Inshore
Conditions Turn Over Again, Cow Tuna 20-30 Miles Offshore ~ June 25, 2016
Anglers –
June 25,
2016
With the
officially start to the summer season we also saw the weather change to more of
a tropical pattern. Increased morning cloud cover, burning off as the day
progressed, higher humidity and heat index up to 100 degrees. The wind and
swell patterns are now becoming more predominate from the south. This week
there was a ocean swell from the southern hemisphere that pushed into Baja
waters. Currents continued to be extremely strong, inshore areas are now cooler
and greener, the clarity line had been within several miles of shore, but in recent
days have shifted from 20 to 30 miles offshore, this is where there is a
pronounced break from 74 degree water, up to 78 or even 80 degree currents.
This entire
week had the ocean conditions rapidly changing, the week started with warmer
clean water being found fairly close to shore, then water clarity deteriorated
and the warm blue water shifted to much further offshore. All of this movement
has limited what sportfishing fleets were able to do, basically it was down to
two main options, either stay closer to shore and work the beach stretches and
the structure within a couple miles of shore, other plan was to head out deep
to where the clean water was found.
Bait
supplies consisted of mullet, caballito, moonfish, or ballyhoo and squid slabs
were also available. The majority of the local panga fleets were fishing on the
grounds from Cardon to Vinorama, trolling or drift fishing with various baits,
there were some great quality fish accounted for early in the week, as the week
progressed the water became more stirred up with the increased swell and the
action tapered off. One of the more significant catches was a 122 lb. amberjack
that was landed near Vinorama on a live mullet from the super panga “Hooker” by
skipper Tony Miranda’s son Axel, what a monster. There were many other
amberjack landed that were in the 20 to 70 lb. class. Also a handful of
dogtooth snapper and pargo Colorado, leopard grouper, barred pargo, yellow
snapper, roosterfish, jack crevalle and at least one yellowtail.
Off the structure, in areas of 120 to 180 ft. there was some
action encountered while using yo-yo jigs, mid-week there were some yellowfin
tuna up to 75 lb. landed off of the San Luis Bank, then as the water became off
colored, that put an end to that action for the time being. All week there were
reports of larger cow sized yellowfin tuna being encountered while trolling
among pods of fast moving porpoise, most days this activity was found some 20
to 30 miles from shore, near where the warm water break was. We saw one 170 lb.
class yellowfin brought to the panga dock area, we heard of a fish over 300 lb.
taken from a Los Barriles charter, there were many reports of big fish, though
with the distance offshore and the combination of south wind chop, this was
mainly a larger boat deal and for the boats that arrived on the scene first
before the traffic created too much commotion and put the fish off the bite.
Other action offshore besides encountered possibly tuna action was for
scattered strikes on striped marlin or dorado, no big numbers but a few nice
fish were being found, most of these just by trolling lures in open water. Not
much talk of wahoo this past week, though as the water clears back up closer to
shore these fish could become more active at any time.
The
roosterfish action continued to be very good along a wide stretch of inshore
zones, a couple of off days when currents became dirty and cold in certain
regions, quickly changing from day to day now. We heard of roosterfish to fifty
pounds that were caught and released, also scores of big jack crevalle are also
patrolling these same inshore areas.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita,
Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 63 charters for the week, with
anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 1 yellowtail, 9 dogtooth
snapper, 23 yellowfin tuna, 16 bonito, 9 dorado, 26 amberjack, 18 leopard
grouper (cabrilla), 18 pargo colorado, 24 yellow snapper, 5 sierra, 10 barred
pargo, 72 jack crevalle, 74 roosterfish and 55 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
This entry was posted in Fish Reports by admin-pangaMan.