July 14, 2012
Anglers –

Summertime weather patterns have definitely arrived in Southern Baja. This past week was very tropical, first real heat wave of the season, humidity steadily increased as three storms developed to the south and all followed similar westerly paths, staying well clear of any landfall. First there was Dennis, then Emilia, which did become a major Hurricane and now there is TS Fabio which is still gaining strength as it follows a more northwesterly track. No local rainfall to date, forecasts are predicting a chance of precipitation this weekend. So far the only impact for the Los Cabos area has been the muggy humid conditions and higher ocean swells, up to eight feet, some rainfall would be welcome, as the landscape is parched due to an extended drought.

Crowds of anglers remained light as fishing action has not been up to normal Cabo standards, main reason being the unusual weather patterns, rapidly changing ocean currents. This week started out with settled calmer conditions, blue water was even being reported for the first time in what seems like months now, water temperatures averaged 83/84 degrees to about 20 miles offshore, where it dropped into the 80 degree range. As the week progressed seas became more unpredictable due to the trio of storms brewing to the south, even though these systems were some 500 miles distant, they were powerful enough to create rough conditions on local fishing grounds.

The dorado action around the commercial set buoys north of San Luis Bank which had been the main option for San Jose del Cabo fleets last week came to a standstill, the charters that did make the 25 to 35 mile run to these buoys reported that no dorado were found congregating there anymore. So fleets spread out looking for other options, as choppy offshore conditions developed and strong currents limited what could be found.

One productive option for anglers was to depart very early and head to San Luis Bank and use yo-yo style jigs to target huachinango (red snapper), these true Pacific snapper were hitting well early on the jigs, weighing to 12 lb., mixed in were some amberjack in the 5 to 30 pound class, a few cabrilla and grouper to 30 lb. and even a couple of yellowtail to 30 lb.This bite held up strong until midweek when weather put a damper on things and the current became so swift that anglers could hardly get their five ounce jigs to sink.

In the mean time other charters scouted further offshore and found scattered action around the Gordo Banks area for sailfish, striped marlin and dorado, no significant numbers, but a few quality fish were accounted for, including bull dorado up to fifty pounds. A few missed wahoo strikes were reported, determined by the telltale cut lines and lure skirts.

Yellowfin tuna were making an appearance now in the daily fish counts, most of the time they were found not associated with porpoise activity, they were encountered 30 to 40 miles from launching area, not the normal traveling distance for day charters. More concentrations were located off of Los Frailes, but tuna were also now being found off of Cabo San Lucas and offshore of Chileno. Once the tuna schools were found anglers could troll virtually any type of lure and catch quick limits on yellowfin tuna that averaged 10 to 20 pounds, but went up to 40 lb. We do expect this type of action to continue and move within more reasonable range as summer ocean conditions stabilize

Inshore action consisted mainly of slow trolling caballito of mullet baits for roosterfish, bite was a bit slower with higher surf conditions, sometimes best early and on other days later in the morning, there were some impressive roosterfish to fifty pounds landed. The only sardinas now being found, have been north of Los Frailes, Los Cabos fleets have had caballito, mullet, moonfish or jurelito.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 67 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 18 dorado, 85 yellowfin, 28 amberjack, 2 yelowtail, 9 grouper, 17 cabrilla, 6 jack crevalle, 34 roosterfish, 18 yellow snapper, 10 bonito, 115 huachinango (red snapper) and 28 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

July 6, 2012
Anglers –

This Month has started off with very light crowds of tourists, summer weather has been relatively mild into the first week of July, though by mid week it was beginning to feel more like normal weather patterns, high temperatures around 95 degrees, mostly clear sunny skies, some scattered tropical clouds, lows in the upper 70s. Humidity was up some, as there was Tropical Storm Daniel building strength over 500 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, following a westerly path, only affect anyone will feel from this latest system will be warmer muggy conditions and some increased ocean swells that are predicted to reach up to six foot. Pacific breezes have been prevalent in the afternoon and have helped keep conditions more comfortable.

