May 25, 2013

Anglers –

Time has been passing by rapidly, already it is late May and this is the time of year when crowds of tourists can be as variable as can the daily weather patterns. There were moderate numbers of anglers now in town, also a large presence of surfers taking advantage of the season’s first enduring southern swell. Currents pushed in temperate waters, clean blue water was found within several miles of shore and ocean temperatures

climbed back up into the 75 degree range outside of San Jose del Cabo and areas to the north. The climate has been almost as pleasant as possible, highs in the upper 80s, still a slight chill in the air early in the morning, winds have been very light. Great time to visit before the heat of summer arrives.

The mainstay of the bait supply has been caballito, found inside the marina channel entrance, also a noticeable increase in schooling mullet moving into coastal areas, with higher surf condition we still have not seen any source for live sardinas, though on some days there were limited supplies of fresh brined sardinas available. Schooling bolito and skipjack were found on the offshore grounds, but not always easy to catch and chihuil are even scarcer, only the early birds are able catch some of these baitfish at daybreak over the high spots. With an abundance of food source in the region we anticipate having an extended spring season for striped marlin, roosterfish, dogtooth snapper, amberjack, cabrilla and a variety of other gamefish.

Roosterfish season has got off to an early start and is now in full swing, as these hard fighting members of the jack family are patrolling the shoreline looking to ambush any batfish that is in their path. Most common technique recently has been to slow live caballito, with early morning being the most active period, average sized roosters were 15 to 25 lb. some much larger fish were encountered. Toad sized jack crevalle continue to compete for inshore dominance and we are now seeing the first real consistent bite developing for dogtooth snapper, which are found in very shallow water in late spring, reaching sizes of over fifty pounds, these power horses will test both angler and equipment to the fullest.

In additional to the jacks, roosterfish and dogtooth, other inshore areas produced pompano, pargo colorado, leopard grouper, sierra and amberjack, with one amber weighed in at 73 pounds. Once again anglers were slow trolling with the available larger sized baits over the shallow rocky structure, this proved to be the most successful method. There are yellowtail still holding on the deeper reefs, off of Palmilla and on the Gordo Banks, finding the right combination of a slack current and preferred bait choice has been a game of chance. The handful of yellow that were accounted for were in the 20 to 30 lb. class.

Billfish bite became more scattered and even when the striped marlin were found, often they were not interested in biting the hook, other reports of multiple marlin catch and release days were reported, a matter of being in the precise spot with the right offerings. Dorado continued to show up in small numbers, some smaller sized fish mixed in with some larger bulls, found on offshore marlin grounds as well as closer to shore at times. No wahoo or yellowfin tuna action reported, the way conditions are shaping up, anything could happen any day.

The combined local panga fleets launching from La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 71 charters this past week and anglers reported a fish count of:

11 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 mako shark, 19 yellowtail, 38 amberjack, 22 huachinango, 28 cabrilla, 34 bonito, 18 dorado, 26 sierra, 35 pompano, 18 dogtooth snapper, 30 jack crevalle and 138 roosterfish.

Good fishing, Eric