San Jose del Cabo Weather Link

Happy New Years!

January 1, 2011

Anglers –

As 2010 comes to a close, large crowds of tourists arrived, the majority of which were on family Holiday vacations, enjoying their visit to Los Cabos and taking advantage of pleasant winter time weather conditions. Throughout the week days were mostly sunny, with high temperatures up to 75 degrees, moderate winds and all around enjoyable time for the vast variety of available outdoor activities.

We want to thank everyone who has traveled to our destination this past year, there was an increase in tourism and this support helped the region rebound some from the global economical crisis. We all anticipate that the new year of 2011 will bring even improved times for all, with more people traveling to this Southern Baja paradise.

Water temperatures continue to be on a cooling trend, now averaging 69 to 72 degrees through most of the region. Fluctuating strong currents have created areas of greener murky waters, particularly closer to shore, this is where anglers found a wide variety of small to medium sized fish within a mile of the beaches. Schools of sardina baitfish were congregated off rocky points, being netted by commercial pangero, most abundant off of the Palmilla Point this past week. Despite the increased Holiday pressure supplies of these baitfish held up well through the week. Caballito were also available for anglers wishing to obtain larger live baits.

Local San Jose panga fleets were fishing areas from Palimlla, Sana Maria, Punta Gorda, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. Early in the period the most consistent action was found off of Palmilla, where anglers found great variety, but no species was more abundant or aggressive than the black skipjack, ranging to over ten pounds, dominating the bite, there were yellowfin tuna mixed in, though hard for them to compete with the skipjack. With persistence a number of charters were able to account for 5 to 10 yellowfin per morning, weights ranging 12 to 20 pounds. A mix of pargo, yellowtail, amberjack, bonito, dorado, hammerhead shark, jack crevalle, sierra and roosterfish were found nearby. Sierra and roosterfish were the highlight close off the beaches, trolling live bait was the best bet to catch these fish that were found schooling and weighed from 2 to 12 pounds, a handful of roosterfish up to 20 pounds were caught and released.

Early in the day anglers did find some success while working yo-yo iron jigs off of the rock piles, grouper to 45 pounds, amberjack and a few yellowtail were landed. The cooler water conditions should now attract more of these jacks, as this is the

environment they prefer. Whales are arriving now on their annual winter migration and will be present in local waters for the next few months.

Larger yellowfin tuna, to 100 pounds plus, were seen breezing in schools on the Outer Gordo Banks, but showed no interest at all in striking on any offerings anglers presented. The few bottom species that were caught off of these same fishing grounds were found to be gorged with pelagic red crabs, this means that the most likely scenario is that these larger tuna also now have developed a taste specifically for these crabs and nothing else, feeding down deep, only breezing the surface while digesting the small crustaceans.

Dorado were encountered in small schools, most often closer to shore where schooling baitfish were found and under circling frigate birds. Striking best on bait and ranging in sizes from 5 to 25 pounds, some boats catching as many as four to six dorado, the majority under ten pounds, good time to remember to release these juvenile sized fish.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 114 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 3 striped marlin, 6 hammerhead shark, 342 sierra, 94 roosterfish, 1 wahoo,

65 yellowtail, 144 dorado, 240 yellowfin tuna, 1,650, black skipjack, 18 bonito, 15 amberjack, 18 cabrilla and 34 pargo.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Another Christmas Season has crept up on us, this past week everyone has been very busy preparing for family events. Weather conditions were extremely harsh across the United States, freezing snow and ice, to flooding rains on the West Coast. Meanwhile in Los Cabos the temperatures have cooled with the official start of winter, but skies remain mostly sunny and high temperatures are reaching into the upper 70s, though early mornings were down in the mid 50s, crispy desert chill, visitors do need to remember their jackets.

Water conditions changed dramatically this past week, dropping off from an average of 75/76 degrees down to a low of 69 degrees, before now rebounding up to 72 degrees. Currents were strong and pushed in greener cooler water which scattered gamefish accordingly. The great bite for quality sized yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks came to a complete halt , as most charters were now concentrating closer to shore for a mix of sierra and other reef dwellers. Some yellowfin were being found further offshore moving with porpoise, but this was some 15 to 25 miles offshore and it was hit or miss for mostly smaller sized tuna. Striped marlin action was very slow as well, with the baitfish scattered the marlin seem to be holding down deep and not concentrated on any spot.

The wind has been light to moderate recently and anglers enjoyed comfortable conditions for the most part. Supplies of sardinas have rebounded some, as there is now less pressure from light crowds, schools of these baitfish have now been located off the local beaches from Punta Gorda to Palmilla and Chileno, most days the bait was plentiful and of good size. Best all around action in recent days was found directly off of Palmilla Point, using a mix of yo-yo’s, rapalas and sardinas anglers were finding quite a variety fo species, not large fish, but fun action on lighter tackle. There were huge schools of skipjack up to 10 pounds, mixed in there were some finicky yellowfin tuna that would disappear as fast as they would first come up, showing best a bit later in the morning, preferring the live bait, some did hit on lures as well. These tuna weighed 10 to 20 pounds, some boats having as many as 6 to 10 fish. A few medium sized dorado were also roaming this inshore area and off the bottom there were some fire cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack and snapper, most of these in the 5 to 10 pound range. Sierra were now moving in along the entire coastline, concentrated near areas holding baitfish, some of these sierra were larger 5 to 8 pound fish.

So we are now moving into our normal winter time type fishing, there can be good variety, typically the fish are not as large as in warmer months, but there can be many types of great eating species accounted for. We look for action to improve inshore, more yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin action should improve steadily offshore.

The year of 2010 turned out to be what most anglers would have to say is World Class. There were significant numbers of yellowin tuna brought in that were in the cow and super cow categories and the local bite for black and blue marlin was perhaps the best it has been for a dozen years. Wahoo action was spread out through the entire calendar year, not just in the fall when they normally bite most consistently. La Playita fleets found epic bottom action while drift fishing with Pacific moonfish, landing monster sized amberjack and dogtooth snapper on a fairly regular basis. At a point midsummer anglers found these same 20 to 70 pound fish directly off of the marina channel entrance, mainly locals capitalized on this opportunity during the late afternoon hours during the long days of July.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 21 dorado, 3 wahoo, 112 yellowfin tuna, 22 pargo, 8 cabrilla, 28 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 18 bonito, 188 black skipjack and 144 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 18, 2010

The official start of the winter season is next week, while much of the United States is enduring freezing temperatures the light crowds of tourists now visiting the Los Cabos area have been enjoying clear sunny skies with highs near 80 degrees. Cooler marine moisture dropped early morning into the mid 50s. Water temperatures are progressively cooling now ranging from 70 to 76 throughout the region. Greener cooler currents are pushing in a southern direction from Vinorama. The Gordo Banks area has had the most favorable conditions in recent days and this is where much of the sport fishing fleet has been concentrated.

With the lighter crowds this past week, this help the supply and demand situation for the available bait. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches by the commercial netters, also on most days there has been fresh dead brined sardinas available at the dock early in the a.m. Mackerel and caballito have been very limited.

Last year during this same time frame anglers were catching quality sized yellowfin tuna and that is also what is happening this past week. Tuna to over 200 pounds are being hooked into while drift fishing on the Gordo Banks. Average yellowfin was in the 30 to 80 pound class, but much larger fish are on these same fishing grounds, at least two tuna over 200 pounds were taken in the past several days. Using a combination of live and dead sardinas proved most productive, leaders of 40 to 60 were preferred, as these fish were shy do to all of the natural food sources now in the area, due to these light leaders many of the larger fish were lost. The action for the smaller grade of yellowfin off of Iman and Punta Gorda has tapered off since a good start beginning the week. Now the best action has definitely been around the Inner Gordo Bank. Late week it was common for charter to have two or three tuna in the 70 to 90 pound class per morning.

Dorado were showing up in the daily fish counts more frequently, more of these fish were found trolling within a couple miles of shore and many anglers found their two fish limit in a hurry, with sizes averaging 10 to 20 pounds.

Wahoo were becoming more scattered in the cooling waters, each day a few of these fish were being landed, most of them from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, with sardinas and yo-yo jigs accounting for the majority. We did hear of an occasional wahoo striking on Rapala or skirted lure as well.

Early this last week a couple of black marlin were hooked into while slow trolling live chihuil on the Gordo Banks, on estimated 350 pound black was lost after a three hour battle by a group of anglers on the super panga “Killer II” and another black that was hooked up at the same time was landed by local pangero Hugo Pino, it weighed in the 450 pound range. The lack of mackerel locally made it tough to find any concentrations of striped marlin, only some fish here and there. A couple of larger sharks seen, mako and one tiger were seen on tuna grounds, several hooked fish were bitten by sharks and there was also a very large sea lion that was a major nuisance.

Sierra and smaller sized roosterfish were moving inshore in greater concentrations, this should produce consistent light tackle action for the coming months.

Limited action reported off the bottom, a few amberjack, pargo and cabrilla, current has been swift, this makes it that more difficult to work the bottom spots. 

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 51 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 5 striped marlín, 112 dorado, 16 wahoo, 139 yellowfin tuna, 16 pargo, 12 cabrilla, 9 amberjack, 26 roosterfish and 24 sierra.