Late spring is transition time, this past week visitors to Southern Baja felt weather patterns that ranged from early spring like to summer like. It started last Thursday when strong winds out of the southwest pushed colder green Pacific currents in the direction of the Sea of Cortez and actually dropped water temperatures close to ten degrees within 24 hours. This created cooler air temperatures that were very comfortable, but also made for tough fishing conditions through the weekend, until conditions rebounded to start the week. Tropical storm season has also begun, at this time there are two systems further to the south, off of mainland Mexico that are threatening to develop and will need to be monitored closely. Air temperatures at this time are quite warm and humid.
Water temperatures are now back in the 75 to 80 degree range from Cabo San Lucas towards Los Frailes. Winds have settled down and swells are moderate, looks as though the summer fishing season is about to start off with ideal settings. There are now good supplies of mullet and caballito, but there are no sardinas being found. The fishing grounds are seeing increased concentrations of bolito, which should attract a variety of gamefish for the coming weeks.
The inshore fishing action has produced a mix of action for roosterfish, amberjack, jack crevalle and dogtooth snapper. Recent days have seen larger sized roosterfish appearing throughout the region, anglers trolling live baits just outside the surf zone reported chances at fish in the 20 to 60 pound class. This is now peak season for inshore fishing, should last through July, before shifting to offshore structure and open water trolling. Surf fishing anglers have reported excellent action as well, particularly early in the morning while casting with surface plugs, they hooked into a variety of species, including dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado, jack crevalle and even several large sized snook were accounted for off of the San Jose Estuary area.
Dorado still were not found in any significant numbers, just scattered single fish for the most part, most of them juveniles, though with how the water conditions are shaping up we except that the larger sized dorado should be appearing any day. This is the same time period when we saw many larger bulls appearing last year, fish to over forty pounds were common. So we will be anticipating the same type of action this season.
Yellowfin tuna became more scattered since the passing of changing ocean currents, early in the week anglers found varied action near Iman to Vinorama on tuna ranging in sizes up to 50 pounds, striking on chunks of squid, rapalas, hoochies and caballito, at times associated with porpoise and other times on blind strikes. Then later in the week these schooling tuna seemed to have moved in the direction of Los Frailes, out of range for most local charters.
As water conditions stabilized, with warmer clean currents returning, this triggered the wahoo to become active once again. The best areas were north of Punta Gorda, Iman to Vinorama, trolling with a variety of lures and baits were all producing strikes by 'hoo that ranged from 30 to 60 pounds. Rapala type lures in silver patterns were particularly productive. Schools of wahoo were being encountered and this resulted in many multiple strikes, with a couple of charters reportedly even having four hook ups at once, that is a major fire drill, four speeding wahoo heading in different directions.
At least one swordfish was landed from a Cabo San Lucas based charter while fishing outside of the Gordo Banks near the Cabrillo Sea Mount. A commercial pangero out of La Playita reported seeing a couple of other swordfish on two successive days, one of them a monster fish possibly as large as 800 pounds, it was circling their panga feeding on cut bait they had been using to target yellowfin before swimming into the depths.
Bottom action was not consistent due to swift currents, anglers had mixed success for cabrilla, amberjack, pargo or yellowtail, but most anglers were targeting the more consistent surface action.
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 97 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a total fish count of: 28 yellowfin tuna, 14 dorado, 6 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 14 amberjack, 1 yellowtail, 31 various pargo species, 26 jack crevalle, 14 cabrilla, 5 sierra, 26 bonito, 27 wahoo and 48 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
