May 18, 2008
Anglers -
As we progress deeper into the spring season the local weather pattern in Los Cabos seems to be confused and has been hard to predict in recent days. There still has been some wind to deal with, from the north and then just as quickly, switching from out of the south. Scattered cloud cover, marine layer and even summer like high humidity at times. Daytime time temperatures are peaking in the upper 80s and water temperature throughout the region varied from the low to upper 70s. Live mackerel were not easy to obtain, though on most days there were adequate supplies of sardinas. Most sportfishing fleets are now fishing on the fishing grounds from straight out of Cabo San Lucas to the Iman Bank, north of Punta Gorda.
Lots of striped marlin being found throughout the zone, though they are not that easy to hook into, apparently they are filling up the abundant squid in the area. Striped are being found within several miles of shore, more often closer than further offshore. Anglers reported strikes while trolling lures, but a higher percentage of hook ups resulted in casting or trolling baits. There were bolito and skipjack on the same fishing grounds that could be caught on hoochie skirts and used for trolling baits. Most of the marlin now being accounted for was weighing in the 100 to 140 pound range.
The commercial tuna seiners have netting most of the yellowfin tuna that had moved into the area, so anglers have only been able to find slim pickings of any tuna. Some yellowfin are still be found 2 to 5 miles off of the Chileno area and there are also a handful of the football sized tuna coming from the Iman area, though at times the north winds made that area impossible to fish.
Dorado counts remain much the same, no big numbers, though most charters are finding one or two of these acrobatic fish mixed in their overall daily catch. Sizes ranged from 10 to 40 pounds, with these fish being found on various bait and trolled lures on the same fishing grounds where marlin or tuna were being targeted. Only an occasional report of any wahoo encounters, though the water is warming, still needs to clean up more and it would also be more encouraging if more baitfish such as bolito, flying fish and small skipjack would move into the area.
Shallow water rock fish produced a mix of cabrilla, yellow snapper, pompano, Mexican bonito and firecracker sized yellowtail, these fish were hitting on sardinas, rapalas and cast chrome patterned jigs. Along the sandy and rocky beach stretches there were good number of sierra up to eight pounds found, also lots of small sized roosterfish and some jackpot size crevalle up to 25 pounds.
Although the recent fishing action has not been up to normal springtime standards in the Cabo area there have been a good variety of fish being found. With the water continuing to warm we anticipate the action to steadily improve in the coming weeks.
The combined local panga fleets launching from the La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos area sent out approximately 47 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 19 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 32 yellowfin tuna, 4 mako shark, 9 amberjack,11 pompano, 72 various pargo species, 12 cabrilla, 88 yellowtail, 118 Mexican bonito, 22 jack crevalle, 72 sierra and 65 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
