Heavy
Pressure, Anglers have Mixed Success for a Variety of Species ~ October 29,
2016
Anglers –
October 29,
2016
Large crowds
of tourists and visiting anglers continue to arrive in Los Cabos. All tourist
related business operators are now very busy. Weather has remained calm,
earlier in the week there was major Hurricane Seymour churning some 500 plus miles
off to the west of the Baja Peninsula, this system made no impact on land,
except for increasing the heat index some with higher humidity. Swells were
minimal, there were a couple days where we felt some north wind, these patterns
are must starting, as we are transitioning towards late fall season.
Most local
charter are concentrating on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks and north
to Vinorama. Yellowfin tuna continued to be the most common species targeted.
Drift fishing with strips of squid has been the main technique for having
success on the yellowfin. Average size tuna was in the 15 to 30 lb. class.
Other much larger tuna are lurking, particularly around the Gordo Banks, but
getting them to bite is another matter. There were schools of porpoise being
encountered within several miles of shores and charters were chasing down these
porpoise and drifting strips of squid on lighter leaders for the tuna, these
fish have become more leader shy with the increased boat pressure. Catches
varied from day to day, as to which area might be a bit more productive.
Charters accounted for catches ranging from one or two tuna, to over ten tuna.
Very few
dorado this past week, only occasional single fish, most of them small in size.
The hot action we heard about for the dorado on the Pacific also reportedly
slowed to a standstill, hard to say what is going on with these gamefish. There
are some good numbers of wahoo in the area, though no consistent action has
been found for these fish, though one super panga early in the week did land a
triple header on wahoo up to 40 lb. though on the average we are only seeing a
coupled of these fish per day. Most strikes were on slow trolled baits, though
others were taken on yo-yo jigs or trolled Rapalas, you never know with wahoo,
you have to be ready with an arsenal, trying proven lures and baits. Anglers
drift fishing with strips of squid for tuna also hooked into many wahoo, which
occasional were landed without the monofilament line being cut.
Some quality
dogtooth snapper were being landed from the La Fortuna region, larger baits off
the bottom, with buttoned down drags needed in order to turn these fish away
from the rocks. No big numbers on these fish, but more than we had been seeing.
Also off the structure were an occasional amberjack, yellow snapper, cabrilla,
barred pargo, surgeonfish, rainbow runner and of course the ever present
triggerfish.
Billfish
were not very numerous either, though one blue marlin of 500 pounds was
accounted for from a small panga, it hit on a yellowfin tuna, which had just
been landed, and then pinned onto a heavy leader and dropped back in the water,
this after the skipper had seen the big blue marlin chasing their hooked 15/20
lb. tuna to the boat, the battle to land this big blue took some eight hours,
until ten at night when the panga returned to the dock area. We also saw black
marlin to over 200 lb., sailfish and striped marlin, though in limited numbers.
With the WON
Tuna Jackpot now just around the corner, we will be seeing many teams
pre-fishing in hopes of gaining knowledge of where to find the monster cow tuna
that will take the grand prize.
The combined
panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 152 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count
of: 1 black marlin,1 blue marlin, 5 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 464 yellowfin
tuna, 22 dorado, 16 wahoo, 32 yellow snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 1 broomtail, 6
barred pargo, 24 bonito, 6 surgeonfish, 22 huachinango, 21 dogtooth snapper, 11
amberjack, 1 roosterfish, 6 sierra, 28 rainbow runner and 180 triggerfish.
Good
fishing, Eric