Anglers –
August 12, 2017
It seems that with each passing day the weather is becoming more humid, increasing cloud cover, we have not had any rain recently, but presently we are feeling the remnants of Tropical Storm Franklin which had passed through the Gulf or Mexico and made land fall over Southern Mexico. Forecast are for possible thundershowers over the weekend. Winds have been very moderate, most likely will increase as this latest tropical system passes through and moves off to the west. Swells have been very light, though they are predicted to increase up to five or six feet by the start of this coming week. Ocean water temperatures have been up into the 85/87 degree range.
The main species of gamefish being found now has been yellowfin tuna, areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman Bank have been most productive, though schooling of fish have been found spread out throughout the region as well. Live bait has been limited to some mullet and caballito, also still a chance at obtaining sardinas in limited quantities, this is only because surf conditions have been so light, giving the bait netters a chance to find some scattered schools of the sardinas, also on some days fleets are bringing these baitfish down from areas further towards the East Cape. Using strips of giant squid is now becoming more of an everyday deal. Some chihuil and bolito have been jigged up at times on the offshore grounds and are being used for slow trolling.
The yellowfin tuna are ranging in sizes from small footballs, to over 80 lb. The larger fish have been striking on strips of squid, sardinas or trolled whole baits, on the Inner Gordo Banks and north on the Iman Bank. Bite varied from day to day, some days fish bit early, some days later, overall they proved to be more finicky and line shy, leaders not heavier than 50 lb. were best. The full moon is now waning and these darkening nights should help the bite get back on track. Average catches have ranging from 1 or 2 tuna, up to 10, depending on size and where you happen to be on a given day.
As it commonly occurs in August, it can be hard to find much variety, besides the yellowfin tuna, a few scattered mostly small dorado, as well as a handful of sailfish, an occasional wahoo sighting or missed strike, angler’s did land one 35 lb. wahoo early in the week. Not much off the bottom, strong current has been persistent and this made it even hard to affectively work the bottom, a couple of dogtooth snapper, huachinango, cabrilla, bonito, amberjack and triggerfish rounded out the structure action.
Not many charters fished along the shoreline now, late in the season for this, though we did hear of a few roosterfish being caught and released. Billfish action was limited, though one black marlin of about 360 lb. was landed and another couple of big marlin strikes were lost, also more sailfish moving in with the warmer currents and of course some striped marlin stragglers still hanging in the area, while most of these cooler water marlin have moved towards Northern Baja.
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: 1 black marlin, 3 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 16 dorado, 2 wahoo, 3 amberjack, 3 dogtooth snapper, 12 bonito, 8 yellow snapper, 238 yellowfin tuna, 11 leopard grouper,2 pinto cabrilla, 18 huachinango, 9 roosterfish and 38 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric