Tropical Weather, More Anglers –
August 12, 2017
It seems that with each passing day the weather is becoming
more humid, increasing cloud cover, we have not had any rain recently, but
presently we are feeling the remnants of Tropical Storm Franklin which had
passed through the Gulf or Mexico and made land fall over Southern Mexico.
Forecast are for possible thundershowers over the weekend. Winds have been very
moderate, most likely will increase as this latest tropical system passes
through and moves off to the west. Swells have been very light, though they are
predicted to increase up to five or six feet by the start of this coming week.
Ocean water temperatures have been up into the 85/87 degree range.
The main species of gamefish being found now has been
yellowfin tuna, areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman Bank have been most
productive, though schooling of fish have been found spread out throughout the
region as well. Live bait has been limited to some mullet and caballito, also
still a chance at obtaining sardinas in limited quantities, this is only
because surf conditions have been so light, giving the bait netters a chance to
find some scattered schools of the sardinas, also on some days fleets are
bringing these baitfish down from areas further towards the East Cape. Using
strips of giant squid is now becoming more of an everyday deal. Some chihuil
and bolito have been jigged up at times on the offshore grounds and are being
used for slow trolling.
The yellowfin tuna are ranging in sizes from small
footballs, to over 80 lb. The larger fish have been striking on strips of
squid, sardinas or trolled whole baits, on the Inner Gordo Banks and north on
the Iman Bank. Bite varied from day to day, some days fish bit early, some days
later, overall they proved to be more finicky and line shy, leaders not heavier
than 50 lb. were best. The full moon is now waning and these darkening nights
should help the bite get back on track. Average catches have ranging from 1 or
2 tuna, up to 10, depending on size and where you happen to be on a given day.
As it commonly occurs in August, it can be hard to find much
variety, besides the yellowfin tuna, a few scattered mostly small dorado, as
well as a handful of sailfish, an occasional wahoo sighting or missed strike,
angler’s did land one 35 lb. wahoo early in the week. Not much off the bottom,
strong current has been persistent and this made it even hard to affectively
work the bottom, a couple of dogtooth snapper, huachinango, cabrilla, bonito,
amberjack and triggerfish rounded out the structure action.
Not many charters fished along the shoreline now, late in
the season for this, though we did hear of a few roosterfish being caught and
released. Billfish action was limited, though one black marlin of about 360 lb.
was landed and another couple of big marlin strikes were lost, also more
sailfish moving in with the warmer currents and of course some striped marlin
stragglers still hanging in the area, while most of these cooler water marlin
have moved towards Northern Baja.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita,
Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 88 charters for the week, with
anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 striped marlin, 4
sailfish, 16 dorado, 2 wahoo, 3 amberjack, 3 dogtooth snapper, 12 bonito, 8
yellow snapper, 238 yellowfin tuna, 11 leopard grouper,2 pinto cabrilla, 18
huachinango, 9 roosterfish and 38 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
This entry was
posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.