March 7, 2021

As we are now only a couple of weeks away from official start of the spring season, we are already starting to feel the transitional warming trend develop and days are progressively lengthening. Local daylight light savings time will change on April 4, one hour ahead. As vaccinations are becoming more obtainable we have noticed an increase of persons making reservations to visit during the coming months, we expect it will be a slow process, but at least things appear to be swinging in the right direction.

This week started out wild, as a major wind front from the north swept through all of Baja, this had been forecast, they were not wrong, as gusts to 30 mph plus picked up Sunday night, creating dangerous ocean conditions and both local ports were closed to all navigation, included all sportfishing. By Monday afternoon the front had crazily passed on through and conditions settled down quickly, enabling port authorities to reopen activities starting later than same day.

With the conditions still persisting of on and off winds, ocean turned greenish and cooler, average water temperature in the 68 to 70 degree range, very slight swell, but there have been strong currents pushing through on the fishing grounds. Anglers found a mix of baitfish available in the marina area, caballito and a couple varieties of sardinas in sporadic numbers.

With minimal numbers of charters even going out recently, most have been fishing Chileno, Palmilla, Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama, spread out trying different areas. The better inshore action was being found towards the south, mainly for sierra, while the more productive bottom action was to the north, when weather permitted. Anglers were using yo-yo jigs and various baits while drift fishing over rocky high spots, more often in depths ranging 120 to 200 ft. There were more numbers of bonito on certain deeper grounds, especially earlier in the day. Swift currents made fishing more challenging, but with persistence some quality species such as yellowtail, amberjack, leopard grouper and red snapper were accounted for, some of these to over 30 lb. The more exotic species for the week was a golden jack, which are not very common in recent years as well as another golden cabrilla.

Did not hear of any dorado found recently, there were reports of a few stray wahoo being seen as well as a handful of yellowfin tuna, smaller fish hanging on same high spots as were the bottom species. No billfish seen on local grounds either, the green water not to their liking. We did hear of scattered striped marlin action from Cabo San Lucas. We expect that as soon as the ocean clears and warms up, as daytime temperatures increase, winds settle, that the all-around fishing action will improve significantly.

Good fishing, Eric

February 28, 2021

The month of February is finally over, it definitely lived up to its reputation of being unpredictable, we saw a little bit of everything these past few weeks. Glad that it is past, we are feeling a slight warming trend as spring time nears, ocean temperature now in the 68 degree range, as north winds continue to pick up in cycles. Clarity of water is also up and down, this is how it often is during this time frame. Still only limited numbers of tourists arriving, even less anglers, though we anticipate times will improve, as many people in the U.S. and elsewhere now have had their Covid 19 vaccinations or will be having them soon and then will be more open for making travel plans.

Most fishing action now has taken place from Chileno, Palmilla, Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. Bait netters are having trouble finding supplies of sardinas, the main bait source has been caballito, a lot of yo-yo style jig fishing going on now.

Drift fishing over the rocky grounds, more often in 120 to 200 feet of water, with available bait, but more so on yo-yo jigs. Main catch by far has been the bonito, some of them up to 8 lb., hitting best earlier in the morning. Same areas were producing a variety of grouper, snapper, cabrilla, yellowtail and amberjack, limited numbers, but quality fish. Some charters would have up to three four yellowtail, sizes up to 25 lb., majority of these yellows came from areas further north near Vinorama.

Closer to shore anglers found sierra, pargo and triggerfish. Heard a couple of reports of seeing dorado or wahoo, uncommon to see these gamefish in such cold water.

No local billfish bite being reported, as conditions improve we expect to see more striped marlin move in. We did hear of a couple reports of swordfish sightings from sportfishers searching further offshore.

A handful of smaller sized yellowfin tuna were brought in, fishing the same local grounds, also there were sightings of much larger yellowfin, up to 150 lb., coming up for a quick showing on the surface and then disappearing even quicker, they are in the area, though cold off colored water and full moon does not help.

Good fishing, Eric

February 21, 2021

This month is definitely living up to its reputation for being unpredictable, this whole season we have seen more relentless north winds than usual, hard to find a reliable forecast and normal patterns have not followed the standard this year. As we still deal with very light tourism, staying optimistic that soon the situation will improve. We felt another cool trend this week, of course nothing even comparable as they felt in Texas, we did have mostly sunny skies, high temperatures averaging 75 degrees and the morning lows in the mid-50s. Ocean temperature was again cooler, down into the 67 to 70 degree range. The bait was a bit scarcer now, netters were working harder to find the scattered schools of sardinas and few caballito.

The week started out difficult due to windy conditions, though over the weekend winds laid down and the ocean was very comfortable, though quite cool for this area. Charters were searching the grounds from Chileno, Palmilla, Gordo Banks and north towards San Luis. Most consistent action was found while working the bottom structure, with the cold water there was not much surface activity found, as dorado, tuna, wahoo and marlin seem to have been hiding out, waiting for warmer currents to move back in. This will be transition period coming up, as the days progressively become longer and warmer once again.

The bonito were by far the most numerous species found, striking mainly on yo-yo style jigs, averaging 3 to 5 lb. a little smaller than they often run, but these fish are feisty fighters and good eating, prepared just as you would the yellowfin tuna. Despite not seeing any significant numbers of other species, we did see a wide variety of structure species show up on the fillet tables. We saw yellowtail, amberjack, red snapper, yellow snapper, grouper, sheepshead, bluefin trevally (fairly rare in local waters), Pacific tilefish, triggerfish, roosterfish, sierra, black skipjack, spotted rose snapper and even a couple of wahoo and dorado earlier in the week that were out of place in the cold water.

Besides the one Bluefin trevally we saw, there was also a 50 lb. class roosterfish landed and released from a super panga trolling near the marina jetty area, the California sheepshead was also a fairly unusual catch. Pelagic red crabs are starting to appear on the local high spots, when conditions are just right these small crustaceans will drift to the surface, can be scooped up and used for snapper bait, the commercial fleets goes wild when they see these red crabs, as they see big dollar signs and can make great profits when it all comes together.

Still plenty of whales to keep sightseers happy, as well as some turtles, sea lions and manta rays.

Good fishing, Eric