Anglers –
While crowds of visiting spring break vacationers continue to swarm into the Los Cabos area the main story this week was that of the traditional local Easter weekend beach camping adventures. This holiday week is perhaps the most important of the year for local Mexicans, even more so than Christmas, it is hard to find a family that does not pack up camping supplies and head for one of the many popular beaches, the days of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday being the most popular. Many businesses are forced to shut down for the weekend because they have no employees that are whiling to work. Often the northern winds can cause uncomfortable conditions, but this year the conditions proved to be ideal, cloudless skies, very little wind at all and high temperatures in the mid 80s.
Offshore fishing conditions were smooth as glass, water temperatures were on the cooler side though, straight off the Cabo San Lucas arches there were currents as cool as 65 degrees, around the Gordo Banks it was averaging about 70 degrees and north near Los Frailes water temperatures reached up to 73 degrees. Bait supplies were adequate on most days, with a mix of sardinas, mackerel and mullet being available.
Striped marlin continued to be a common offshore catch, scattered throughout the area, anywhere from 5 to 20 miles out, striking on lures and bait, boats targeting the billfish were averaging one or two per day, with some charters accounting for even more. Sizes on the stripers were typically 90 to 130 pounds. There was also some great action for yellowfin tuna found 15 to 25 miles offshore of Palmilla to Desteladera, traveling with large pods of porpoise. Over the weekend San Jose del Cabo cruiser fleets accounted for as many as 30 to 40 yellowfin each, though they football size, ten to fifteen pounds.
Not much going on off the rock piles to the north of Punta Gorda recently, with the exception of a scattered bite on various pargo and cabrilla species. The inshore bite for yellow snapper off of Cardon which had been so good for the past few weeks has started to taper off due to heavy daily pressure.
There were a few surprise catches of halibut this past week, the La Playita panga fleet accounted for handful of them in the 8 to 12 pound range. Surf fishermen had a couple good days for the halibut as well, the hot spot was just north of the new marina's northern jetty, there were several flatties over 20 pounds landed, including one nice 30 pound fish by a local panguero that hit on a strip of mackerel.
The combined panga fleets off of La Playita sent out approximately 53 charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 11 dorado, 7 yellowfin tuna, 2 mako shark, 3 hammerhead shark, 46 cabrilla, 192 pargo, 9 amberjack, 18 bonito, 5 halibut, 18 African Pompano and 112 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
