December 8, 2010
The sunny weather in the Los Cabos area continues to attract good numbers of anglers which have been targeting various gamefish that are now available on the local fishing ground. Yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and striped marlin remain the higher priority target species now. The ocean water temperature has dropped down into the mid 70 range, 74 to 76 degrees throughout much of the region. Winds became more of a factor this past week, on Monday the northerly's were strong and actually most of the fleet from launching that day, since the winds have tapered off and conditions are settling back down. Clean water is being found within a couple miles of shore, the majority of the fleets are fishing from Chileno to Iman Bank.
Carnaderos are working overtime in order to find minimal supplies of sardinas, most of these baitfish schools are now found in the direction of Vinorama. Caballito, moonfish and mackerel have been available some days as well.
The week started off with wind and cooler weather conditions, this made fishing more difficult, overall fish counts were down. Though there were some quality catches accounted for, most charters had 2 or 3, up to 10 fish in combination. Yellowfin tuna were most consistent near Iman and also close to shore off of Punta Gorda, drift fishing with sardinas was the ticket, either dead or alive. These tuna averaged up to 20 pounds, at times would become shy, seen on the surface, but finicky. A larger grade of yellowfin were holding on the Gordo Banks, this action became less consistent during this recent cold front and with the lack of sufficient supplies of sardinas for chumming. Most of the fish that were hooked into on the banks were in the 30 to 60 pound size.
Anglers were reporting some larger sized dorado in recent days, not only smaller juveniles, several dorado over 20 pounds were landed out of the La Playita panga area. They were striking on trolled lures, as well as on various baits, much of this action was found close to shore, from La Playita to Punta Gorda, inshore baitfish are attracting more game fish into this stretch.
The striped marlin action off of San Jose del Cabo had become wide open late last week, but now the mackerel schools have been scattered by shrimp trawlers and we will wait for more mackerel to move back in. Stripers are still being found in limited numbers spread throughout the area, much of this action is found within five miles of shore.
Off the bottom anglers found that currents have slacked and more opportunities will be open with cooler waters increasingly favorable to certain structure dwelling fish species. Yellowtail, snapper, bonito, sierra, etc… A handful of dogtooth snapper and amberjack were striking baits off of the high spots, some of them in the 30 to 40 pound class.
The combined local La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 104 charters, with anglers reports a fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 17 wahoo, 210 yellowfin tuna, 85 dorado, 13 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 16 bonito, 8 roosterfish and 18 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
