March 17, 2010
Anglers –
Daytime temperatures are on the rise as the start of spring is just a week away, though weather patterns remain unpredictable and this past week there was more windy times than calm days, the worst of the prevailing north winds should be over by now, they still linger on for another month or so as the transition period runs its course. Water temperatures are averaging 71 to 74 degrees, with warmer water to 76 degrees found further offshore from Chileno to the Gordo Banks.
So far the month of March has been mainly a mix of inshore and bottom species, though in the past week the numbers of striped marlin seen has definitely increased, not that easy to catch, mainly for the reason that there has been a shortage of larger baitfish, particularly mackerel, though charters that obtained caballito were hooking into decent numbers of the billfish, which were found spread throughout a wide region, from the Pacific into the Sea of Cortez.
Crowds of tourists are light, hopefully the Travel Advisory issued by the State Department does not make matters worse. There have not been any cartel issues to report from the Los Cabos area. The problems being detailed by the U.S. press relate to incidents in border towns such as Juarez and Tijuana and the Los Cabos area remains a safe travel destination.
Sierra have been the most consistent catch close to shore, striking best on live sardinas, but also on a variety of artificial lures. The arroyo off of Chileno has been one of the most consistent areas, with much of the fleet concentrating on this spot. Various rock piles have produced mixed results for amberjack, snapper, bonito and cabrilla for anglers using yo-yo jigs and weighted baits.
Live sardinas have been available, found off of Chileno and towards San Luis. Whales continue to be seen in the area, but not quite as numerous as in previous weeks. Should be the time when more schooling porpoise appear offshore, bringing opportunities for finding yellowfin tuna traveling with them, so far there have only been scattered reports of this.
There continues to be large quantities of giant squid locally. Some anglers are hooking into nice grade of yellowfin tuna on the Gordo Banks and Iman, but this is not a guarantee bite by any means. When condition allowed anglers were chumming and drift fishing with cut squid and hooked in some yellowfin that were over 100 pounds, many of these fish were lost for various reasons, but several tuna in the 70 to 90 pound class were accounted for.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 54 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 22 dorado, 13 yellowfin tuna, 81 bonito, 11 roosterfish, 256 sierra,17 amberjack,16 cabrilla, 29 pargo, 2 mako shark and 28 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
