March 20, 2011
Anglers –
Spring time is now officially here and the weather is on a warming trend accordingly. Moderate crowds of vacationers are enjoying clear sunny skies with high temperatures reaching into the mid 80s. Winds have diminished and anglers found excellent ocean conditions, minimal swells with water temperatures averaging 69 to 72 degrees.
Supplies of sardinas are holding up, these baitfish were found schooling in various locations along the shoreline, though they were more abundant north of Punta Gorda, near Vinorama. There has been a lack of larger baitfish, no mackerel or caballito to speak of. Red crabs have been found on the San Jose del Cabo fishing grounds and are being used as bait for red snapper (pargo and huachinango).
Throughout the month of March anglers found that the most consistent fishing action was closer to shore. Working the various rock piles with yo-yo jigs and sardinas produced a mix bag of pargo, yellowtail, amberjack, bonito, cabrilla, triggerfish and others. While trolling the inshore beach stretches there was good action for sierra, jack crevalle and roosterfish. Not too many larger sized fish, most of the fish caught were under ten pounds, but there were a handful of yellowtail accounted for that were in the 30 pound class and some quality huachinango (red snapper) up to 10 pounds, at times these true Pacific red snapper were being found near the surface feeding the abundant pelagic red crabs.
Yellowfin tuna counts were minimal, on occasions tuna were seen feeding and breezing the surface on the Gordo and Iman Banks, but only an sporadic fish was being hooked, very shy, preferring to feed on the available food source on the fishing grounds, most notably the red crabs. The yellowfin that were being landed weighed in the 15 to 30 pounds class. At this same time frame last year there was an abundance of giant squid in the region and anglers were having some success using the strip squid as bait for tuna in the 50 to 90 pound range. We have not heard of any giant squid in local waters at this time, even though conditions seem favorable to attract them.
Quite a few wahoo were reportedly seen free swimming around in small groups, often close to the shore, a bit strange compared to their normal habitat. Not many of these wahoo were hooked into, they just were not very interest in any offerings, the few that were accounted for were on various cut or whole baits. One wahoo weighing close to 70 pounds was taken from a panga on a trolled lure near the Gordo Banks and the other wahoo that were accounted for were of good size.
Striped marlin action was spread out, no large concentrations of fish, the lack of bigger baitfish has not helped this situation. The local panga fleets were occasionally hooking into stripers while drift fishing with sardinas for tuna and other species. The marlin that were accounted for weighed in the 70 to 130 pound range. Some striped marlin were also found in the blue water by blind strikes while trolling lures. With water conditions now stabilizing and on a warming trend we expect the offshore surface action to improve significantly in the coming weeks.
Despite continuing news reports of cartel issues near Mexican border towns and on the mainland there have been no incidents at all reported from the Los Cabos area and this region remains a very safe travel destination.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 80 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
6 striped marlin, 10 dorado, 13 yellowfin tuna, 28 bonito, 315 sierra, 34 roosterfish, 24 yellowtail, 26 jack crevalle, 468 pargo,17 cabrilla, 4 wahoo, 6 hammerhead shark, 4 dogtooth snapper and 12 amberjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
