February 16, 2012
Anglers –
Typical southern Baja winter time weather, lots of sunshine, with high temperatures ranging up to 80 degrees. Northern winds continue to blow, but not as relentless as they normally can be during this time frame. Water temperature warmed back up to an average of 69 to 70 degrees, early in the week cold currents of 67 degrees had swept through the area.
Anglers found improved action closer to shore and off the rock piles. Along the beaches sierra action broke wide open, particularly off of the Chileno area, some nice sized sierra up to five pounds were accounted for, limits were the rule, with sardinas being the best bait. While using yo-yo jigs retrieved up from the bottom, anglers were hooking into a mix of yellowtail, amberjack cabrilla, pargo and bonito, all very good fighting fish and excellent table fare. The Red Hill area was starting to hold more fish, other consistent spots were near Iman Bank. Bait suppliers were finding schooling sardinas near Desteladera and from Palmilla to Chileno. No one reported catching any mackerel off of San Jose del Cabo, there were caballito available from vendors.
Striped marlin activity was scattered, offshore baitfish activity has been scarce, as weather becomes more stable this activity should improve. Some charters searching for billfish have had multiple strikes, while others were not so fortunate. Still more chances in the direction of Cabo San Lucas and on the Pacific than in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Dorado action was few and far between, having scattered with the arrival of cooling currents, still there were a few stragglers being encountered, most of them under ten pounds.
The rainfall last Wednesday and the following gusty winds from the north attributed to turning the water conditions over through last weekend, shutting down the yellowfin tuna bite that had developed on the Iman Bank. At this time conditions have improved and for the past few days anglers are catching limited numbers of yellowfin tuna while drift fishing with sardinas. These tuna are weighing in the 30 to 50 pound class, a definite bonus considering these fish are normally out of season during this time period. Black skipack and sea lions have continued to be a nuisance for anglers to deal with.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 62 charters for the past week, with anglers reported a fish count of:
1 striped marlin, 90 bonito, 21 amberjack, 26 cabrilla, 22 yellowtail, 16 huachinago, 322 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 16 dorado, 27 yellowfin tuna, 35 pargo, 3 dogtooth snapper and 12 jack crevalle.
Good fishing, Eric
