Wahoo go on
the Bite, Tuna Action Slow ~ March 18, 2017
Anglers –
March 18,
2017
A steady
flow of spring break vacationers continue to arrive in Los Cabos, also this is
the big week for the annual San Jose del Cabo traditional as well, so the town
is very busy. The weather is progressively warming up, already feeling like
late spring, winds were light in recent days, skies were clear and high
temperatures were in the mid-80s, ideal climate now. Still lots of whales being
sighted, we expect with this warming trend, that these mammals will start
heading north soon.
Schools of
sardinas are being found near Palmilla, on most days sufficient supplies were
being netted, other bait options included ballyhoo and strips of squid. Most of
the local action has now been found from off of Palmilla, to Punta Gorda, La
Fortuna and to the Iman Bank. Not much at all being found further offshore for
the charters that did scout that out, lack of billfish action at this time,
most charters are fishing closer to shore and over the normal rocky structure
areas until reports offshore improve.
Yellowfin
tuna action was very spotty, the tuna were seen at times on the surface, but
were very finicky in striking baits, not hitting on lures either. Best chances
were found while drift fishing or slow trolling with live sardinas over the
grounds of La Fortuna and the Iman Bank, we were only seeing a handful of
yellowfin landed each day, anglers were fortunate to land one of them, of the
fish we saw, they averaged 20 to 30 lb, though we did see one 60 lb. fish
brought in mid-week. There were more black skipjack than anything else.
Off the
bottom, on these same grounds, we saw a mix of species such as yellow snapper,
island jack, amherjack, cabrilla, red snapper, pargo and triggerfish. Not a lot
of larger fish, mostly in the 4 to 10 lb. range, no big quantities either, but
all very good eating. Strong currents have been running, this never helps
anything, especially when fishing the bottom. Inshore the main action was for
sierra while using sardinas, we saw a few nicer sized fish up to eight pounds
accounted for.
We have not
seen any dorado recently, though we did have big surprise with a wahoo bite
developing off of Punta Gorda, this is something we normally would see in
December. Even though the water temperature is in the lower 70s, there were
sizable schools of wahoo holding in this area, which is less than a mile from
shore. Sizes ranging from 15 lb. to 60 lb. Fish were a bit finicky, coming up
on baits, most often not striking, other times they would hit sardinas or
rigged ballyhoo and many also hit on yo-yo jigs. A few of the local skippers
tried other techniques normally used only while trying to snag baitfish such as
mullet, not an approved method, but wahoo are very elusive and open game. Of
course the word got out of this action by later in the week and then we saw
free divers with spears working the same spot, this is always a quick way to
spook the fish out of the area. With the ongoing warming trend anything can
happen and this wahoo action in recent days has been a prime example of this,
as March is not the normal season when we find these prized sought after
gamefish.
The combined
panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
24 yellowfin tuna, 7 amberjack, 2 island jacks, 1 sheepshead, 33 wahoo, 25
yellow snapper, 14 flag cabrilla, 19 leopard grouper, 62 huachinango, 75
sierra, 60 black skipjack and 110 triggerfish.
Good
fishing, Eric
This entry
was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.