Anglers –

The Los Cabos area is now busy reinforcing infrastructure with a heavy military presence in support of the upcoming D20 summit, where many of the world’s leaders will be holding talks in the newly constructed San Jose del Cabo convention center. So we must all bear with the inconveniences of road closures, military check points, additional delays, closed ocean zones etc…as authorities are now working around the clock to make sure this event is secure and progresses smoothly without incident. Crowds of tourists have been moderate during this late spring period, as many surfers as anglers, not much of a ocean swell this past week, but everyone is enjoying comfortable weather conditions, there was a slight cooling trend this past week, high temperatures in the mid 80s, mornings cooler, lots of marine moisture, definitely transition time. It is only a matter of time before these up and down patterns stabilize, this year it seems everything has been a bit later than normal, some seasons it has not been until mid July when conditions finally settle.

Hard to predict, or even keep track of the ocean conditions recently, has been changing rapidly, from day to day, as cool as 60 degrees off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, to almost 80 degrees off of Los Frailes, that is a dramatic variance within fifty miles of coastline. The current is sweeping back and forth, stirring up algae concentrations and even changing oxygen levels, at the present time water temperature is in the mid to upper 60’s off of Cabo San Lucas and towards San Jose del Cabo and to the north, the ocean has been ranging from 74 to 77 degrees, this warming trend has continued through the week, despite more favorable temperature, the current remained dirty green and even brown in some areas, not what you want to see when targeting offshore pelagic species. For a period the water was warmer close to shore and cooler offshore, opposite from normal patterns, not much of any blue water breaks to be found. Baitfish seem to scatter in these conditions as well, sardinas have not been available recently, though out of the marina area there has been sufficient supplies of caballito and mullet. The swirling current of the past several weeks really have mixed ocean conditions and has made fishing much more of a challenge.

Anglers enjoyed the all around climate, but were having to deal with adverse ocean conditions, working hard to find a fair variety of species, though very spread out and in no significant numbers. There were amberjack showing up at the PLC Marina jetty entrance and each morning a handful were being hooked into on yo-yo igs and live bait, most of these fish were in the 20 to 30 pound class, there was one 101 pound amberjack caught early in the week from another area. A few yellowtail up to 30 pounds off of Palmilla, Chelino and other areas, still striking in the dirty water, but also very hit or miss. Some various cabrillas, groupers, pargos, sharks and bonito rounded out the structure action, anglers used bait and yo-yo jigs with mixed success. Some charters accounted for up to a dozen fish in combination, while others were fortunate enough to find one or two takers.

Earlier in the week there was great roosterfish action found, at times epic feeding frenzy were encountered, particularly on the less pressured areas in the direction of Los Frailes, fish to 40 or 50 pounds were reported during the week, the current progressively turned a brown color and this slowed inshore action, even though there were jack crevalle up to 30 pounds encountered and less numbers of roosters, with some late season sierra in the mix.

Striped marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo slowed way down, but everyday there were marlin hook ups reported, an average of maybe every other cruiser charter landing a marlin, an occasional dorado found as well, most of this was further offshore and in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. A few yellowfin tuna encounters were reported, these tuna were in the 40 to 80 pound class, found between San Luis and Los Frailes, traveling with larger dark colored porpoise, a few hook ups were reported on caballito. These fish are ready to move onto local fishing grounds when conditions rebound and attract more of their food source.

So we all are waiting patiently for ocean conditions to improve and for the fishing action back return to standards.

The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
3 striped marlin, 11 dorado, 12 hammerhead shark, 34 bonito, 22 amberjack, 8 yellowtail, 8 grouper, 18 cabrilla, 4 dogtooth snapper, 18 jack crevalle, 125 roosterfish, 2 pompano, 12 huachinango, 15 yellow snapper, 24 triggerfish, 18 sierra and 6 pargo colorado.

Good fishing, Eric

June 1, 2012

The month of May is over, there were major variances in weather patterns and accordingly changing ocean conditions. As the new month begins we are feeling a warming trend once again, for both air and water temperatures. Daytime highs reached 90 degrees, variable winds were moderate, warmer current moved in a southern direction from Los Frailes and ocean temperatures are averaging 75 degrees or more through most of the areas in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, while around on the Pacific currents have been much cooler. For this reason most sportfishing fleets are targeting fishing grounds such as the 95 and 1150 high spots and north towards the Gordo and Desteladera Banks.

The swift current moving back from north of Los Frailes was warm, but also murky green, progressively this current has become cleaner with each passing day, this pattern should continue as long as west winds do not pick back up and push more Pacific waters in. The expected high swells from last weekend passing of Hurricane Bud never really lived up to expectations, it seemed like there were more surfers in town than anglers. Crowds are light now, good time to visit, fishing action is improving and weather is still not too hot.

Commercial pangeros found it difficult to net sardinas due to higher surf conditions, there have been caballito, moonfish and mullet available, also limited supplies of fresh dead brined sardinas, coming from beaches towards the East Cape in the afternoon. More schooling mullet are migrating into local waters and this has attracted larger sized roosterfish, everyday roosters weighing in the 10 to 60 pound class have been hooked into, slow trolling larger live baits close to shoreline has been the best bet from charter boats, while off the beaches hard core surf anglers are hooking into these powerful roosterfish while casting and rapidly retrieving surface popper type lures. It is that time of year, where new options can open up daily.

