Light summer time crowds of anglers enjoyed calmer weather
patterns this past week, with no new tropical storms presently forming to the
south, it appears conditions will be favorable at least through the later part
of next week.
It is hard to predict tropical weather forecast too far in
advance this time of year. Humidity has increased, August is always a muggy
month, there is more could cover, though heat is intense, with the combined
heat index nearing 110 degrees. Ocean water temperatures are warming daily, up
to an average of 87 degrees now, ocean swells are moderate, as no storms are
near at this time.
The main target species which has been cooperating is the
yellowfin tuna, with action now being found from the Gordo Banks, Cardon, Iman,
San Luis to Vinorama. Sizes for the tuna has ranged from 10 lb. to 80 lb. Most
all of this action has been found while drift fishing with various baits, from
live and dead sardinas, caballito, chunks of skipjack and strips of squid. It
is always beneficial to have as many bait options as possible for this style of
fishing. Some days these fish were hitting early, other days late, so you also
need to know how to ration your bait supplies accordingly. Just in recent days
the yellowfin have been more active on the Gordo Banks, this will be a welcome
relief for local fleets, which have had to travel as far as Vinorama to find
action and then compete with all of the East Cape fleets that were traveling
south to the same grounds. Numbers of tuna were not huge, but many charters
were accounting for up to five fish, with many of these in the 40 to 70 lb.
class, nice quality fish. A bit line shy as well, so using 30 to 50 lb. tackle
has produced more action, though also many bigger fish have been broke off.
Wahoo and dorado were very sporadic, a scattering of mostly
smaller sized dorado and wahoo which had bit well last week, tapered way off
this week, as they often do become more sluggish when the water temperatures
reaches into the upper 80s. Billfish bite was slow as well, who knows what is
up with that. Plenty of sharks in the area, as many of the hooked up tuna were
being bit into as they neared the boats, from the size of the bite marks, these
were not small sharks.
Bottom action was not consistent, but produced a mix of huachinango,
amberjack, pompano, bonito and various cabrilla species. Highlight were a few
amberjack in the 40 to 50 lb. range. These fish were striking more often on
yo-yo style jigs, some on whole and cut baits.
Not much inshore fishing action being dome now, some anglers
did scout this option out, but did not have much to report, a few roosterfish,
jack crevalle and at least one dogtooth snapper.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita,
Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 76 charters for the week, with
anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 22 dorado, 6
wahoo, 7 amberjack, 3 pompano, 1 dogtooth snapper, 8 bonito, 12 yellow snapper,
202 yellowfin tuna, 14 leopard grouper, 4 spotted cabrilla, 55 huachinango, 11
jack crevalle, 6 roosterfish and 72 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
This entry was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.