November 9, 2008
Anglers '
Scores of anglers continue to arrive in Los Cabos, many of them arriving in teams to participate in this week's WON Jackpot Tuba Tournament, others coming just to get away and enjoy perfect climate and the variety of fishing opportunities. Water temperatures are averaging 80 to 83 degrees, maybe a couple degree warmer than average for this time of year, the air temperatures have also been a bit warmer for the first part of November, hopefully this means the fall season will extend further into the month of December. The pattern of wintertime breezes has started, not only out of the north, but at times swirling around from all directions, a little hard to predict. The Pacific fishing grounds has been plagued with more wind and higher ocean swells than in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, where seas have been relatively calmer.
The baitfish situation always becomes a bit more challenging during the busy season, much more pressure, though there still have been adequate supplies of sardinas and on the Pacific there have been mackerel available. Also there are smaller sized boilto, skipjack and chihuil than are being used for targeting larger gamefish. Giant squid are in the area but have become more difficulty to jig up, mainly a night time deal now.
The action for striped marlin on the Pacific, from El Faro to the Golden Gate has been very steady, most charters are scoring six or more marlin per trip, this is when the wind allows. Also good numbers of dorado being found on the Pacific fishing grounds. A few more striped marlin are also appearing off of Chileno and the Gordo Banks areas, along with a scattering of sailfish.
Larger fish seem to prefer the fresh strips of giant squid, also a percentage are being hooked while using sardinas, skipjack, bolito and chihuil, either by drift fishing or slow trolling. Most anglers were fortunate to land one of these quality sized tuna, others landed two and occasionally three, but many boats did not land one or told stories of loosing larger fish after extended battles. Wednesday the panga fleets encountered porpoise that were holding schools of tuna, nice fish of 20 to 50 pound were landed from this pod before they moved too far north out of range. Only a handful of yellowfin tuna of the football sized variety were caught off f the Santa Maria or Iman areas, more skipjack than anything else.
Water clarity has been on the murky side, showing signs of improving, but still not the clean blue that it normally would be. This has put a standstill on any wahoo action, only a few of these speedsters were landed, many of them coming on baits being targeted for the tuna on the Gordo Banks, nice 'hoo of 50 pounds, just not many of them and anglers that have targeting these fish specifically with their arsenal of proven lures have not shown any results, we are optimistic that the wahoo will bite again once the water conditions become more favorable and to their liking.
Dorado bite was up and down, never in the same place from day to day, the areas from La Fortuna to Iman Bank showed much better results on Wednesday, as many charters accounted for four to six dorado, sizes were not like in the earlier part of summer, but many were in the 15 to 20 pound class, which are respectable and fun sized fish on medium weight tackle.
Bottom action slowed down, not as many huachinango being accounted for, only one of two, here or there, lack of fresh giant squid and strong current effected this action.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 142 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
2 black marlin, 14 sailfish, 15 striped marlin, 6 wahoo, 32 bonito, 82 yellowfin tuna, 295 dorado, 7 dogtooth snapper, 38 huachinango (red snapper), 22 sierra and 38 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
