November 10, 2009
Anglers –
Tournament fever has been running high in Los Cabos this past week, as crowds of anglers are arriving with anticipation of hooking into a jackpot winning yellowfin tuna. Weather conditions were just about ideal, cooler mornings, but daytime temperatures are reaching 85 degrees, with plenty of sunshine. Breezes were now more dominate from out of the north, normal pattern for fall, seas were comfortable, moderate swells. Action centered on the Gordo Banks for the past week, this is where the larger grade of yellowfin tuna have really broken wide open for the past week, with one hundred pound fish being the average sized tuna now being caught. This is great news for all and particularly because it is just in time for the WON Tuna Jackpot.
Water temperatures were ranging from 80 to 83 degrees through much of the region. Supplies of live sardinas became more scattered over the full moon period, there was also heavy demand and with limited supplies this did create an issue. Sardinas have been the bait of choice for the tuna action, drift fishing with dead baits at various depths has been a proven technique. Chumming and chunk fishing with fresh cut skipjack baits also produced heavy freight train like strikes. At times the fish were a bit line shy and more strikes were reported on lighter leaders, which did result in higher percentages of lost fish. Average catches per charter was commonly one to three yellowfin, with sizes ranging from 30 to 150 pounds, of course there were exceptions of smaller and larger sizes mixed in. This incredible bite that has developed is perhaps the best we have seen in years, as for overall quantity and quality of tuna being encountered on the local Banks.
Dorado remained throughout the area, found both inshore and offshore, smaller sized fish in the direction of San Jose and larger dorado found on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas. Trolling various medium sized lures has been the best way to locate the schools of fish, then switching to ive bait resulted in multiple hook ups.
Wahoo action busted loose late last week near Punta Gorda and the Banks to the north. Starting on Sunday and peaking on Monday, as there must have been some 40 wahoo accounted by the La Playita panga fleets that day, with weights ranging from 20 to 50 pounds. The wahoo were striking on Rapala type plugs and other standard lures, so far the larger bait options for slow trolling trap hooked rigs for wahoo has not developed. As fast as this wahoo bite turned on it quickly turned off the next day, likely the back side of the full moon is not helping.
Latest WON Tournament update is that a local team on the sportfisher"Fisherman" team has broken a new Cabo San Lucas record on the first day of the event with a humongous yellowfin tuna that weighed in at an incredible 383 pounds. The beast was subdued on one hundred pound line with a 130 pound leader while trolling a larger sized live bait in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks. Congratulations to Hugo and his son Augustine Pino, they were members of the winning team, participating on the 'Fisherman" and are local La Playita pageros, at their finest. Also a job well done by another La Playita born and raised angler, Tono Arista, who was skipper of the second place team on the "Alejandro".
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita /Puerto Los Cabos area sent out approximately 170 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
8 sailfish, 66 wahoo, 225 dorado, 229 yellowfin tuna, 18 sierra, 18 rainbow runner,14 cabrilla and 28 bonito.
Good Fishing, Eric
