Anglers –
February 11, 2017
This past week we saw moderate crowds of anglers visiting and they were enjoying what felt more like spring time weather patterns, ideal climate now, clear sunny skies with 80 degree temperatures. Lighter winds compared to previous weeks, ocean temperatures were in the 70 to 71 degree range, light swells and water clarity was clean and blue within a couple of miles from shore. Very favorable signs for this early in the season.
Schooling sardinas continue to be found, though the baitfish are now moving further south off of Chileno, they had been near Palmilla. The main fishing action found this week was for yellowfin tuna off of the Cabo San Lucas arches, without sardinas you did not have much of a chance, the bite was on and off, lots of boat pressure after the word got out, this being the best option going on. Also there was the problem with sea lions, tuna were seen in big numbers on the surface, but proved to be very finicky, some days anglers were lucky to catch one fish, other days average catches were up to five or six tuna. Sizes ranged to over 30 lb., average fish more in the 15 to 25 lb. class.
Most charters were opting to fish in the direction of Cabo San Lucas, since this is where the sardinas were being found, very long back tracking run to travel to where the sardinas were and then return back to Iman Bank where yellowfin were also being found. Same situation on Iman, lots of tuna were seen in the area, but getting them to bite was another problem, often they would not want to strike anything until later in the day. Some of the tuna off of these grounds were as large as 45 lb., but anglers were fortunate to land one or two fish. Not much going on off the bottom, an occasional leopard grouper or amberjack. Off of the Santa Maria area there were some smaller sized yellowtail being found, most of these in the 3 to 5 pound range, striking best on sardinas close to shore, similar to where sierra and smaller sized roosterfish were found. There were reports of yellowtail off of the Pacific grounds as well, so this is encouraging news, we are hoping to see some larger sized yellowtail show soon, this is the time of year for these popular gamefish, it has been a few years now since we have seen any significant numbers of these fish.
Still good numbers of whales in the area, by the end of this month these mammals will begin to move back on their northern migration. The way the climate has been recently, it appears that spring will be arriving early this year. Great time to visit Los Cabos, perfect weather and crowds are light.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 65 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 136 yellowfin tuna, 5 dorado, 12 bonito, 14 yellow snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 10 huachinango, 15 misc. pargo, 48 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 15 yellowtail, 4 amberjack and 35 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric