Yellowfin Tuna Show on Local Grounds ~ August 14, 2022

August 14, 2022  

We continue to feel tropical weather patterns in the Los Cabos area. At this time there is another tropical depression passing off to the west of the Peninsula, only impact we felt locally is some more cloud cover and increased humidity, no rain to speak of except early in the week some isolated rain showers near Cabo San Lucas. Ocean swells have been moderate and winds have not been much of a factor this past week. Ocean water temperature has been reaching the upper 80s, also now we are just past the full moon phase, which can often change fish feeding patterns during the daytime.

Bait options have been similar, with caballito found inside marina channel and sardinas along the beach stretch just to the north of marina entrance. Ballyhoo and slabs of squid were another option, as were looking for bolito schools on the offshore grounds. Center of activity this past week was near the Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank areas. This is where yellowfin tuna are now schooling, many fish seen boiling on the surface, but actually getting these finicky fish to strike was difficult. Though with persistence and patience everyday some of these yellowfin are being hooked up, some charters landing as many as three.

Best choice of bait seemed to be sardina, while drift fishing, live and dead bait both worked. Anglers were going down to 30 lb. and 40 lb. leaders to help entice bites, using any lighter was not worth it, since these tuna are averaging in the 50 to 70 lb. class. Mid week there was one tuna of 160 lb. landed, two hour battle on 40 lb. outfit. So this is encouraging news to see these tuna here in good numbers, optimistic that bite will improve as moon darkens. Though the pressure has also increased since news travels fast these days.

Dorado action continues, though more smaller fish ahve moved in, not nearly as many of the large bulls that we had been seeing in recent weeks, remember to always release the smaller dorado, especially the females (smaller head), these fish grow very fast and are always filled with eggs, give them a chance to reproduce.

With the water temperature so high now fish can become sluggish, especially wahoo, these fish are in the area and a few are being caught, but hard to target them specifically because bite is limited.
Billfish action was limited, with most charters trying for the possible tuna action. Though we did see a handful of striped marlin and one 200 lb. blue marlin brought in. More marlin action is now being found on the grounds off of Cabo San Lucas. This is the time when we usually see some black marlin showing up on the Gordo Banks, though you really need to target these specifically to have a chance, long hours of trolling larger sized baitfish.

Not much going on now close to shore or off the bottom, mainly just looking for the surface action. A few leopard grouper, bonito and snapper. Also saw a few late season roosterfish this week.

Good Fishing, Eric

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