December 11, 2010

Los Cabos is greeting visitors with warm sunny skies, this while much of the United States is enduring freezing early winter temperatures. Daytime highs in Cabo were near 80 degrees, with lows in the upper 50s. Breezes were moderate and blew prominently from the north, this kept ocean conditions comfortable for anglers out of San Jose del Cabo. Water temperature were slowly dropping, now averaging a still favorable 74 to 76 degrees through much of the Southern Baja Region.

There was a sharp decline in the numbers of tourists arriving in recent days, this can be expected, as people have other priorities and are now gearing up for Christmas. More whales are migrate in to local coastal waters, as these mammals arrive to enjoy the sub tropic conditions for the next several months. For the anglers that were here to fish, they found the fishing action to be a bit more spotty and scattered, but with persistence and patience there was a variety of quality game fish found on the local fishing grounds. The majority of the action was found from Chileno to Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank.

The bait situation was limited, on most days there were caballito and sardinas available. Schools of sardinas were found close to shore off of Palmilla and towards Vinorama, though they varied in size and quantity. Obtaining the sardinas was necessary for targeting the yellowfin tuna that were schooling close to shore off of Chileno and Punta Gorda, these fish ranged up to 30 pounds and fly lining with sardinas was most successful. There was a larger grade of yellowfin holding on the Gordo Banks, most of these tuna ranged in the 30 to 60 pound class, tuna to over100 pounds were landed in recent days, and larger fish were seen at times breaking the surface. The fish seemed a bit finicky due to all of the natural food fish now on these fishing grounds. Using lighter fluorocarbon leaders, with combinations of live and dead baits did result in hook ups. You had to put in a good effort, but many charters did have two or more fish in their box.

Dorado became more scarce again this past week, only an occasional do-do encountered, more of them were found within a couple of miles to shore and weighed less than 20 pounds.. Wahoo action slowed as well, not many were hooked on trolled lures, but slow trolling with various baits did result in some scattered action, some wahoo were also striking on chrome patterned yo-yo style jigs, this while anglers were targeting yellowfin tuna and chumming with their limited supply of bait. Recently it has paid off to purchase extra bait.

Bottom fishing produced a mix of cabrilla, rainbow runners, pargo and amberjack, though no big numbers, strong currents were running on and off, hard to always find favorable conditions to drift over the rock piles. A handful of yellowtail were landed by the La Playita fleet, so we should see more of these jacks arriving with the cooler waters.

Anglers have been starting to troll coastal stretches and are finding some smaller sized roosterfish, jack crevalle and sierra, most of these fish were hooked on sardinas and weighed ten pounds or less, can be fun action for children. Sierra were schooling off of the San Jose hotel zone and have been striking well on hoochies or rapalas early in the morning.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 65 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 1 black marlin, 19 wahoo, 136 yellowfin tuna, 35 dorado, 9 amberjack, 4 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 2 yellowtail, 18 rainbow runner, 28 roosterfish and 38 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

December 4, 2010

The sunny weather in the Los Cabos area continues to attract good numbers of anglers which have been targeting various gamefish that are now available on the local fishing ground. Yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and striped marlin remain the higher priority target species now. The ocean water temperature has dropped down into the mid 70 range, 74 to 76 degrees throughout much of the region. Winds became more of a factor this past week, on Monday the northerly’s were strong and actually most of the fleet from launching that day, since the winds have tapered off and conditions are settling back down. Clean water is being found within a couple miles of shore, the majority of the fleets are fishing from Chileno to Iman Bank.

Carnaderos are working overtime in order to find minimal supplies of sardinas, most of these baitfish schools are now found in the direction of Vinorama. Caballito, moonfish and mackerel have been available some days as well.

The week started off with wind and cooler weather conditions, this made fishing more difficult, overall fish counts were down. Though there were some quality catches accounted for, most charters had 2 or 3, up to 10 fish in combination. Yellowfin tuna were most consistent near Iman and also close to shore off of Punta Gorda, drift fishing with sardinas was the ticket, either dead or alive. These tuna averaged up to 20 pounds, at times would become shy, seen on the surface, but finicky. A larger grade of yellowfin were holding on the Gordo Banks, this action became less consistent during this recent cold front and with the lack of sufficient supplies of sardinas for chumming. Most of the fish that were hooked into on the banks were in the 30 to 60 pound size.

Anglers were reporting some larger sized dorado in recent days, not only smaller juveniles, several dorado over 20 pounds were landed out of the La Playita panga area. They were striking on trolled lures, as well as on various baits, much of this action was found close to shore, from La Playita to Punta Gorda, inshore baitfish are attracting more game fish into this stretch.

The striped marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo had become wide open late last week, but now the mackerel schools have been scattered by shrimp trawlers and we will wait for more mackerel to move back in. Stripers are still being found in limited numbers spread throughout the area, much of this action is found within five miles of shore.

Off the bottom anglers found that currents have slacked and more opportunities will be open with cooler waters increasingly favorable to certain structure dwelling fish species. Yellowtail, snapper, bonito, sierra, etc… A handful of dogtooth snapper and amberjack were striking baits off of the high spots, some of them in the 30 to 40 pound class.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 104 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 17 wahoo, 210 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 13 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 16 bonito, 8 roosterfish and 18 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric

November 27, 2010

We hope everyone has enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday, as we now wind down this fall season and gear up for wintertime events. The Los Cabos area has remained busy through this past week, with many anglers visiting and taking advantage of the various offshore options now available. Days have been mostly clear and sunny, breezes from the north were moderate and ocean conditions were acceptable, clean warm water was found within a mile of shore, currents have been swift much of the time, with water temperatures now averaging 77 to 79 degrees. Ideal time for targeting yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and other popular species, still a chance at hooking into a late season black or blue marlin, as we now see increasing numbers of striped marlin moving into local waters.

There have been reports of mackerel and sardinetas being found locally, this will open up options and certain bring in more dorado, as well as striped marlin. Last weekend a local La Playita panga was fishing from a 22 ft. panga near the Iman Bank when he hooking into a large black marlin that he finally landed some five hours later, this fish was estimated to weigh in the 600 to 650 pound range. Striped marlin were moving closer to Cabo San Lucas and off of San Jose del Cabo, where on Thursday local fleets found excellent action within five miles of shore.

The most common fish now being targeted out of the San Jose del Cabo area has been the yellowfin tuna, wahoo and now increasing numbers of dorado. Action has ranged mainly in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, from the Gordo Banks to La Fortuna and Iman Bank. There has been quality action found in the direction of Palimlla to Chileno as well, a mix of the same species. Consistent action was found within a few miles of shore. Trolling Rapalas, skirted lead heads, feathers and various baits have been used in combination with different baitfish to find success.

Chihuil baitfish are now being caught on the fishing grounds and used as trolling baits, particularly for wahoo, which continue to provide good action off of the spots to the north of Punta Gorda. Last weekend the La Playita Wahoo Tournament was a success, though it was a bit breezy that day, anglers participating on close to 70 teams accounted for about 50 total wahoo, largest jackpot fish was caught by Bob Smith of Minerva’s Tackle, C.S.L. A monster 81 pound wahoo that hit on a rigged ballyhoo near the Cardon area, Bob was fishing from a local 22 ft. La Playita panga, congratulations on the trophy fish!

Supplies of sardinas became more scattered towards the north and pangeros were having difficulty to find sufficient supplies every day, but good news is the past couple of days the situation seemed to be on an improving trend, along with live sardinas there were options of dead brined ballyhoo and sardina.

Yellowfin tuna were striking best of sardinas, either live or dead. Larger grade of tuna were holding on t he Gordo Banks, often hard to entice, finicky, but definitely in the area, largest fish this past week ranged upwards of 200 pounds, many other fish were in the 90 to 165 lb. range, also many stories of extended battles resulting in lost hook ups, since the yellowin have been more shy, anglers opted for lighter weight leaders and often ended up losing out on larger fish. Schooling porpoise were holding larger sized yellowfin tuna as well, if an angler happened to be in the right place at the correct moment, they could find themselves in for an endurance test.

Yellowfin tuna were schooling on the Iman Bank, most of these fish were in the 10 to 20 pound class, an odd 40 to 50 pound tuna occasionally accounted for, charters from this area normally were accounting for 2 or 3, up to 12 tuna per day.

Other action included significantly more numbers of dorado moving into the area, following migrating schools of baitfish, these fish were found spread throughout the zone, striking on lures and baits, averaging 8 to 15 pounds, with larger bulls mixed in. Not much off the bottom due to stronger currents, a handful of dogtooth snapper, amberjack, cabrilla and of course a few sharks. Sierras are now in daily fish counts, we look for these members of the mackerel family to become active during the next few months and provide anglers with close to shore light tackle options.

The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 184 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 11 striped marlin, 88 wahoo, 515 yellowfin tuna, 162 dorado, 15 amberjack, 6 dogtooth snapper, 23 cabrilla, 16 roosterfish and 34 sierra.

Good Fishing, Eric