July 6, 2012
Anglers –
This Month has started off with very light crowds of tourists, summer weather has been relatively mild into the first week of July, though by mid week it was beginning to feel more like normal weather patterns, high temperatures around 95 degrees, mostly clear sunny skies, some scattered tropical clouds, lows in the upper 70s. Humidity was up some, as there was Tropical Storm Daniel building strength over 500 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, following a westerly path, only affect anyone will feel from this latest system will be warmer muggy conditions and some increased ocean swells that are predicted to reach up to six foot. Pacific breezes have been prevalent in the afternoon and have helped keep conditions more comfortable.
The unusual strange ocean conditions continue, early in the week the Pacific current pushed in the direction of Los Frailes and water temperatures dropped into 72 / 74 degree range, then winds resided and currents were moving inshore waters from the direction of the East Cape back south to Cabo San Lucas and Inshore waters from about 3 to 6 miles offshore were averaging in the 80 to 84 degree range, while offshore the water was cooler, averaging 74 to 78 degrees. The green plankton rich water conditions have been reaching to 30 miles offshore, but just in the past couple of days the clarity north of Punta Gorda, in the surrounding areas near Iman Bank, was reported to be much improved and even bluish, apparently the current has been swifter offshore than closer to shore, this why cleaner warmer waters are now found inshore, this is what we have been patiently waiting for, so the fishing action can get back on track of normal expectations.
The main supplies of live bait recently have been for caballito and mullet, only source of sardinas has been found off of the East Cape region, supplying fleets from Los Barilles and Buena Vista. Bolito schools have been scattered due to unfavorable currents, we do expect these baitfish to start schooling over the local fishing grounds once again as conditions do finally stabilize.
For the past week now the only consistent action for the fleet launching from San Jose del Cabo has been found close along the shoreline for roosterfish or far to the northeast, 20 to 30 miles, this is where a series set buoys, 4 to 8 miles offshore, have been attracting schools of dorado and in recent days some yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound class were encountered. Sizes of the dorado ranged from 5 to 50 pounds. Fish were striking on caballito, mullet, small skipjack and particularly on sardinas, for anglers that were able to purchase them, which was only for fleets from north of Los Frailes. Trolling with hoochie skirts worked well as well. Crowds of boats was a problem, since this area was producing the only consistent action, fleets from Los Barilles, Buena Vista, San Jose del Cabo and even from Cabo San Lucas all were making the unusually long runs to get into this bite. This is a lot of pressure for a handful of buoys, these are set lines for commercial shark pangeros, more often than not it was the first boats to the individual buoys that encountered the hungry bull dorado, some of them in the 30 to 50 lb. class, then later as more boats arrived it was mainly the smaller schoolies that provided action. The limit on these popular acrobatic gamefish is two per license, apparently many of the East Cape boats have not been informed of these regulations, or perhaps the authorities just do not have the personnel in order to enforce these rules on the East Cape, they strictly abide by the two dorado limit rule out of the Los Cabos area. Many local charters reported that East Cape charters were reportedly seen gaffing and killing as many as 15 to 20 dorado per boat, when there were only two or three, sometimes four anglers aboard. These rules should be enforced equally, not just for certain areas. Why would anglers want to fish in one area and only be able to catch two dorado when they can go to other places that let you catch many more?
Every day we are now hearing about more yellowfin tuna being caught near Los Frailes, large schools of fish up to 20 pounds, striking on all sizes of lures, not associated with porpoise most of the time, as this congregation of fish swifts south some, they will in the range of the normal day charter from San Jose.
Some striped marlin and a few sailfish are being found trolling offshore waters, no large concentrations, but as the conditions continue to clean up, we do anticipate a late season run on stripers.
Roosterfish up to 60 pounds were caught this past week, even though most charters were concentrated on the dorado bite around the far away buoys, leaving little time to do much else. Not much action found off the bottom, mainly because the current was swift most of the time, making it difficult for anglers to make a successful effort.
The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 49 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
2 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 215 dorado, 5 yellowfin, 8 amberjack, 3 grouper, 12 cabrilla,
8 jack crevalle, 42 roosterfish, 14 yellow snapper and 28 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
