October 26, 2008
Anglers '
With the mega dollar jackpot tournaments now in progress this marks the peak of the fall season for sportfishing operations in the Los Cabos area. Fleets are busy and advance reservations are recommended, for the next several weeks crowds of anglers are only expected to increase. Ideal weather conditions are now prevailing, mornings are just starting to cool off to the point where a wind breaker a sweat shirt might be advised and day time temperatures are still reaching into the upper 80s. Water temperatures are ranging 82 to 85 degrees through most of the region, clarity has improved after being stirred up after the recent storm activity. North winds are showing signs of increasing, as they always do in the fall and on through the winter, but so far the breeze has not been too strong and actually a welcome relief to keep the heat at a comfortable level.
Supplies of sardinas have become scarcer, after being so abundant for months on end, finally with the increased angling pressure the schools of bait have been harder to locate and anglers have had to have some patience early in the morning in order to obtain sufficient supplies of the preferred baitfish. The giant squid had vanished over the recent full moon period, but are showing signs of showing back up in recent days, they have been more abundant in the direction of Los Frailes, but have also been jigged up in spots near Punta Gorda and they proved to be the favored bait for the larger sized yellowfin tuna up to 60 pounds. Yellowfin tuna action has been up and down for the local panga fleets, best areas were from La Fortuna to the Iman Bank, most of the tuna being caught ranged 15 to 25 pounds, some days the bite would be early in the day while on other days the yellowfin became more active later on as the sun rose higher in the ski, this pattern has been hard to predict, tuna are feeding machines and one thing for certain is that they are going to feed at some time during the day. Drift fishing with sardinas has been the more productive technique, while chumming the fish to the surface. This also brings the schools of dorado into casting range. For the past couple of weeks the dorado found off of the San Jose del Cabo area had been more juvenile sized, 5 to 10 pounds, but this week a larger grade of dorado is appearing in the fish counts, many fish in the 10 to 20 pound class are being accounted for and some even larger bulls were mixed in. Most of dorado that are being caught have been found in the same spots as the yellowfin tuna are, so for people who wish not to catch tuna and only target dorado, that has been easier said than done.
Billfish action has been more consistent on the Pacific fishing rounds for striped marlin, this is where schools of mackerel are located. Inside the Sea of Cortez direction of the Peninsula there have been a few sailfish found and an occasional black or blue marlin hook up, but for all of the anglers now targeting the larger marlin in hopes of winning big money, these big fish have proved to be very few and far between. Though with reports of one monster 870 pound blue marlin landed last week, this has anglers optimistic that there could be another one of similar size with their name on it.
Wahoo are making their annual fall appearance, so far not in any significant numbers, but everyday a few anglers that are specifically targeting them with their array of specialized wahoo type lures are having some success. The areas from La Fortuna to the Iman Bank seems to have produced the majority of wahoo strikes and most of them have been earlier in the morning before too many boats show up to target the tuna and dorado. Wahoo have ranged in sizes from small 10 pound fish up to hefty 60 pound trophy sized specimens. If anglers spend too much time trolling for wahoo early they might miss out on the tuna bite, which has been early in recent days.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 138 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
4 sailfish, 41 wahoo, 404 yellowfin tuna, 566 dorado, 26 bonito, 22 cabrilla, 74 various pargo species, 28 sierra, 12 giant squid and 48 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
