June 17, 2007
Anglers -
Happy Fathers Day!
With the official start of the summer season just around the corner the crowds of tourists visiting the Southern Baja did seem to increase this past week. The days were steadily getting warmer and the humidity was also starting to increase the sweat factor, better get used to it, there will be at least one hundred more days of similar conditions. As for the ocean conditions, unusually strong currents continue to sweep through the region and this has contributed to very unstable situations from day to day. The water temperatures have ranged from the mid 60s on the Pacific, to the low 70s off of San Jose del Cabo, to as high as 80 degrees off of Buena Vista. There were reports of areas that were clean and blue one day, turning greenish and cool the very next day, this was a repeated pattern throughout the week off of the Los Cabos area and made for difficult offshore fishing, the sportfishing fleets found better action within ½ mile of shore than they did venturing as fart as 40miles offshore. For the most part the wind was mild, though on a few days the breeze from the northwest did kick up some, stirring the water up more than it already was.
Anglers did report a wide variety of species caught this week, but the numbers of overall catches were not all that impressive for this time of year, it just seems that conditions have not stabilized yet and has resulted in inconsistent catches. Looking back on last years reports from the same time period we saw similar patterns and we know that all we can do is wait for it to pass, certainly by July, as the days become increasing warm and north wind dissipate, conditions will once again become favorable for the pelagic gamefish.
The water in the Sea of Cortez was warming to a point where the majority of striped marlin were becoming sluggish and on the verge of starting their northerly migration for the summer and a handful of blue marlin were reportedly hooking into to. Plenty of bolito on the offshore fishing grounds, this is always a favorable sign, though there still has been a lack of any consistent yellowfin tuna throughout the area, only spotty reports of football sized tuna here and there. Some striped marlin were still biting, but not as they had been, striking on lures and baits, at times being found as close as one mile from shore where the concentrations of baitfish were.
Local panga fleet out of San Jose del Cabo concentrated mainly closer to shore where they found better action than there few scout trips offshore. Catches were down from the previous week, though there were still a decent variety of fish being accounted for. Most common fish were pargo colorado, yellow snapper, jack crevalle, sierra, and roosterfish. These fish were averaging 4 to 10 pounds, but there were some much larger specimens accounted for, including roosterfish to 60 pounds. Up until now the roosterfish season ahs been a disappointment, just not that many larger fish being found, considering this is normally the time when anglers would expect to have the best chance at hooking into a quality sized roosterfish, well we still are only in mid-June, so we will just hope that we will have a big late season bite for these popular jacks.
Other action include a mix of pompano, bonito, jack crevalle, cabrilla and grouper, though these were not numerous, they did provide an added bonus for the anglers who happened to be at the right place and the right time.
The La Playita panga fleet sent out approximately 89 panga charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 5 hammerhead sharks, 7 mako sharks, 13 dorado, 4 yellowfin tuna, 116 roosterfish, 32 jack crevalle, 19 amberjack, 17 pompano, 42 sierra, 9 dogtooth snapper, 46 pargo colorado, 145 yellowtail snapper,
23 cabrilla, 55 Mexican bonito, 38 triggerfish and 3 hailbut.
Good fishing, Eric
