May 3, 2009
Anglers -
It would be an understatement if we mentioned that the crowds of tourists now visiting the Los Cabos area are light, the fact is that it looks more like a ghost town. Just as it appeared that the economy was rebounding and we were entering the busy late spring time season, now we have been shut down by this swine flu epidemic, even though we have not heard of any local cases of this illness. Everyone is following the situation with extreme precautions and all we can do is hope it passes quickly so that the economical impact is limited.
Over the past weekend the first real action of the year for yellowfin tuna broke open on the fishing grounds from San Luis to Vinorama. Anglers were jigging up the abundant giant squid and using them as strip bait to drift fish for yellowfin tuna that were averaging 40 to 70 pounds, many charters were accounting for three to six tuna per morning, while losing other hook ups for various reasons, including sea lion attacks. Though the fish have still been seen during the first few days of this week, the bite has slowed way down. Lots of juvenile sized hammerhead sharks were found in the same region. A few dorado were also encountered, and most of these fish were quality sized, weighing 15 to 35 pounds.
A handful of wahoo were found roaming the same banks where the tuna were schooling, a few of these fish in the 10 to 40 pound class were hooked into on yo-yo jigs and strips of squid, no one reported catching any on the standard arsenal of high speed trolling lures, it is the time of year when these speedsters can become more active.
Sardinas were very scarce and only limited rations were available around the Puerto Los Cabos Marina jetties, though the squid were plentiful off of the La Laguna area and anglers were able to catch them with relative ease. Ocean conditions were calm in the direction of the Sea of Cortez and water clarity was rapidly improving, deep blue within a couple miles of shore and temperatures ranged 73 to 75 degrees throughout most of area.
With the lack of live baitfish not many anglers were trolling the shoreline for sierra, snapper, roosterfish of jacks. There were some amberjack, cabrilla and pargo caught off of the rocky high spots, anglers had success on strip bait and yo-yo jigs. On Wednesday the commercial pangueros reported finding small sized squid balled up on the surface of the Inner Gordo Bank and were able to scoop them up and use them for bait to catch quality sized huachinango, will be interesting to see if this was only a one day scenario.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 57 charters this past week, with anglers reported a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 5 wahoo, 22 hammerhead sharks, 29 dorado, 3 yellowtail, 23 amberjack, 42 various pargo species, 28 bonito, 18 cabrilla, 20 sierra, 25 triggerfish and 92 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
