September 21, 2008
Anglers '
After the passing of Tropical Storm Lowell the weather conditions have been relatively calm, with the exception of a windy front from the south that brought some heavy rainfall to the Cabo San Lucas on Tuesday morning, but the moisture did not make it to San Jose del Cabo, only the gusty southern wind. Overall the area had pristine conditions this past week, cooler fall like climate, the parched dry desert scenery has quickly turned into lush green tropical landscape. Hurricane season is not quite over with, but everyone is hoping that the region will be spared of any direct hits, the rainfall that has fallen was much needed and especially nice that it has come without high disastrous winds. Crowds of tourists were light, as is expected at this time, but in another few weeks the influx of visiting anglers will increase as they arrive for the popular fall season.
After being shut down most of last week due to rainy and choppy ocean conditions sportfishing fleets were back in action starting on Friday and through the weekend. The action seemed to pick right back up to how it had been just before the storm. Lots of dorado and yellowfin tuna being found throughout the region, but particularly on the fishing grounds from Punta Gorda to the Iman Bank. Sardinas continued to be in good supply and this is what the most consistent action was coming on, either slow trolling with live bait or drift fishing over the structure. Dorado were mostly smaller schooling size fish of 5 to 10 pounds, but then again there were some larger bulls to over 20 pounds found mixed in. Same thing for the yellowfin tuna, most of the fish now being caught are football sized, 8 to 15 pounds, but now and then some larger grade fish up to 40 pounds were encountered, all in the same area, just a matter of being in the right spot at the correct time. One panga based out of La Playita fought a monster yellowfin for several hours that was estimated to weigh close to 250 pounds, but the battle ended after the rod broke and the line parted at the same time. Of course there were skipjack and some needlefish mixed in the same areas where tuna and dorado were found, always a nuisance when you are targeting the preferred species.
Not much in the way of billfish in the Gordo Banks area, a few sailfish and striped marlin reported, but the better marlin action was reported off of Chileno to outside of Cabo San Lucas. Also there was not a whole lot of activity being found close to shore or off the bottom, it was mainly the tuna and dorado that provided the consistent bite.
At least one wahoo was also accounted for by local San Jose del Cabo resident John Schibel, he hooked into the 25 pound fish while using a yo-yo jig on the Iman Bank, this was a nice bonus to go along with his limits of dorado and yellowfin tuna.
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos Marina area sent out approximately 39 charters for the shortened week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 1 striped marlin, 5 hammerhead shark, 1 wahoo, 3 amberjack, 13 pargo, 380 dorado and 188 yellowfin tuna.
Good Fishing, Eric
