September 22, 2012
Anglers –
There has been mixed crowds of anglers, surfers and just normal traveling sun worshipping tourists enjoying the clear tropical weather for the past week. The area is now lush green due to all of the recent rainfall, humidity is high, but there a hint of fall in the air now, as early mornings are cooler. Swells are moderate, there was very little wind at all, just a slight afternoon breeze. There is a new low pressure system forming at this time, should become Tropical Storm Miriam in the new few days, this is projected to follow a path off to the west, keeping it clear of any land. Ocean clarity has cleared up now along the coast, this is where it had been clouded by the entire desert run off. Blue water has been found within several miles of shore and water temperatures are averaging 88 degrees throughout most of the region.
The most exciting news of the week was on Wednesday morning, this is when a crew aboard the 61 ft. “EL Suertudo” brought in a new world record sized yellowfin tuna to Cabo San Lucas. The record catch was weighed in on two different scales, 421 lb. and 427 lb. respectably, after certification the final weight will be listed, either way this fish appears to be shoe in for the new all-tackle IGFA record. Congratulations go out to angler Guy Yocom, from Dana Point, Ca. and to the rest of his crew aboard his yacht, this is an unbelievable accomplishment. These anglers were specifically targeting big yellowfin tuna and appear to have also qualified for the “Hook a Million”, one million dollar prize sponsored by Mustad Hook Company for any new world record tuna caught worldwide before the end of September, 2012, this definitely added to their motivation of going the extra miles to the fishing grounds where the giants lurk.
Conditions are really shaping up nice now, as weather has settled, each day the water is looking better, there is an abundance of baitfish scattered throughout the area, more skipjack than anything else. Caballito are being found near the marina jetty and sardinas are now being netted along the shoreline, near Palmilla and north towards Vinorama.
For the panga fleets departing out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina they have encountered more consistent action near Iman Bank and north to Vinorama, though the bite has been up and down and below local late summer standards. There has been a recent trend of the better action coming later in the day. Mort common catches were dorado or yellowfin tuna, the majority of the fish ranged 10 to 20 pounds, a few larger specimens mixed in. Live sardinas was the best bet for this bite. There are big yellowfin on the Gordo Banks, but they have proved very elusive, at times they were seen feeding in chum lines, but they did not want to bite baited hooks. At least one tuna close to 200 lb. was accounted for this week, it was landed on an afternoon private charter. Tuna often become spooky on these shallow banks in clear water, but they can also all of a sudden decide to bite just like that on any given day, pressure is light now and we are encouraged to see this larger grade of tuna now present on the local grounds.
A few sailfish and striped marlin found on these same grounds, but no big numbers, basically just incidental catches. As well as a few wahoo now being seen free swimming around drifting boats, but several were landed in recent days, so we expect something to happen with these speedy fish to become more active as fall weather transitions.
Not much bottom action found now, besides dropping larger baits over structure for a chance at winning the battle against a dogtooth snapper. Should be the time we hear about some grouper as well and we also usually expect to see some amberjack in the mix. Just as we have seen now for the last few seasons, we heard about a handful of nice sized roosterfish being hooked into further offshore over the rocky high spots, this is out of their normal feeding zone close to shore, I suppose they are adapting to where they can find sustainable food supply.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 61 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 7 amberjack, 8 dogtooth snapper, 12 cabrilla, 137 dorado, 78 yellowfin tuna, 43 various pargo species and 4 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric