More Red Snapper, A Few Exotics ~ April 15, 2017
Anglers –
April 15, 2017
This is Easter week, through this weekend the entire area
almost shuts down, as local families flock to the many beaches to enjoy their
vacation time with family and friends. The weather is definitely cooperating,
ideal climate now, lows near 60 degrees, quickly warming up into the 80s as the
sun rises, winds picked up for a couple of days early in the week, but then
laid back down and anglers enjoyed great conditions on the water.
Ocean water temperatures are in the 70 to 74 degree range,
actually a bit warmer and clearer close to shore than it has been farther out.
Most consistent fishing action recently has been found from the Gordo Banks,
north towards La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis Bank. Main bait source the past
week was red crabs, caballito and ballyhoo, not much effort put towards finding
the schools of sardinas, since most charters were using the red crabs with good
results for the red snapper. Surf conditions continue to be high enough that
was more challenging for the bait netters to reach the areas where the sardinas
are schooling.
The most productive red snapper (huachinango) action was
found on the Gordo Banks, strong currents varied and it would vary from day to
day as to where the better bite was found, either on the Inner or Outer Banks,
also sea lions continue to be a nuisance, robbing more than their fair share of
the catch. The whales have now pretty much vanished from our area, headed back
towards their northern summer time feeding grounds. The unusual run of larger
sized crabs continue throughout the region off of San Jose del Cabo, though the
more usual smaller red crabs have been the mainstay for bait being use to catch
the snapper. The fish are sometimes coming up near the surface, but more often
holding in the middle of the water column. Average sizes ranged from 3 to 12
lb., these excellent eating fish are highly prized for commercial value as well
and this has definitely been the main game going on now.
Minimal
surface action was being found, a handful of yellowfin tuna to 15 lb. were
taken on the troll earlier in the week, heard of one or two wahoo and a stray
dorado offshore. No billfish action to speak of either, by the end of the month
we expect to see improved surface activity, but in the meantime we will be
concentrating over the bottom structure. A handful of amberjack, most of them
under 15 lb., we saw one nice25 lb. yellowtail, which was also taken on a red
crab bait on the Inner Gordo Bank. Some yellow snapper, leopard grouper, bonito
and triggerfish rounded out the bottom catch, anglers were using various whole
and cut baits, as well as yo-yo jigs for this action.
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Although we are not seeing many trophy sized catches
recently, the fish that are being caught are of the very good eating variety,
this season is turning out to be one of the better in many years for the amount
of quality red snapper being accounted for. We expect we will start to see more
amberjack and dogtooth snapper appear in these fish counts in the coming weeks.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita,
Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 75 charters for the week, with
anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 1 dorado, 8 yellowfin tuna, 1
yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 40 yellow snapper, 14 leopard grouper, 1 golden
cabrilla, 560 huachinango, 9 sierra, 48 bonito, 12 mojarra, 70 black skipjack
and 140 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
This entry was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.