With weather conditions now ideal, hard to say why crowds of visiting tourists remain light, the climate is perfect, mostly clear sunny skies, with high temperatures up to 85 degrees. Winds fluctuated, calm through most of the week, increasing late week.
The bite for yellowfin tuna and wahoo was the highlight for local San Jose del Cabo fleets, also there was much improved action for striped marlin found on local fishing grounds. Supplies of sardinas were being netted near San Luis, though in recent days the commercial pangeros found less quantities compared to previous weeks, these batfish have been the bait of choice for the yellowfin tuna. Quality yellowfin ranging from 25 to 50 pounds have been testing the limits of angler’s light to medium equipment. The most productive grounds have switched from north of Vinorama, back south to the Iman Bank, but beware of the pesky sea lions, who have been getting more than their share of hooked tuna. With some larger sized tuna now in the mix another option for bait has been chihuil, which of course all gamefish will feed on, particularly wahoo. Some wahoo hit on ballyhoo or trolled Rapalas, but many more were taken on either chihuil or sardinas, sizes ranged up to 40 lb. The action for the tuna changed more towards later in the morning, early through mid- week was very good, Friday the north wind picked up and all around action was limited.
Dorado were not as numerous, though a handful of fish have been accounted for, no particular area seemed to be better than the other and most dorado hooked into were in the 5 to 10 lb. class, with the exception of a few fish larger to 30 lb. Striped marlin action was centered around the 1150 spot, with fish coming up on the lure spread and rigged ballyhoo. Stripers were also seen frequently on the same grounds where tuna and wahoo were found.
Not much along the shore now, roosterfish were harder to find this past week and sierra action was spotty as well. Bottom action improved some, anglers fishing the same grounds where tuna and wahoo were found near the surface, found a mix of species such as amberjack, pargo, bonito, cabrilla and plenty of triggerfish. Most of these action was on various whole and cut bait, not much going on while using the yo-yo’s. Yellowtail action was not reported, though not many people were trying the Outer Gordo Banks where these fish were previous found holding down in the cooler depths. With surface water temperature now ranging 74 to 77 degrees, this is a bit warmer than what would be ideal for yellowtail, so best chances would most likely be down deep where currents are cooler.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 78 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
3 surgeonfish, 32 striped marlin, 44 wahoo, 33 dorado, 176 yellowfin tuna, 22 sierra, 14 jack crevalle, 7 roosterfish, 6 pompano, 20 amberjack, 65 various pargo/snapper species, 120 bonito and 110 triggerfish