August 3, 2008
Anglers –
The final week of July proved to be the least active of the month as far as tropical storms go. After a busy start to the season, at this time there are no new named systems to report, though it is also the time of year where conditions are ripe for quick development. On Saturday a low pressure spot was lurking just south of Cab San Lucas and by Saturday evening this tropical squall moved over land and brought heavy rain squalls, with winds gusts to over 50 miles an hour, causing minor flooding, property damage and power shortages throughout the region, the thunder and lightning associated with the storm was impressive. The rain diminished by late night and there were wind gusts that followed throughout the night. The weather pattern has continued to be hot and humid, scattered tropical cloud cover with some unseasonable winds out of the southwest to northwest at times. Ocean water conditions were more stable, clean blue water was now found within several miles of shore and temperatures ranged from 80 to 85 degrees. Sportfishing fleets were now working the fishing grounds in all directions, from the Pacific, straight outside of Cabo, to inside the Sea of Cortez. Action improved over the past week as the conditions stabilized and as long as the weather holds we expect more consistent blue water fishing action in the coming weeks.
Yellowfin tuna were providing good action for the fleets based out of the East Cape and in recent days there have been reports of tuna moving onto the fishing grounds off of San Jose del Cabo, still only a few fish here and there, but at least it is a positive sign that the yellowfin are showing up along with the cleaner water conditions. On Friday one panga from La Playita landed a 100 pound yellowfin tuna while drift fishing on the Iman Bank. There was no shortage of skipjack, in fact at times they were hard to avoid, ranging in sizes up to 20 pounds. Bolito were also schooling on the fishing grounds, but were not as easy to catch, particularly as the sun became higher in the sky. For the past few days one of the better areas to locate bolito was near the San Luis Bank and this is where both panga and cruiser charters are trolling for dorado and billfish. With the warmer waters there are not as many striped marlin reported, now more blue marlin and sailfish are appearing in local waters. Anglers were reporting strikes on lures and bait, but trolling with live rigged bolito or skipjack seemed to be the best bet. The majority of the blues that have been hooking into ranged in the 150 to 250 pound class, but there have been reports of some much larger billfish reportedly seen coming up on the bait spreads.
Dorado action seemed to vary from day to day, but most of the time anglers were able to catch their two fish limit, often times releasing many other fish while searching for the elusive larger bull. Trolling with either sardina or bolito was the most productive technique and sizes for the dorado ranged from 5 to 45 pounds, with increased numbers of smaller schooling sized do dos appearing in recent days. Limits are being enforced and remember it is common sense to release the easily identifiable smaller female specimens.
Strong currents continue and this has made it difficult for bottom fishing, though there has been a mix of cabrilla, pargo and amberjack accounted for when conditions allowed, these fish were taken on yo-yo jigs, whole and chunk baits. The majority of the dogtooth snapper seemed to have now moved from the shoreline on to the high spots, in an average depth of 120 to 140 feet and they provided a challenge for the most experienced of anglers, soaking bolito baits or chumming and chunking with skipjack resulted in some monster hook ups, but this did not mean a very high percentage of these brutes were landed, though a few were conquered, including fish in the 50 to 60 pound range.
Roosterfish were the main species being encountered while trolling close to shore, early morning these fish were most active, striking on mullet and sardinas, the majority of the fish were juveniles of ten pounds or less, but there were also fair numbers of larger 30 plus pound fish being encountered.
The combined panga fleets launching out of the La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos area sent out approximately 48 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:4 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 11 hammerhead sharks, 12 yellowfin tuna,98 dorado, 1 wahoo, 180 skipjack, 13 sierra, 15 amberjack, 9 dogtooth snapper, 17 cabrilla, 15 triggerfish, 33 other pargo/snapper species, 9 jack crevalle and 46 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
