March 22, 2014
Anglers –

The Spring season has now officially begun, weather conditions have been hard to beat, warm and sunny skies, with high temperatures near 80 degrees. Winds have been swirling now for the past week, first from the north and then out of the south, this has created some choppy ocean conditions at times. Ocean temperatures have averaged from 71 on the Pacific, up to 74 degrees off of San Jose del Cabo.

This is now peak time for spring break vacations, scores of families and hundreds are college students are arriving in the Los Cabos area, though this past week we did not see as many anglers, of course windy conditions certainly convinced some people to change plans. With the passing of the latest full moon we saw the offshore action for striped marlin slow way down, these fish were now more scattered and not being seen in any numbers.

The majority of the dorado being encountered recently were found closer to shore, this is where concentrations of half beaks (ballyhoo) were schooling. Trolling various baitfish was the most successful for these gamefish, though some anglers did report catching dorado on lures as well. Sizes were averaging 5 to 15 pounds, with a handful of larger specimens accounted for. Most charters were fortunate to average about one dorado per day.

No action on yellowfin tuna being reported, only a few fish reported, mixed in with bonito off the high spots from Iman to San Luis Banks, Yellowfin have been holding in this region through the winter, though with the lack of sardinas to entice them, we have not seen any consistent action on these tuna since the Fall. The only live baitfish that has been plentiful has been caballito, rigging fresh dead ballyhoo has been another option.

Off of the high spots, where anglers were jigging over the structure, bonito was the most common species being landed; these feisty fighters were running in the 4 to 8 pound class. Only an occasional amberjack or yellowtail is being hooked into, most of these striking on yo-yo style jigs and ranged from 20 to 35 pounds. There are big yellowtails now on the Outer Gordo Banks, lots of bonito on these same grounds, striking on the iron jigs, drifting live caballito down deep can be productive for the big yellows, though a problem has been there are many hammerhead sharks lurking down deep on these grounds, hard to stay away from them while trying for the jacks. These rock piles also produced some cabrilla and snapper, though that massive red snapper run during the red crab bloom of previous week has not redeveloped, need these winds to reside for that to happen. We are in transition time now, still unpredictable as to what can happen with the weather conditions from day to day.

With the water temperatures holding a bit warmer than normal, baitfish migrations are off and so are typically gamefish patterns. Wahoo have been found though the winter, they are still being hooked into practically daily, though a bit sporadic, most of this action was reported on the inshore grounds from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, water depths from 100 to 150 ft., strong winds last week turned over this water some and anglers found varied success.

We are still seeing numerous whales, though surely these will be the final weeks of this activity, many of these mammals have already begun their northern migration.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 5 wahoo, 2 yellowfin tuna, 9 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 395 bonito, 6 jack crevalle, 7 sierra, 42 dorado, 24 roosterfish, 18 cabrilla and 12 hammerhead sharks (released).

Good fishing, Eric