February 5, 2012
Anglers –
Light crowds of tourists are now visiting the Los Cabos and are being greeted with great winter season weather. Some scattered clouds, cooler mornings down to 50 degrees, but highs are reaching up to 80 degrees, winds have been moderate, variable 10 to 15 mph from the north. Water temperatures dropped down into the 68 to 70 degree range, action was more scattered, though anglers did find a variety of species available
There were sufficient supplies of sardinas available, also caballito and limited mackerel.
Large schools of black skipjack on the fishing grounds, most often just caught and released, but also make good chunk bait. Local San Jose del Cabo fleets were spending most of their efforts fishing the spots from Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman Bank, San Luis and as far north as Vinorama.
The Iman and San Luis Bank were attracting a number of yellowfin tuna, averaging 20 to 70 pounds, anglers were chumming with sardinas to entice these tuna, which would come up and feed at unpredictable hours, finicky from having to compete with all of the skipjack. On certain days there were charters that did account for up to four quality sized yellowfin. The sea lions which have taken up residence on these banks, have turned into a real nuisance, often taking anglers hooked fish as they near the boat.
Other catches included a few yellowtail, sizes up to 30 pounds, striking on various baits and jigs, most often off the bottom rock plies, so far just limited numbers of these jacks, a few more amberjack in the mix, as well as a variety of pargo and cabrilla species. Strong currents have resided and this gave anglers more opportunities for drift fishing over rock piles, using various whole and cut baits, as well as yo-yo jigs.
Sierra and some smaller sized roosterfish were found along the beach stretches north of La Playita to Punta Gorda, sardinas proved to be the best bait for this bite, early in the morning rapalas and hoochies worked.
Striped marlin were found offshore of San Jose del Cabo and north to Desteladera, hit or miss and more of a deal for the cruisers, searching for surface activity, ready to cast baits to any fins or tails seen.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 55 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 58 yellowfin tuna, 26 bonito, 29 amberjack, 37 cabrilla, 92 pargo, 28 dorado, 12 roosterfish, 13 yellowtail, 12 shark and 52 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
