San Jose del Cabo Weather Links
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Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

 

Wind Report > http://www.sailflow.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=130&regionProductID=30&timeoffset=0

 

April 7, 2012

Anglers –

This week is the official spring break locally, schools are out of session and as tradition follows, thousands of families are heading on extended camping trips along the many beaches. Crowds of tourists are moderate, though some resorts are reporting 100 % occupancy, while many other cannot say the same. Weather is ideal, sunny skies, with high temperatures in the low 80s, winds have been light and swells have resided compared to earlier in the week. Ocean currents are now on a gradual warming trend, averaging 67 off of Cabo San Lucas, up to 73 and even 75 degrees offshore of San Jose del Cabo, clean blue water was found within close proximity of shore. In early spring conditions change rapidly, historically the warmer currents push into the East Cape area first and then swift in the direction of Los Cabos by late spring.

 

With increased swells this past week, the commercial bait netters had to work harder to find available sources, in recent days the area of Cabo Real has been where more concentrations of sardinas were found. This was a long back track for Puerto Los Cabos Marina charters, if they planned on fishing in the direction of Iman or San Luis. So the majority of the charters who traveled to where the sardinas were now schooling, also ended up fishing in this same direction, off of Chileno to Red Hill. There were caballito available from the marina areas and on the offshore fishing grounds there were skipjack, which some anglers used for marlin or grouper bait. Fresh frozen ballyhoo where being rigged for trolling on the offshore grounds, mainly for either striped marlin or dorado. Lots of marlin now off of the San Jose del Cabo region, 5 to 20 miles offshore, these fish became more finicky with the full moon, the stripers were seen lazily tailing on the surface, but often were not interested in striking on any of the angler’s offerings. We expect with the waning moon these billfish will again bite like they did last week, ocean conditions are favorable, cleaner warm currents with quite a few flying fish starting to appear, this is always a favorable sign.

 

Dorado has been found in very limited numbers, most of the time just single fish, striking lures or bait, encountered on the same grounds as where the striped marlin were found. Of the few dorado accounted for, several were over 30 pounds, the next several months is normally when we find larger sized dorado, not as numerous as the schoolies can be during the summer months, but this can be the time to land a trophy sized bull. No wahoo being talked about in recent days, though with warming weather patterns prevailing we do expect that these sought migratory pelagics, will start to make their presence along the inshore drop offs.

 

Anglers found that sierra were the most common inshore species, ranged to five pounds, also a mix of roosterfish, most of these under ten pounds, a few jack crevalle pushing twenty pounds, these freight trains will definitely test your light tackle skills. Bottom action has not producing big consistent catches, most of the time just a mix of smaller sized pargo, cabrilla and bonito, but there were a few big grouper in the mix, most of these being hooked into around the Iman Bank by serious anglers using whole skipjack for bait, commercial style, using extra heavy weight gear in order to have a chance at battling these brutes away from the sharp rocky reefs. We are still seeing an occasional yellowtail from these same San Jose areas, though more numbers of yellows continue to be caught off of the East Cape grounds, as well as around the corner off of the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.

 

Only an occasional encounter with yellowfin tuna being reported, at times encountered traveling with porpoise, a few nice tuna up to 100 pounds were landed this way and another few fish were hooked into around the Iman area while drift fishing with sardinas, these yellowfin ranged in the 30 to 70 pound class, pangeros reported seeing the tuna come up sporadically, disappearing fast and rarely interested in biting, surely they have acquired a taste for red crabs that are holding deeper, along with the full moon, not an easy target species at this time.Quite a few sharks throughout the area now, thrashers and makos offshore and hammerhead and reef sharks off of the structure, this makes bottom fishing more challenging. Outside of the Gordo Banks anglers reported seeing many thrashers free jumping, a few anglers were successfully hooked up while drifting baits down deep, landing sharks to 140 pounds.

 

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 66 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 mako shark, 4 thresher shark, 14 hammerhead shark, 16 striped marlin, 4 yellowfin tuna, 20 bonito, 8 pompano, 16 jack crevalle, 32 pargo, 56 roosterfish, 10 grouper, 28 cabrilla, 4 yellowtail and 365 sierra.

Good fishing, Eric

 

San Jose del Cabo Weather Links
Click for weather forecast

 

 

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

 

Wind Report > http://www.sailflow.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=130&regionProductID=30&timeoffset=0

 

March 31, 2012

Anglers –

The spring season has officially arrived and many people are now traveling to the Los Cabos area to enjoy the ideal weather conditions and all of the available activities offered. This is the weekend that in Southern Baja clocks will be changed one hour forward, several weeks later than in the U.S. You could not ask for a nicer climate at this time, clear sunny skies with high temperatures of about 80 degrees. In recent days the winds have all but diminished, slight breeze just to keep the air refreshing.

Warming days have helped ocean conditions settle and water temperatures are now on a warming trend, most of the region is now ranging from 70 to 72 degrees. Supplies of sardinas have remained plentiful, this past week the bait netters found the baitfish more abundant off the beaches near Vinorama. In the marina there have been options for live caballito and fresh frozen ballyhoo. Early in the week there were a couple of larger blue and black marlin landed, both in the 500 pound class, both were caught off of larger sportfisher’s based out of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina, we did weigh the one blue marlin in for Daniel Fisher, taken on Sunday, March 25, off of his 35 ft. Cabo, the “Fisherman”, it weighed in at 515 pounds.

Offshore action improved in recent days, off of San Jose del Cabo, 15 to 20 miles out, charters were finding good numbers of striped marlin, seeing the marlin free jumping, tailing in the swells and anglers were also taking blind strikes while trolling. Boats have been averaged 2 or 3 and even more hook ups per mornings. Rigged ballyhoo, caballito and lures have all been working. Dorado were spread out and not being found in as great as number as were the marlin, but a few bulls in the 30 to 40 pound class were accounted for. Dorado were encountered closer to shore as well, just outside of where boats were finding continued wide open action for sierra. As water temperatures rise we expect to see more numbers of dorado and other pelagic species to arrive. The next couple of months offer ideal weather and a wide variety of options for anglers, always an exciting period, never know what can happen from day to day.

While sierra continued to dominate the inshore action, there have been very good numbers of early season roosterfish, particularly off the San Jose del Cabo hotel area, with average size ranging from 5 to 15 pounds. Trolling live bait was the best technique for hooked up with wild and powerful jacks. Fly fishing anglers were getting in on this action too, having a blast enticing the sierra and roosterfish, both species are very sporty fighters on light tackle.

This is the time when we usually find improved bottom action as well, recently there have been red crabs sporadically drifting to the surface and anglers able to find these pelagic crabs were using them for baits for Pacific red snapper (huachinango), sizes ranging 5 to 12 pounds. An occasional hog sized yellowtail or amberjack would eat these baits as well. Grouper were making their presence on the rocky reefs, many hook ups were lost to cut lines in the rocks, though one gulf grouper of 110 pounds was landed from a La Playita panga on Thursday. Quite a few hammerhead sharks were now congregating on the structure and were keeping anglers busy re-baiting hooks.

A few mako sharks were reportedly found in the open water, juvenile sized. A couple of wahoo were also hooked into this past week, this is the time of year when warm water fish start to move back on to the local fishing grounds and anything can happen on any given day.

The whale watching season is now coming to an end, though these mammals still are being seen daily at this time, mostly humpbacks, a handful of whale sharks have been sighted off of San Jose del Cabo and towards the north, they always seem to arrive when red crabs are in the area, one of their favored food sources.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 77 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:

32 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 4 mako shark, 15 hammerhead shark, 30 dorado, 3 yellowfin tuna, 435 sierra, 55 roosterfish, 12 pompano, 10 yellowtail, 13 amberjack, 28 cabrilla, 8 grouper, 66 yellow snapper, 89 huachinango and 22 bonito.

 

Good fishing, Eric

 

San Jose del Cabo Weather Links
Click for weather forecast

 

 

Water Temperature > http://tempbreak.com/index.php?&cwregion=cb

 

Wind Report > http://www.sailflow.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=130&regionProductID=30&timeoffset=0

 

March 22, 2012

Anglers –

Spring like weather is now attracting moderate crowds of vacationers. Variable conditions, with some cloud cover, winds, but also plenty of sunshine, actually very pleasant climate now, not too cool or hot. Winds diminishing later in the week and anglers reported comfortable ocean conditions. Water temperatures ranged 68 to 70 degrees throughout most of the region, clarity improved, as cleaner blue water was found not more than several miles from shore.

Supplies of sardinas were a bit more scattered this past week, these baitfish were being netted by commercial pangueros off of Chileno, Red Hill and the beaches near San Luis, varying daily as where more concentrated schools were found. There were limited supplies of caballito also available from the marina areas.

Red crabs were found on the local fishing grounds sporadically in recent days and are being used as bait for Pacific red snapper (huachinango). These fish are a valuable and highly sought after commercial species, but also a fun sport fish on light tackle, prized eating for sure. But without the availability of these red crabs, these fish just do not have a taste for anything else at this time. Overall the presence of red crabs on the fishing grounds seems to have more of a negative factor than positive, as to how the structure species bite.

With the cooler water temperatures there are still quite a few late season whales being seen, there were also a handful of whale shark sightings in the past week. Striped marlin action has been very spread out, really no particular hot spot, stripers have been encountered tailing on the surface, but not in significant numbers, a few unusual winter time sailfish catches were reported as well.

Scattered reports of yellowfin tuna being found on the outside of Cabo San Lucas, fifteen or more miles offshore, often encountered without any sign of being associated with porpoise. These fish were smaller sized for the most part and hit or miss, particularly earlier in the week when southwest winds were strong and crated rough seas.

Dorado have been scarce as well, more of these fish are actually now found closer to shore than offshore. Dorado were feeding on inshore baitfish, looking for frigate birds circling overhead and diving, has been a way to find these gamefish.

For most of the month of March anglers found the most consistent fishing action closer to shore. Working the various rock piles with yo-yo jigs and sardinas produced a mix bag of pargo, yellowtail, amberjack, bonito, cabrilla, triggerfish and others. Trolling the inshore there was good early morning action for sierra, with a few jack crevalle and roosterfish. Not too many larger sized fish, most of the fish caught were less than ten pounds, but there were a handful of larger bottom species accounted for.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 1 sailfish,14 dorado, 17 bonito, 455 sierra, 24 roosterfish, 16 jack crevalle, 89 pargo, 27 cabrilla, 5 mako shark, 11 hammerhead shark, 9 pompano and 11 amberjack.

Good Fishing, Eric