April 13, 2009
Anglers –
Local school kids are now on spring break, familes are now busy packing their camping gear and getting ready to head to their favorite beach sites. Clocks have been sprung forward once again and we are now back on the standard Mountain Time schedule. This coming weekend is always a wild time for local residents, perhaps the busiest few day period of the year, equivalent to fourth of July in the U.S. Sportfishing operators have a hard time because they are always shorthanded, if given the choice this would be one weekend that I would plan around and preferably come afterwards. Offshore fishing action seems to be moving closer to shore in recent days, as the gamefish were following the bait supply and cleaner currents that moved within five of miles of the shoreline. The Pacific has reportedly had windy and choppy ocean conditions, but in the direction of the Sea of Cortez seas have been relatively calm and this is also where the majority of the fleet is now concentrating their efforts. Most consistent areas have been from the Gordo Banks to Desteladera. Water temperatures have varied from 68 degrees on the Pacific to as high as 72 to 73 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.
Striped marlin action has shown significant signs of breaking wide open, though it still is in the developing stages, one day could be red hot and the next day on the slow side, seemed to relate directly on the availability of schooling mackerel. Anglers reported best success casting baits to the feeding or tailing marlin, but also there was a percentage of stripers being hooked into on trolled lures. Yellowfin tuna were also showing more prospects as well, there were several days early in the week that the first charter boats arriving to where the porpoise were moving in mass formation were able to catch some nice yellowfin tuna on either lures or bait, fish weighing to over fifty pounds, but then just like that the yellowfin would disappear into the depths. Other days the tuna were seen feeding on the surface, but quickly played the disappearing act once again. At least this is an encouraging sign and once conditions and moon phases become more favorable we are optimistic that good things will happen.
Most of the panga charters continue to fish closer to shore for a mixed bag of species while they wait for offshore action to come even closer to shore and become more consistent. Sardinas are abundant off of the San Jose Estuary and are of impressive size, this has been the bait of choice for all around inshore action. Most common catches have included sierra, roosterfish, dorado, pargo, cabrilla and amberjack. Anglers also had some success dropping yo-yo iron jigs off the rocky high spots, mainly for amberjack, pargo and cabrilla, with the best action coming early in the morning in 100 to 130 feet of water. Inshore areas off of Cardona and the La Salina shipwreck were some of the better spots in recent days, though these areas can slow down if too many boats fish them at the same time, small areas and the fish become spooked.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 70 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
13 striped marlin, 12 yellowfin tuna, 67 dorado, 23 bonito, 11 yellowtail, 26 amberjack, 2 mako shark, 13 pompano, 67 pargo, 22 roosterfish, 18 cabrilla, 19 jack crevalle and 665 sierra.
Good fishing, Eric
