May 4, 2013
Anglers –
Crowds of tourists are lighter than normal for the this spring season, the all around climate has been ideal, with high temperatures in the 80s, moderate winds, favorable offshore conditions, with a variety of gamefish being found, this is the time of year when on any given day the unexpected can happen. Ocean water temperatures are ranging from a chilly 65 degrees on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, up to 74/75 degrees in the direction of San Jose del Cabo. The more consistent fishing action is now being found in the direction of the warmer currents.
Baitfish are being netted in the marina channel entrance, mainly caballito, but there is a mix of jurelito and moonfish, on the offshore fishing grounds there were options for chihuil, skipjack and bolito. Still no signs of finding supplies of sardinas.
Anglers found that rapidly changing conditions was causing the action to change from day to day. There had been the great yellowtail bite throughout the area, especially for the larger fish on the Gordo Banks, then water temps warmed up last week and this bite came to a standstill. To take up the slack the wahoo went on a good bite on the grounds north of Punta Gorda, though this only lasted for a couple of days because ocean conditions turned over some and the news got out that the wahoo were hitting and the whole fleet was putting pressure on that area, we all know that the ‘hoo can become very elusive with increased pressure. On the days that the wahoo were active some charters landed as many as five fish up to 50 pounds, average size was 20 to 30 lb. They were striking on the normal high speed trolling lures, Rapalas, Yo-zuris and skirted lead or jet heads. Some ‘hoo also were striking on trap rigged caballito or ballyhoo.
Despite this up and down action the striped marlin bite has remained steady for very nice sized fish up to 150 lb. The billfish action was now shifting further to the north, currently concentrated off of Vinormama. Good numbers of marlin were in this area and could be encountered tailing on the surface and were striking trolled baits and lures. Many charters were accounting were multiple fish days, though at times the marlin would be spotted and presented baits and showed no interest at all. There has been an abundance of squid in the same region, which the stripers have been gorging on, also the passing of the full moon can cause different feeding scenarios.
We have seen a few more dorado appearing with the warmer water, some charters finding several fish, ranging up to 30 pounds, while others never reported seeing any dorado, still hit or miss for these fish, though we do expect to see increased numbers as the water continues to warm. Late spring, early summer, is when we normally see some of the largest bull dorado of the year appear on the local grounds. No yellowfin tuna action being reported locally, the way conditions are really shaping up favorably, we would expect to hear reports of migrating porpoise traveling offshore and holding tuna schools, the month of May is when we typically see this pattern.
There are still some yellowtail in the area and a few were hooked into the past couple of days while drifting baits deep over the high spots, all were nice sized, 20 to 35 lb., though no big numbers like the previous week. A handful of red snapper were hooked into as well, both on live baits and on yo-yo jigs. So far this season has not produced much for anglers jigging the rock piles, perhaps the month of May will show improved yo-yo action. Always a fun way to target bottomfish, jigging can produce quality action when the fish do decide to strike on the jigs, normally early in the day is best.
Roosterfish action was very good for this early in the season, anglers were hooking into good numbers of these prized fighting gamefish while trolling live caballito along the shoreline, nicer sized fish, some up in the 25 lb. to 30 lb. class.
Despite this now being the very tail end of the whale migration season, we were still seeing quite a few numbers of humpback whales in the area, surely they will be trying to catch up with the main northern migration soon.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 88 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 46 striped marlin, 38 wahoo, 14 yellowtail, 8 amberjack, 42 dorado,12 sierra, 15 red snapper (huachinango), 25 bonito, 13 cabrilla, 42 roosterfish, 35 jack crevalle and 5 mako shark.
Good Fishing, Eric