April 13, 2008
Anglers -
We are now officially into the spring season, clocks have been sprung forward one hour, days are becoming increasing longer and ocean water temperatures are on a warming trend. Offshore fishing action moved closer to shore in recent days, as the gamefish were following the bait supply and cleaner currents that moved within only a couple of miles of the shoreline. Moderate crowds of vacationers are enjoying sunny days, with high temperatures reaching the mid to upper 80s. All around local tourism is substantially lower than normal for this time of year, all we can do is hope the economy improves soon.
Just a few days ago fleets were traveling some 20 miles offshore to find striped marlin and yellowfin tuna action. Early this week conditions rapidly changed, clean blue water moved close to shore in the areas from Cabo San Lucas to Chileno and both yellowfin tuna and marlin were found in substantial numbers. Concentrations of mackerel were schooling in this same region, striped marlin were found as close as one mile to shore in some instances, feeding on the balled up bait schools, charter boats were reporting multiple landings of stripers in the 100 to 150 pound class on a regular basis. Anglers had best success casting baits into the feeding marlin, but also there was a fair percentage of marlin being hooked into on trolled lures. Wednesday was particular wide open, every boat in the vicinity was telling stories of all the marlin they either seen feeding or were hooked up with. Tuna were striking on trolled lures, medium sized feathers, cedar plugs and rapalas, blind strikes, not associated with porpoise, once the schools were encountered, typically 3 to 4 miles from shore, multiple strikes were common. Mid week there were some high wind swells to deal with and this did slow down the tuna action. Marlin were actually found closer to the shore in more protected waters. Most of the yellowfin landed were weighing 10 to 16 pounds, though some fish to 40 or 50 pounds were reported, particularly on larger lures that were being trolled for marlin. A handful of scattered reports of dorado were reported, fish ranging up to 30 pounds, striking on the same marlin or tuna type lures. Water temperatures have varied from 64 degrees on the Pacific to as high as 72 to 74 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.
Other action included sierra and roosterfish along the shoreline, trolling various baits worked best for this action, the majority of these fish were in the 2 to 7 pound range.
A few of the juvenile sized yellowtail were still taken off the shallow rock piles and to the north of Punta Gorda there were hungry schools of Mexican bonito providing fast and furious action. Limited reports for amberjack, cabrilla and huachinago (red snapper), though some quality fish were accounted for on yo-yo jigs, the key was finding an area that was not dominated by the bonito.
The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos area reported sending out approximately 55 charters for the week, with anglers having a fish count of: 7 dorado,
74 yellowfin tuna, 34 striped marlin, 17 yellowtail, 13 amberjack, 34 red snapper, 164 sierra, 15 roosterfish and 266 Mexican bonito.
Good Fishing, Eric
