June 29, 2008
Anglers –
With the summer season now officially started we expect it will not be long before the weather patterns stabilize and conditions become hot and humid. In the mean time there continues to be breezes from the south that push in cooler Pacific air and water currents. Very ideal weather except in does not help the offshore fishing conditions, dirty greenish water has plagued much of the region and anglers have not found any significant action for dorado, yellowfin tuna or billfish, the most consistent bite has been for structure fish off the rock piles and trolling baits closer to shore. Water temperatures varied from 70 to 80 degrees this past week, warmest areas are towards Los Frailes. There were abundant supplies of sardinas in La Playita and also on most days mullet were available.
The local panga fleets found very good action for a variety of fish, not the exotic offshore pelagic, but never the less quality and very good eating. Fishing with either live sardinas or mullet produced the most consistent action, but yo-yo jigs also accounted for a percentage of hook ups. The Inner Gordo Bank was probably the best bet throughout the week, particularly early in the morning when the huachinango (red snapper) were aggressive. Limits were the rule and sizes on the snapper ranged from 7 to 15 pounds. Mixed in were some impressive amberjack up to 50 pounds and yellowtail to over 30 pounds.
Inshore there were dogtooth snapper that challenged even the most experienced of anglers, of course more hooked fish were lost than landed, this due to the close proximity of rocks, but there were some specimens over 40 pounds accounted for, trolling with live mullet was the best choice and the ship wreck area off of La Salina was one of the hot spots. This same area held nice sized African pompano, sierra and yellow snapper. At least a couple of fifty pound class roosterfish were caught and released on this same wreck by angler Pat Walsh of Venice, California while fishing with skipper Tony Miranda on the super panga "Hooker". The majority of the roosterfish have been smaller 5 to 10 pound fish.
Offshore there were scattered reports of striped marlin, dorado and even a few yellowfin tuna, though the action was not as consistent from day to day as it was closer to shore. Fleets from the East Cape region are reporting better action now for dorado and yellowfin tuna, the water is cleaner and warmer, not being so stirred up from the southern currents as are the areas off of Los Cabos. With July just around the corner we do expect conditions finally to settle down and the action off of Southern Baja should heat up accordingly.
The combined panga fleets out of La Playita /Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 88 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 5 yellowfin tuna, 9 dorado, 8 yellowtail, 23 amberjack, 15 pompano, 14 dogtooth snapper, 33 yellow snapper, 225 huachinango (red snapper), 52 sierra and 146 roosterfish (released).
Good fishing, Eric
