Anglers –

December 27, 2014

Winter season has officially started and this past week we witnessed a change in weather patterns, cooler air blowing in from the north, ocean water temperatures dropping to an average of 77 degrees, off colored currents contributed to some scratchy fishing action, even though schooling yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado and striped marlin were seen on local grounds, getting them to bite was another story. Fish became more finicky as water conditions turned over, though this is not such a drastic change that we anticipate not having the action rebound as this latest weather front pass through.

Many families are now visiting for the Holiday Season, though not as many serious anglers at this time, most of them have already visited during the more favorable fall season. Though ocean water temperatures are now on a cooling trend, currents are still warmer than normal for this time frame and we are optimistic that anglers will enjoy great winter time action. At this time there are a wide variety of species in the area, though no particular type of fish are dominating the bite from day to day.

Bait suppliers are netting sardinas now from Red Hill and south towards Chileno, a bit more scattered than they had been, though with patience there have been sufficient supplies. Offshore of San Jose there were now schooling baitfish such as sardineta and a few mackerel moving onto the normal winter grounds. This attracted good numbers of striped marlin, though off colored conditions have scattered this action in recent days.

Yellowfin tuna and various skipjack, as well as some dorado and wahoo are rounding out the action for the majority of charters, no great numbers, but there are some quality catches being accounted for. Most consistent grounds have been from Punta Gorda and towards Vinorama. Though north winds have become a factor on these northern grounds. When the tuna did decide to come up and feed, anglers were able to hook into a handful of these yellowfin, average sizes were in the 10 to 20 lb. class. Same for the dorado and wahoo, most of these fish were less than 25 lb., though we did see one impressive 80 lb. wahoo accounted for, taken on a dead bait of Punta Gorda.

Inshore there were quite a few sierra found, though not many people have been targeting these fish, as there were chances of catching larger more sought after species without having to travel more than a few miles from shore. Bottom action is just starting to show signs of coming to life, one day last week some red crabs were found on the surface, these made great baits for red snapper, but have not been seen again, though some of these fish are striking on yo-yo jigs and other baitfish. Also some amberjack, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito and pargo in the mix. We expect more of these rocky structure species to move into shallower waters, though to really be able to concentrate on this style of fishing you need the weather to cooperate and for the north winds to settle down.

Sea lions continue to be a pesky problem, waiting to ambush anglers hooked fish before they can be brought to gaff. Whales are slow to show in masses so far, we expect to see the larger concentrations of these mammals to appear in the coming weeks.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:13 striped marlin, 48 dorado, 18 wahoo, 14 white skipjack, 124 yellowfin tuna, 22 bonito, 17 amberjack, 64 sierra, 10 roosterfish, 35 misc. pargo/snapper species, 1 island jack, 180 black skipjack and 25 triggerfish.

Good fishing, Eric