San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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

March 5, 2011

Anglers –

Spring was in the air as we entered the month of March, a warming trend swept through the Southern Baja region, pleasant sunny days with high temperatures reaching close to eighty degrees. Crowds of tourists have noticeably increased this past week and everyone seemed to be enjoying the ideal climate. With the spring break vacation period beginning, we do anticipate busy times in coming weeks and the weather is on track to cooperate as well. There continues to be unpredictable winds from varying directions, which always seems to be the pattern during transition period of winter to spring time conditions. This past week we saw improved ocean conditions, currents had brought water temperatures down in the range of 65 to 68 degrees, but at this time there is once again a warming trend and we are seeing temperatures back up in the 70 to 72 range.

With ocean conditions fluctuating rapidly anglers found the all around action to be a bit inconsistent, though there was quite a variety of fish found, with the best reports coming off of inshore rock piles or trolling along the beach stretches. Supplies of sardinas were scarcer, schools of the baitfish were scattered and commercial pangeros encountered stronger tidal conditions while throwing their bait nets. There were caballito available as another option, though the smaller sardinas were the bait of choice for inshore panga action.

This week anglers found yellowfin tuna schooling on the Iman Bank, lots of fish were seen feeding on the surface, but getting these finicky fish to strike a baited hook proved difficult. Using lighter leader material down to 20 to 30 pound resulted in higher hook up percentages. These yellowfin were commonly in the 15 to 30 pound class, with a few of the 40 to 60 pound size models mixed in. Many of the larger sized fish ended up breaking off due to light line, but the problem was the fish would not hit the more visible heavier leaders. If it was not the problem of the fish being so picky and shy, there was even a worse sea lion situation, as a group of these aggressive mammals have been feeding on tuna that anglers are battling to bring to gaff on lighter tackle. Though it definitely is frustrating it adds variety to your fish stories. Recent days have seen average catches per charter at anywhere from one to four tuna, with black skipjack and bonito mixed in the same areas.

There were reports of red snapper being caught close off of the rocky beaches on the Pacific, tossing live baits into the surf zone, always exciting. Sierra have been fairly plentiful for anglers targeting them with sardinas, some nicer sized fish up to six pounds were accounted for. Roosterfish, jack crevalle and a few pompano rounded out the inshore action. The roosters were mostly all juvenile sized, but are a good sign that we  should see a big run of the larger roosterfish arrive later in the spring and early summer.

Anglers found less consistent action off of the bottom, though there were some nice yellowtail, amberjack, snapper and cabrilla accounted for. Not in the numbers as previous weeks. It will be interesting to see if the larger yellowtail show in any significant numbers near the San Jose del Cabo area, as the big yellows are now really hitting out of the East Cape and La Paz areas.

Not many dorado found the past week, fewer wahoo, as the water temperature conditions warm we will see these fish become more active. There were scattered reports of striped marlin for the cruiser fleets trolling offshore from 6 to 15 miles, blind jig strikes and casting to fining fish. Still no schooling mackerel found on local fishing grounds.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 82 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 4 mako shark, 8 hammerhead shark, 122 yellowfin tuna, 14 dorado, 16 cabrilla, 4 grouper, 18 amberjack, 84 yellowtail, 36 pargo, 24 bonito, 9 pompano,148 sierra and 45 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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

February 27, 2011

Anglers –

With the first slight hint of spring weather being felt in Southern Baja, visiting anglers found very pleasant conditions, mostly clear and sunny days, highs averaging 75 degrees. Swells were minimal, shifting currents, swift at times, water temperatures ranged from 68 to 72 degrees, warmer spots in the direction of the Sea of Cortez , ten to fifteen miles offshore of San Jose del Cabo. Winds have been variable, most prominent from the south, 8 to 14 mph. Schools of sardinas are presently most abundant off the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda to Vinorama, these baitfish have been available on a daily basis from the commercial panga fleet out of La Playita.

There was less bottom action found this past week, currents were a factor and the fact the schools of yellowtail were scattered, there were a wide variety of species being accounted for, just the numbers of total fish in the box was not as high as in previous weeks. Amberjack, yellowtail, cabrilla, grouper, pargo, skipjack and bonito were the most common species now being found off the rock piles, drifting over depths ranging from 100 to 160 ft. Most charters were targeting a combination of action, jigging off the bottom, trolling various surface plugs and lures, as well as drift fishing with sardinas.

With the water temperatures holding in the low 70s off of the San Jose del Cabo area, there has been improved trolling action, a few wahoo were even landed, a scattering of dorado and along the shoreline there were roosterfish and sierra found. Yellowfin tuna were encountered at times traveling with schools of porpoise, this was 3 to 20 miles offshore, matter of encountering the activity, boats that first found the tuna had the best chance, fish would go down as traffic arrived.

The yellowfin tuna action which has been keeping anglers happily busy on the Inner Gordo Banks for the past two weeks has continued, but has become a bit tougher by the day recently, not for a lack of fish, as hundreds of yellowfin tuna could be seen breezing on the surface, in all directions of the bank, just these fish were not that aggressive towards feeding on sardinas, having a taste for red crabs, preferring to gorge on these morsels which were now abundant in the depths on these grounds. Anglers that targeted these tuna, which averaged 15 to 50 pounds, have accounted for average catches ranging from zero tuna, with only skipjack, up to three or four quality sized tuna. The fish were line shy, spooky towards heavy leaders, anglers had best hook up ration on 20, 30 or 40 pound leaders.

Not much marlin activity on the Gordo Banks in recent days, as compared to last week when many stripers were being hooked up on smaller sardina baitfish, there was a 400 pound class blue marlin that struck a trolled petrolero lure, the out of season blue was landed and released from this area last weekend off of a private sportfisher. Water  was a bit more off colored on the banks and this back side of the full moon phase never seems to a favored period. Mackerel schools need to move into the zone, this will improve the billfish situation.

After having left for a week or so, groups of sea lions moved back onto the Gordo Banks and played havoc on anglers concentrating on the yellowfin bite. These sea lions were hungry, aggressively eating all of the sardina baits they could, then rapidly attacking any hooked fish and making anglers odds that much more difficult.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 67 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 wahoo, 2 striped marlin, 4 mako shark, 18 dorado, 88 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 42 sierra, 24 roosterfish, 14 pargo, 12 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 22 yellowtail and 18 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric

San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

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

February 19, 2011

Anglers –

Crowds of tourists increased this past week, as the weather conditions warmed up, we enjoyed clear sunny days that reached 80 degrees and with light winds this made for great conditions offshore for visiting anglers. Ocean water conditions averaged 69 to 71 degrees throughout most of the area, with a warmer current of 73 to 74 degree area 12 to 15 miles offshore of San Jose del Cabo.

As the waters on the local fishing grounds warmed a few degrees in the past ten days, this apparently helped improve the all around fishing action. Definitely the most talked about bite has been the yellowfin tuna out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina, which were now schooling on the Inner Gordo Banks. Word spread quickly as charters were catching an average of two to six tuna per morning while drift fishing with live and dead bait. With as many as fifty charter boats congregating on this spot it made for heavy pressure and the yellowfin were finicky. Anglers using lighter leaders of 30 to 40 lb. reported the best success. As much bait as possible was needed to help entice these fish into a feeding frenzy where they could be fooled into striking the hooked bait. With limited supplies of sardinas and high demand, this made for a bait supply situation, in fact San Jose del Cabo charters were traveling some twenty miles north , near Vinormama, in order to obtain limited amounts of sardinas. But these baitfish were necessary in order to catch these tuna, which were averaging in weight from 15 to 50 pounds, with larger species to over one hundred pounds seen feeding in recent days.

Could be time to break out some heavier tackle and try chunk fishing with cut skipjack, one pangero told a story of hooking into a monster tuna on Thursday while chumming and chunking with fresh skipjack, I guess the gear he was using was simply not stout enough and they never had a chance at slowing the cow.

In recent days there were increased numbers of striped marlin encountered, everyday there were handful of these billfish hooked into while anglers were targeting the tuna with sardinas, these fish ranged from 100 to 120 lb. One incredible catch of an 80 pound wahoo was accounted for on Thursday by an angler using only a sardina for bait and mono leader, no wire, this also occurred on the Inner Gordo Bank.

Earlier in the week there was good action found for yellowtail, amberjack and a few other bottom species. The area of Cardon was consistent for anglers using sardinas and yo-yo jigs in depths ranging from 120 to 160 feet. The amberjack were mostly in the 15 to 25 pound class, yellowtail average 6 to 10 pounds, but almost every day we saw a one or two thirty pound plus class yellowtail mixed in with the smaller schoolies. Strong currents continue to make bottom fishing a difficult and at times unpractical option, as at times it became so swift over these rock piles that it was not easy to reach bottom and then even harder to avoid snagging rocks and losing gear.

The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 75 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 6 mako shark, 8 dorado,166 yellowfin tuna, 22 Mexican bonito, 32 sierra, 18 roosterfish, 5 wahoo, 28 huachinago, 28 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 142 yellowtail and 15 yellow snapper.

Good fishing, Eric