September 1, 2008
Anglers '
Visiting tourists were greeted by Tropical Storm Julio this past weekend, as the system made landfall just to the west of Cabo San Lucas on Sunday afternoon and then continued on a path towards Muege before it finally was downgraded and dissipated over the northern Sea of Cortez. The storm brought some much need rainfall, anywhere from 3 to 10 inches were reported, winds of 50 miles per hour, with some higher gusts, this created very stormy ocean conditions and completely closed down all ports for Sunday, sportfishing fleets really did not start back full operations until Tuesday. Families had to be evacuated in certain flooded areas and there was quite a mess to clean up. Things are gradually returning back to normal now, while we keep a close watch to the south for any new storms that might develop, at this time it is clear on the horizon, but there still is another month of hurricane season and we will hope that no storms are too much stronger than Julio.
The ocean did quickly settle down and by Monday afternoon it was basically as calm as it it had been before the storm, only thing is the Water temperatures had dropped by about five degrees and greenish currents had moved in. Conditions change fast this time of year and by Tuesday afternoon the water was cleaning rapidly and warmed to an average of 80 to 83 degrees. As long as the weather remains calm we expect that the offshore conditions should steadily improve. Fleets had found the fishing action to be very good before Julio moved in, then of course right after the bite had become more stagnant, now by mid-week the action is returning to how it had been in the days before the weather change. Dorado counts have been steady, most charters are catching and released up to ten or more fish per day, the majority of the fish are under 15 pounds, but there are also a percentage of larger bulls of 20 to 45 pounds being accounted for. Slow trolling with sardinas have been the most consistent method, but the do-dos are also striking on lures.
Yellowfin tuna are becoming more common on the local fishing grounds, but the dorado have them out numbered. Tuna were found by trolling with sardinas in various locations, including Chileno, Palmilla, La Fortuna and Iman. Most of the yellowfin ranged 10 to 15 pounds, but there was another grade of fish in the 25 to 50 pound class that were occasionally making an appearance in the same areas.
Billfish off of the San Jose del Cabo became scarcer since the storm, a few sailfish were striking on lures and bait, but not much activity reported for the larger black and blue marlin. Of course there is not a whole lot of charter activity right now as crowds were light, but we do believe that with all of the skipack and smaller yellowfin in the water this should attract more of the giants.
The strong current continued to rip through the region and this made bottom drift fishing that much more difficult. Despite this, there were some quality specimens of dogtooth snapper, cabrilla and gulf grouper accounted for by the handful of anglers that were dedicated to targeting these species. Included were snapper to 50 pounds and grouper to 119 pounds.
Surf anglers in the vicinity of Puerto Los Cabos and the San Jose Estuary area reported several very impressive sized snook to over 30 pounds, also many juvenile snook in the 5 to 10 pound class. A few impressive tripletails to 20 pounds were hooked by anglers that reported using cut mullet, best time for these fish were at sunset into the first hour of darkness.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 41 charters during their storm shortened week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 sailfish,1 striped marlin, 3 hammerhead, 325 dorado, 42 yellowfin tuna, 11 cabrilla, 4 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 3 grouper, 9 barred pargo,
16 huachinango, 7 roosterfish and 246 skipjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
