Crowds are
only moderate now, with weather conditions still bearable, as we are starting
to feel the heat of oncoming seasonal changes. This weekend we will celebrate
Father’s Day and then also in the coming days the summer season will officially
begin on June 20, which also happens to be the day of the full moon, this is a
rare occurrence, when the day of the Summer Solstice and the full moon fall on
the same date, actually this has not happened since 1948, some 68 years ago.
The climate has progressively felt more humid throughout this week, as a
tropical depression was slowly moving off to the southwest of the lower Baja
Peninsula about 300 miles off of land, does not impose any threat, only
slightly increased swell activity and the higher humidity. Also a few more
tropical clouds forming, though more than enough warm sunshine.
A lot can
happen in a matter of one week, after last week’s big blow from out of the
south pushed in cold Pacific currents to Punta Colorado, patterns have since
stabilized and now warm waters near 80 degrees have pushed back in, from Cabo
San Lucas and in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, though on the Pacific side
of Cabo the water temperatures are still in the lower 70s. All this current
flow has made the inshore waters, up to about five miles offshore, a little off
colored and greenish. As we near the month of July we usually see that the blue
water comes very close to shore as weather patterns increasingly warm.
This week we
saw a huge influx of schooling mullet move into the San Jose del Cabo region,
have not seen this much mullet activity in this area for at least several
years. With all of this baitfish activity we have also seen the larger sized
roosterfish arrive in substantial numbers. Reports of great roosterfish action
on fish to over fifty pounds along the entire coastal stretches, though one
particular local hot spot were the stretches from La Fortuna to north of
Vinorama. Along with the roosterfish also came the hog sized jack crevalle and
some dogtooth snapper action is also starting to be seen, if you can find a
spot where the jacks will leave you alone long enough in order to give the
snapper a chance. Sharks were moving closer to shore, the pilot sharks have
been thick offshore for several months now, but we are now seeing more
hammerhead as well, these sharks are congregating on the same bottom structure
areas where we commonly target species such as cabrilla, amberjack, pargo and
others, the sharks can become too numerous at times to be able to really have
much a chance at catching the preferred species. Sharks our presently out of
season, not legal to retain, though we always prefer to release them anyway.
Anglers should also remember to release all roosterfish with care when possible,
these fish are a prized for their fighting stamina, not eating quality, these
gamefish can grow to weights of over one hundred pounds and also have a very
limited habitat that should be protected, only existing worldwide from Southern
Baja to Costa Rica.
Offshore
action included striped marlin and dorado, scattered with mixed results, some
charters accounting for multiple marlin and dorado days. Dorado up to 25 lb.,
stripers averaging 90 to 130 lb. Many fish were just encountered by taking
blind strikes on lures or on rigged baits such as ballyhoo or mullet. Caballito
became scarcer, more mullet available this week compared to any other baitfish.
Strips of squid are still be used for chunk fishing on the grounds from the
Iman to Vinorama Banks. No significant numbers of yellowfin tuna, but charters
that did target this action with persistence accounted for one, two or three
tuna that averaged 25 to 30 lb. Only a couple wahoo reportedly landed recently,
others were seen free swimming, so they are definitely in the area, these fish
always seem to be elusive, until conditions are to their liking and they decide
to go on the bite.
The combined
panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 80 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
2 wahoo, 13 striped marlin, 7 dogtooth snapper, 36 yellowfin tuna, 29 bonito,
14 dorado, 15 amberjack,15 leopard grouper (cabrilla), 34 yellow snapper, 8
sierra, 14 barred pargo, 55 jack crevalle, 105 roosterfish and 90 triggerfish.
Good
fishing, Eric
Author: This entry
was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.