With the official start of the spring season set to start this coming week, crowds of spring breakers were greeted with the first significant heat wave of the year, as clear sunny skies reached past the 90 degree mark and it actually felt more like summer than late winter. Ideal weather for vacationers to take advantage of all of the outdoor activities available, not to mention the world-class nightlife. The wind was light for most of the week and anglers enjoyed calm ocean conditions, water temperatures ranged from 69 degrees on the Pacific and up to 73 on the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula. Supplies of sardinas were plentiful, with mullet and mackerel also available.
The best area for the marlin action recently was off of the Chileno to Red Hill, anywhere from 5 to 15 miles from shore. The fish were spread out and besides the spotty action for striped marlin there was not much else going on offshore. There was action for yellowfin tuna found 25 to 40 miles offshore, mixed in with porpoise, for the most part these were smaller football sized yellowfin and hardly worth such a long distance run. There were schools of yellowfin tuna on the Inner Gordo Banks, but they were not on the bite, as they continued to gorge themselves on red crabs and squid that were congregated deep on the same fishing grounds. A handful of tuna in the 25 to 45 pound range were accounted for, striking while drifting with dead sardinas, but this definitely was not a consistent bite and anglers had to feel lucky to land just one fish.
The most productive fishing action was closer to shore off the shallow rock piles, this is where a mix of species were encountered, including yellow snapper, amberjack, cabrilla, yellowtail, surgeonfish, sierra, barred pargo and even one 20 pound wahoo was hooked on a cast lure in the same area. Panga skipper Jesus Pino found an extremely rare species floating on the surface, still alive, but apparently very weak, it was identified as a Pacific Fan Fish and could be the first such specimen found this far north in the East Pacific. Anglers reported having fair success working yo-yo iron jigs for amberjack, pargo and cabrilla, with chrome patterns being more productive.
On Saturday, March 17, there was a local Governor Cup Tournament held off of Palmilla beach. All species except marlin were included and first and third place were captured by the local Playita team of Hugo Pino and his two sons for a 96 and 50 pound grouper landed off of the Iman bank while fishing with live chihuil. Second place went to an unidentified team with a 53 pound mako shark. Overall it was a successful event, though it was unfortunate to see the local pangueros killing so many juvenile hammerhead sharks that were abundant on the Iman Bank, but were practical of newborn size, averaging about three feet or less.
The combined La Playita Panga Fleets for the week sent out approximately 78 charters and anglers accounted for: 240 pargo, 135 sierra, 38 dorado, 19 yellowfin tuna, 38 amberjack, 5 yellowtail, 18 pompano, 26 cabrilla, 8 grouper, 2 striped marlin, 1 wahoo,28 surgeonfish, 28 hammerhead sharks and1 Pacific Fan fish.
Good Fishing, Eric
