January 30, 2022
As much of the United States and Canada are enduring record freezing temperatures, with some blizzard white out conditions, here in Southern Baja we are enjoying ideal winter time climate, clear sunny skies with highs in the mid to upper 70s. The week started off a bit cooler, with unusual low highs of 73 degrees, but through the week the days progressively warmed up and was hard to beat considering we are now in peak winter season. Winds were from the north, but most of the time was not a negative factor, increasing later in the day.
Fleets have been spread out in all directions. This last week we saw cold green water push in from the north, out of the Sea of Cortez, currents as cold as 68 to 70 degrees, green water all the way to Cabo San Lucas. Warmer cleaner water is now found straight out from Cabo San Lucas and on the Pacific, where currents were up to 76 degrees. Bait supplies were mainly for caballito and ballyhoo out of San Jose del Cabo, with some mackerel being found on the Pacific. Still no reports of schooling sardinas, we really miss this bait source, they are so beneficial for the inshore and shallow water structure action.
San Jose del Cabo fleets fished the grounds from Red Hill to Santa Maria and north to Iman and La Fortuna. Main action now with how ocean conditions have been, is for bottom species. Pelagic red crabs have also appeared on local high spots, this always gets the red snapper bite going, it is kind of like a local gold rush, all the commercial pangeros are working overtime, taking advantage while they can.
Sportfishing flees have been catching a mix of red snapper, yellow snapper, bonito, amberjack, Alamo jack, barred pargo, leopard grouper and others, including at least one blackfin jack, a rare species for local waters. Early in the season now for amberjack, though we did see a handful of these hard fighters, as large as 25 lb. Most of this bottom action is for fish in the 5 to 10 lb. range, all great eating.
Only a few smaller sized dorado were accounted for and early in the week there was one 35 lb. wahoo landed in the green water on a yo-yo jig. Closer to shore there were some sierra, limited numbers, again we are missing the preferred sardinas for bait to get this inshore action into a frenzy.
Offshore and in the direction of Cabo San Lucas there were scattered striped marlin reported, though better action for the billfish now has been found on the Pacific.
Good Fishing, Eric