April 4, 2010
Typically the start of spring time and the month of April bring larger crowds of vacationers to Los Cabos, this year the numbers of tourists is down significantly, most certainly due to the poor economy and negative press releases issuing travel warnings to Mexico. Once again we want to articulate that Southern Baja continues to be a safe travel destination, there have been no reports locally of any violence aimed against visitors or the local popuation. The next couple of months offer some of the most ideal weather conditions as well as great variety of fishing options for anglers.
Sportfishing interests throughout the region are holding out hope that the Mexican government will make the correct decision by not adopting proposed regulations of opening up the commercial fishery for species such as dorado and marlin, that are now protected, this would be absolutely detrimental for the entire sportfishing community. This seems to be more of a political issue, as the commercial cooperatives has greater connections and lobbying power.
This past week saw unpredictable weather patterns, there continued to be wind from the north and then at times from the south, strong currents were pushing in off colored water closer to shore. Water temperatures have averaged from 71to 74 throughout most of the area. What we need now is for the weather to stabilize and give a chance for the water conditions to get back on track. Normally within the next several weeks we see significant migrations of gamefish entering local waters.
The striped marlin season just never really happened this year, there has been spots of activity, but noting as consistent to compare with previous years. Schools of mackerel have been more scattered, water temps were higher than normal, all of these appear to be factors as to where the concentrations of stripers have gone. Strange to hear the reports of big numbers of striped marlin providing action off of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where they are not a common catch, they normally find more sailfish, recent reports saw higher counts of stripers than sails.
Fleets are searching in all directions now, more often than not the most consistent action has been found close to shore for primarily sierra. Using sardinas for bait have been most productive, but at times these preferred baits were not easy to obtain, with the larger concentrations schooling near shore from San Luis to Vinorama, increased surf activity made netting these baitfish more challenging for the commercial pangeros.
Dorado have been scarce, an occasional single fish is being encountered, the majority closer to shore and under fifteen pounds. As the water temperatures start to warm back up we anticipate more of these prized gamefish to appear on the local fishing grounds.
Bottom action has produced mixed results for snapper, cabrilla, grouper, amberjack, bonito and other species, but with choppy seas and fast currents this has not been a consistent option.
Giant squid were not active the past week, no signs of pelagic red crab, mackerel and sardinetas were hard to find as well. The migration of humpback whales is nearing the end, still being seen at this time, but soon they will be heading north.
Yellowfin tuna have been found offshore traveling with porpoise, but still very hit of miss. Some larger tuna to 100 pounds were encountered closer to shore, moving with small pods of spinner porpoise, this action was within several miles of shore near Punta Gorda to Cardon, spooky fish, but at times the first boat to come upon the action could get hooked up if they had live bait, these fish were not interested in lures as were tuna found further from shore.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 50 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1sailfish, 3 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 1 wahoo,14 yellowfin tuna, 9 dorado, 29 bonito, 15 amberjack, 7 pompano, 27 pargo, 6 roosterfish, 18 cabrilla and 465 sierra.
Good fishing, Eric
