following warm currents into the area, as they were now found feeding on the same marlin grounds.

Counts of dorado were down this past week, not being found on the buoys as they were, most of the dorado caught in recent days were closer to shore in the Chileno to Santa Maria and were smaller in size, striking on a variety of trolled lures. On the marlin ground there was an occasional larger bull dorado being landed. Same area was producing scattered action for football sized yellowfin tuna, also striking on medium sized lures. No porpoise activity here, minimal bird activity, a few flying fish, basically just blind strikes while trolling, when schools were found it was common to have multiple hook ups. Catches were still hit or miss, day to day, charters accounted for varying numbers of fish, from one or two, up to ten or more in combination. There were reports of yellowfin tuna once again schooling in the area just to south of Los Frailes, this spot is out of range of smaller daily charters, mainly grounds where private sportfishers are able to reach when launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina.

The huachinango (red snapper) bite is going strong on the San Luis Bank. These prized snapper are striking on yo-yo jigs, anchovy style working best, fish are weighing in the 8 to 12 pound range. The deal is that these fish are only striking very early, so this has been more of an option for the commercial fleet, they have been departing as early as 4:30 to 5 a.m. Some sportfishing charters are also getting in on this action, you need to obtain your fishing license in advance though, but local officials who sell licenses normally do not arrive before 6:00 a.m.

Along the shoreline there have been roosterfish found, but not in as large as numbers as in previous weeks. Some amberjack are hanging around the PLC Marina jetty entrance and there is a chance at hooking a nice sized fish in this area where baitfish congregate, drifting with live caballito or moonfish has been the ticket for this, also slow trolling on the surface, even though that is a better way to entice a roosterfish. A few nice dogtooth snapper were also muscled away from the inshore rock outcroppings north of Punta Gorda, at least one specimen was over 50 pounds, up until now there has not been much of a season for the dogtooth, this is the time when we normally see these largest of snapper species start to swift locations, from close to shore to the offshore rock piles, this migration is matter of following their preferred food source.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 56 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 3 sailfish, 45 dorado, 36 yellowfin, 24 amberjack, 12 grouper, 16 cabrilla, 10 jack crevalle, 22 roosterfish, 15 yellow snapper, 5 bonito, 48 huachinango (red snapper), 3 dogtooth snapper and 20 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric