Anglers –
July 23, 2016
With each passing week as we progress deeper into the summer season we are feeling weather patterns become more tropical. For several weeks now there have been a series of tropical storm system developing off of the Southern Mexican coast. Most recently we have seen Tropical Storm Estelle heading off to the west and presently TS Frank and TS Georgette are on the horizon, forecast to strengthen to hurricane status in the coming days, it looks as though Frank will passing closer to the Baja Peninsula, though still far enough to the west to not cause any major impact on land, over the weekend we are expecting to see ocean swells reach up to 3 meters, with increased humidity and chances of scattered thunderstorms are forecast for all of next week, though they are not saying anything about any high winds, which is always a good thing, we do prefer rainfall without wind. Though choppy ocean and possible rain created by passing storms can also force port closures, so we will be monitoring this closely and see what Mother Nature implicates this time around. Crowds continue to be light, which can now be the normal deal through the summer until the fall season arrives.
Ocean currents have cleaned up, blue water is now being found close to shore, water temperatures have ranged from 75 degrees straight offshore of Cabo San Lucas, to as high as 84 degrees off of the San Jose del Cabo to Los Frailes regions. Recent passing of the full moon can throw off the fish activity as well, bait suppliers had to work harder for a more limited resource of caballito, mullet and moonfish, with caballito being the more common bait being offered. Some charters are starting to experiment again with slabs of squid, strip baiting for chances at finding yellowfin tuna.
The all-around action was more scattered this week, offshore charters and private sportfishers have been traveling long distances, up to 40 miles offshore, finding very warm water, clean and blue, but not much sign of fish or bait activity, occasional encounters of porpoise, but only sporadic reports of any yellowfin tuna action associated with traveling porpoise, most common offshore catch was finding a stray striped marlin here or there, more blue marlin are being found off of the East Cape area, which is normal, their season usually starts a month or two before ours does off of San Jose deL Cabo, the month of August will see a shift in the action, we will expect to see a larger grade of yellowfin tuna move closer to shore onto the high spots, this is where their food supplies congregate, this also is the time that we see the largest of pelagic gamefish arrive on these same grounds, the black and blue marlin. In the meantime most of the tuna we are seeing caught now have been smaller sized, up to 20 lb. and limited in numbers, found closer to shore while trolling medium sized lures and some are hitting on the strips of squid, once the school has been located. The yellowfin recently have been encountered from off of Punta Gorda to San Luis Banks, we have also seen commercial tuna purse seiners in this same zone, apparently they are followed these same schools, sure wish they would enforce stricter fishing zones for sportfishing and commercial fisheries, shouldn’t have to be such a conflict.
Inshore action continues to produce roosterfish and jack crevalle action, some roosterfish topped 60 pounds, too many unaware anglers continue to kill these prized gamefish, which are not known for the eating qualities and should always be released as carefully as possible in order to help preserve the future of this prized fishery.
The amberjack and snapper action close to shore has slowed down in recent days now that clarity of the water has cleaned up, where it is like looking into an aquarium, the fish can see the lines and other hardware that much easier, typically this is the time when this inshore action shifts out a bit deeper on to the high spots.
Earlier in the week anglers did well at first light using yo-yo jigs off of such grounds as San Luis Bank, various snapper, bonito, cabrilla, group, amberjack and even yellowtail were accounted for. Finding any wahoo or dorado have not been easy, a few dorado scattered through the inshore to offshore grounds, though most of these have been under ten pounds, no one talking about any big bulls now. Wahoo are in the area, being seen and landed by spear fishermen, but not many have been reportedly striking any lures or baits, these elusive fish can become more finicky in the warmer months.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 66 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 5 striped marlin, 7 dogtooth snapper, 29 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 11 dorado, 4 wahoo,14 amberjack, 2 gulf grouper, 1 broomtail grouper, 13 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 4 pargo colorado, 16 huachinango (red snapper), 15 yellow snapper, 9 barred pargo, 22 jack crevalle, 1 yellowtail, 2 pompano and 36 roosterfish.
Good fishing, Eric