The unusual strange ocean conditions continue, early in the week the Pacific current pushed in the direction of Los Frailes and water temperatures dropped into 72 / 74 degree range, then winds resided and currents were moving inshore waters from the direction of the East Cape back south to Cabo San Lucas and Inshore waters from about 3 to 6 miles offshore were averaging in the 80 to 84 degree range, while offshore the water was cooler, averaging 74 to 78 degrees. The green plankton rich water conditions have been reaching to 30 miles offshore, but just in the past couple of days the clarity north of Punta Gorda, in the surrounding areas near Iman Bank, was reported to be much improved and even bluish, apparently the current has been swifter offshore than closer to shore, this why cleaner warmer waters are now found inshore, this is what we have been patiently waiting for, so the fishing action can get back on track of normal expectations.

The main supplies of live bait recently have been for caballito and mullet, only source of sardinas has been found off of the East Cape region, supplying fleets from Los Barilles and Buena Vista. Bolito schools have been scattered due to unfavorable currents, we do expect these baitfish to start schooling over the local fishing grounds once again as conditions do finally stabilize.

For the past week now the only consistent action for the fleet launching from San Jose del Cabo has been found close along the shoreline for roosterfish or far to the northeast, 20 to 30 miles, this is where a series set buoys, 4 to 8 miles offshore, have been attracting schools of dorado and in recent days some yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound class were encountered. Sizes of the dorado ranged from 5 to 50 pounds. Fish were striking on caballito, mullet, small skipjack and particularly on sardinas, for anglers that were able to purchase them, which was only for fleets from north of Los Frailes. Trolling with hoochie skirts worked well as well. Crowds of boats was a problem, since this area was producing the only consistent action, fleets from Los Barilles, Buena Vista, San Jose del Cabo and even from Cabo San Lucas all were making the unusually long runs to get into this bite. This is a lot of pressure for a handful of buoys, these are set lines for commercial shark pangeros, more often than not it was the first boats to the individual buoys that encountered the hungry bull dorado, some of them in the 30 to 50 lb. class, then later as more boats arrived it was mainly the smaller schoolies that provided action. The limit on these popular acrobatic gamefish is two per license, apparently many of the East Cape boats have not been informed of these regulations, or perhaps the authorities just do not have the personnel in order to enforce these rules on the East Cape, they strictly abide by the two dorado limit rule out of the Los Cabos area. Many local charters reported that East Cape charters were reportedly seen gaffing and killing as many as 15 to 20 dorado per boat, when there were only two or three, sometimes four anglers aboard. These rules should be enforced equally, not just for certain areas. Why would anglers want to fish in one area and only be able to catch two dorado when they can go to other places that let you catch many more?

Every day we are now hearing about more yellowfin tuna being caught near Los Frailes, large schools of fish up to 20 pounds, striking on all sizes of lures, not associated with porpoise most of the time, as this congregation of fish swifts south some, they will in the range of the normal day charter from San Jose.

Some striped marlin and a few sailfish are being found trolling offshore waters, no large concentrations, but as the conditions continue to clean up, we do anticipate a late season run on stripers.

Roosterfish up to 60 pounds were caught this past week, even though most charters were concentrated on the dorado bite around the far away buoys, leaving little time to do much else. Not much action found off the bottom, mainly because the current was swift most of the time, making it difficult for anglers to make a successful effort.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 49 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
2 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 215 dorado, 5 yellowfin, 8 amberjack, 3 grouper, 12 cabrilla, 8 jack crevalle, 42 roosterfish, 14 yellow snapper and 28 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

June 17, 2012
Anglers –

With Los Cabos now hosting the G20 Summit for world leaders, we are seeing unprecedented security forces operating, with safety for everyone being the highest priority. Through this week we expect traveling delays, due to heavy traffic through road blocks and various closures. With this active military presence seen throughout the area, the weather patterns were almost as dynamic, cool Pacific air flows, gusty at times, swirling from all directions, high temperatures did reach 90 degrees over the weekend ,morning’s are still cool, actually very comfortable climate, just has not been what is needed to improve local ocean conditions. With the start of summer season a week away, marine moisture is all there has been, no rainfall in sight, but plenty of sunshine.

Anglers are being confronted with these unfavorable ocean conditions, not so much cooler temperatures, greatest factor being the high chlorophyll levels that is creating greenish brown waters that just do not attract the baitfish which in turn bring in the gamefish. On Terrafin SST charts, the green water was ranging to 40 miles offshore, even there it does not even appear blue. Inshore water temperatures are averaging 70 to 74 degrees, not too cool, just the dirty current has not been what we want to see. This same pattern persists to as far north of Punta Arena, where there is a water break up to 76/78 degrees. So water temperatures are okay, there needs to be a switch in currents, to sweep in cleaner conditions, so anglers can find what they came to expect. There was some encouraging reports of improved ocean conditions outside of San Luis Bank, where on Father’s Day local panga boats were participated in an annual event, winning fish was a 36 pound dorado, a 34 pound dorado was second. Now we have heard late notice talk that authorities will be closed the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Port on June 18 & 19, we have not even officially been notified and many charters are scheduled for these dates, anglers have purchased expensive plane tickets, prepaid for all inclusive packages, rented vehicles, gone shopping, spent lots of money, all planning to fish for a day or two even more, now at the very last hour we are supposed to notify that the Port is Closer, refund all payments and say that we are deeply sorry for this poor judgment and baseless decision. This event has been planned for a year, you think local business operators could have be notified of any closures far enough in advance to not disappoint visiting anglers, hopefully there can be reversal of thoughts, otherwise we are all looking at losing more disgruntling tourists.

Not many anglers appear to be in town now, perhaps more would be ready to go fishing if recent reports were more encouraging, ocean conditions have been tough and then having to deal with traffic delays, etc…I believe many people are just hanging out at their resorts and enjoying the isolated relaxation, there are definitely more political diplomats and their entourages than normal tourists.

Early in the week there were limited numbers of striped marlin and dorado found in the cleaner offshore waters, then currents switched again, pushed in browner colored waters and progressively slowed down the action. The best chance at finding action was closer to shore, anglers were slow trolling and drifting with baits such as caballito, mullet or moonfish. Early in the week there was a good bite for amberjack right directly off the PLC Marina rock jetty entrance, especially at first light, one local commercial pangero reported landing a 80 pound amberjack, most of the ambers landed were in the 20 to 50 pound range, fortunate boats had two, three or even four of these quality fish.

During the week the common species found were amberjack, jack crevalle, roosterfish, sierra, pargo and cabrilla. None of these were numerous, but some charters did account for decent catches of three ,four or five quality specimens. Roosterfish were congregating more around the jetty area due to higher presence of baitfish, not much bait activity along beach stretches now, as inshore conditions rebound we should see a big influx of mullet.

At this time we are being told by Port Officials that we can no longer fish in this jetty area, guess that was inevitable, being that these boats are fishing where boat traffic is heavy, though now there are more military boats than anything else. It would be nice if these patrol boats acknowledged the Marina’s no wake speed limits, these turbo jet PT patrol vessels create heavy wakes, damaging dock structure and have already been reasonable for many snapped dock lines.

Heavy commercial inshore gill net operations continue on both the Pacific side of CSL and north of SJDC. This is an incredibly destructive technique, though is very lucrative for the individuals involved, systematically and indiscriminately trapping any species that swims through this particular shallow zone, including pargo, snapper, roosterfish, cabrilla, parrot fish, pompano, amberjack, sierra and many others, often snagging turtles and even mammals. When this gear does breaks off, it is often encountered drifting with decomposing fish, while continuing to kill others. These fish camps do have legal permits, somewhere up higher in the political chain there has to be someone that realizes what damage this is doing to such a fragile ecosystem, which will not be able to sustain itself much longer at this rate of decimation. When reporting this situation to local officials, of course no one wants to get involved, this form of fishery needs to be abolished all together, there are alternative methods, this should not be political, we are talking about future resources for generations to come, it is discouraging to witness such negligence.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
6 striped marlin, 18 dorado, 12 bonito, 39 amberjack, 9 grouper, 19 cabrilla, 12 jack crevalle, 66 roosterfish, 6 pompano, 32 huachinango, 22 yellow snapper, 20 triggerfish, 10 sierra and 5 pargo colorado.

Good fishing, Eric

Note: Next Fish Report will not be posted until the end of June.