Inshore Structure More Productive than Offshore -July 16,2016
Anglers –
July 16, 2016
With the
majority of school sessions now out for summer vacation we have seen an
increase in tourists arriving, they are being greeted by tropical weather
conditions, though we did not receive any rain this past week, we have seen an
increase in cloud activity, this is the time of year when we often have
thunderstorms develop later in the afternoon over the mountainous regions just
to the north of the airport. In the past ten days there has been a series of
tropical storms that have developed off to the southwest of the Southern Baja
peninsula, first Hurricanes Celia and Darby and presently there is another
tropical depression that is forecast to gain strength and become Hurricane
Estelle. So far all of these systems have headed far enough off to the west that
they have had no impact on land, only some moderate increase in ocean swells,
some threatening thundershowers possibly in isolate areas and winds out of the
south, increasing later in the day.
Water temperatures have rapidly warmed back up
into 78 to 83 degrees range, strong currents continue to push in greenish water
closer to shore, though within several miles of shore we are seeing much
cleaner water. Bait supplies of caballito and moonfish are remaining sufficient
in the marina channel area, offshore there are opportunities at finding
skipjack, bolito, as well.
We did not
hear much going on with offshore porpoise and tuna activity this past week,
though this is something that can occur at any given time this time of year. We
have been finding a smaller grade of yellowfin tuna in the area from Iman to
San Luis Banks, tuna in the 8 to 20 lb. class have been striking on a variety
of medium sized trolling lures, as well as few of these yellowfin striking on
yo-yo jigs or trolled baits. This has not been a wide open bite by any means,
most charters averaging two to four tuna in their combined catch. The same
grounds have produced a mix of pargo and snapper species, a handful of cabrilla
and amberjack. Other options were closer to the shoreline, where anglers
continue to find decent numbers of roosterfish, ranging in sizes from 10 lb.,
to over 60 lb. Also chances at dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado and amberjack
as well, this action was found while slow trolling or drift fishing available
baits. Amberjack to 75 lb. were accounted for, also a handful of quality
leopard grouper to 20 lb. Early in the morning anglers found decent action on
yo-yo jigs, bonito, cabrilla, huachinango, yellow snapper and others, all
excellent eating table fare.
Only a
scattering of dorado being reported, most of these further offshore where boats
are targeting billfish, a mix of striped marlin and a few blue marlin. Most of
the dorado we did see were smaller sized, less than 15 lb. A few wahoo were
found just north of Vinorama, even though the water was greenish on these
inshore grounds, apparently there must be something attracting the wahoo to
this one small area. With the offshore fishing being more scattered, most panga
charters are doing better to target the variety of species being encountered
closer to shore, best spots have been from Cardon to Vinorama, within three
miles of shore.
Conditions
continue to be a bit sporadic, we expect later in the month conditions will
stabilize and we will see more consistent action on the pelagic gamefish, such
as dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish, black and blue marlin.
The combined
panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 71 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
6 striped marlin, 17 dogtooth snapper, 85 yellowfin tuna, 36 bonito, 6 dorado,
4 wahoo, 19 amberjack, 28 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 6 pargo colorado, 23
huachinango (red snapper), 10 yellow snapper, 6 barred pargo, 12 jack crevalle,
3 snook and 42 roosterfish.
Good
fishing, Eric
This entry was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.