Anglers had faced a couple of tough weeks offshore, but things have turned around in a hurry, as anglers are once again finding good numbers of striped marlin, readily striking on lures, as well as various baitfish, most of this action has been found 5 to 15 miles offshore, nicer sized stripers were accounted for, the majority of fish were in the 100 to 140 pound class. Cruisers as well as panga charters were getting into this billfish action. Dorado action rebounded as well, though most of the do-dos taken earlier in the week were very small, by the later part of the week the big bulls had returned, particularly near the buoys located off of San Luis area. Bolito were found schooling in this same region and were particularly effective baits for the larger bull dorado. No wahoo heard of in recent days, but we expect we will hear reports in the near future, as conditions become even more favorable.

Same deal on yellowfin tuna, we keep hearing stories of lots of tuna being found out of our range, outside of Los Frailes, it is only a matter of time that these fish follow the shifting currents and food source in the direction of the Los Cabos fishing grounds.

Inshore action improved in recent days, along with larger sized roosterfish now being hooked up daily, there have been various groupers, cabrilla, dogtooth snapper, yellow snapper, barred pargo, amberjack, yellowtail, jack crevalle, sierra, pompano and even a run on sheephead, this is now the time when a wide variety of species can be encountered on any given day. Much of this action has been found while trolling baits over shallow water structure and many of the largest sized fish being hooked into are breaking line off on the nearby rocks. We did receive one confirmed report of a 150 pound gulf grouper being landed from a private boat based out of Puerto Los Cabos, this monster hit on a live caballito, I believe near the Iman Bank.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 80 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 12 striped marlin, 29 dorado,13 amberjack,7 dogtooth snapper, 16 barred pargo, 66 yellow snapper, 8 yellowtail, 11 grouper, 25 cabrilla, 68 roosterfish,15 jack crevalle, 7 pompano, 3 sheephead and 9 sierra.

Good fishing, Eric

May 26, 2012

Anglers –

The month of May continues to produce variable weather patterns, this week began with wind out of the southwest, pushing in cooler Pacific air, even some marine fog, sweeping cold ocean currents in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures varied from a chilly 58 degrees on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, to an average of 64/66 degrees off of the San Jose del Cabo region, while north of Los Frailes, where this Pacific current terminates, here the ocean temperatures are holding in the 76 to 78 degree range. This is a twenty degree variance in water conditions within a fifty mile stretch of coastline.

While anglers have had to work harder and have more patience in the cooler waters, surfers put on their wet suits and were eagerly awaiting the larger swells that were being generated by Hurricane Bud, the season’s second named storm, which is now some 100 miles south of Manzanillo and predicted to leave 10 to 20 inches of rainfall in areas of the state of Jalisco, before pulling a u-turn and slowly heading back west, well south of any impact with the Southern Baja Peninsula.

Green off colored water is normally associated with colder currents, migrating pelagic gamefish seek out more favorable habitat and anglers have to have patience waiting for conditions to recover, sometimes this can happen overnight, other times the turnaround can take weeks, currents do need to shift back from the north, in order so the warmer currents off of the East Cape region can shift back in the direction of Los Cabos.

Striped marlin has been the main attraction found offshore, fish have been more scattered with recent conditions, but most charters are having opportunities, no great numbers now, but catches of one or two marlin were not uncommon. The billfish were striking on live caballito and lures, often encountered tailing on the surface, hitting dropped back bait, most of the time 5 to 20 miles offshore. Very few dorado talked about this past week, will most likely be the same scenario until waters warm back into the mid 70s.

Increased swells made it tough for the pangeros to net sardinas, supplies of caballito have remained steady. As conditions stabilize we do expect to see larger concentrations of bolito and skipjack surface on the fishing grounds. In the mean time we wait for a warming trend.

While there were no tuna, dorado or exotic wahoo frenzies to report, anglers did find some mixed inshore action, along the shoreline and off the rocky high spots. This option was not consistent from day to day, certain spots produced well one day, then the next day slowed to a standstill, while reports of great action came in from other areas, hard to try everywhere in one morning. The week started off with great yellowtail and mixed cabrilla, grouper action found off of Palmilla to Red Hill, in 100 to 150 feet of water. The yellowtail were striking on yo-yo’s, surface trolling bait, down rigger baits, rapalas and even on surface trolled marlin type lures. Nice grade of fish, averaging 20 to 30 pounds. A few amberjack mixed in, with leopard grouper to 15 pounds and gulf grouper to 30 pounds rounding out catches. Yellowtail at times were seen cruising in the swells, as do marlin, these fish appear to be on the move, unsettled ocean conditions have them scattering in new directions.

Roosterfish provided steady action for anglers while trolling live baits close to the shoreline, more of the roosters were less than 15 pounds, but there are some impressive size fish to over 50 pounds also starting to appear, the next several weeks is when we normally see the bigger roosterfish start patrolling local beach stretches, cold currents has set their schedule back.

This next week local residents are gearing up for the traditional national holiday of the “Dia de la Marina”. In La Playita there is always heavy anticipation for celebrating this event, with three days of activities, including late night dances, carnival rides, parades, horse match races, off road vehicle races and of course more than enough cerveza (beer).

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 3 dorado, 18 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 88 various pargo species,78 roosterfish, 19 jack crevalle, 26 cabrilla, 8 pompano, 56 yellowtail and 16 sierra.

Good fishing, Eric