January 29, 2011
Anglers -
Light crowds of tourists are now visiting Southern Baja, they have been greeted with cooler winter time conditions, scattered cloud cover with moderate winds and daytime highs in the low 70s. Still this would have to be considered nice weather for mid winter. Ocean water temperatures are averaging in the 67 to 69 range through most of the region, this is five degrees cooler than what conditions were at the same time last year.
The San Jose del Cabo fleets have been concentrating their efforts in the direction of the Iman Bank in recent days, this is where they have found schooling yellowfin tuna, ranging in sizes up to 20 pounds, also a scattering of dorado and various bottom dwellers. Trying to land hooked tuna before a pack of aggressive sea lions got a hold of them was a major issue, most charters were having as many fish broken off by these sea lions as they were actually landing. Boats were averaging 2 to 8 yellowfin per morning. This is not bad considering the time of year and condition of the water. Using sardinas for bait was the most productive technique, these baitfish remained plentiful off of the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda. Most of the dorado that are now encountered have been juvenile sized, though occasionally a larger bull of 20 pounds was found.
Closer to shore there have been good numbers of sierra, again most of these fish were in the 1 to 3 pound class, some schooling yellowtail of 2 to 6 pounds were found in various inshore locations as well, both of these species hit best on sardinas, but would also strike Rapalas and cast jigs.
There is not much going on the Gordo Banks now, this area is not known for the best action when the water temps are cooler, though the commercial fleet have been finding the pelagic red crabs in this area and are netting them to be used for snapper bait on other fishing spots.
Striped marlin action continues to be off this year, some scattered fish are being found, but no large concentrations, as the water conditions warm and more numbers of larger baitfish arrive we expect this action to improve.
There were a handful of yellowfin tuna found traveling with porpoise offshore, hit or miss deal, but some of these tuna were in the 30 to 60 pound class. Other schools of tuna were seen at times on the local fishing grounds, but they disappeared as fast as they had appeared. These fish become even more finicky in cooler conditions.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 51 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 114 yellowfin tuna, 24 bonito, 6 amberjack, 15 cabrilla, 62 pargo, 16 dorado, 14 roosterfish, 29 yellowtail and 110 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
