February 15, 2015
Weather patterns continue to vary greatly, we had felt the first signs of spring, with nearly 90 degree sunny days, now as the weekend arrives we are dealing with a storm front blowing in from the south that is forecast to bring scattered thundershowers possibly through Monday. We do not expect any significant measurable rainfall, but nevertheless this will make the roads slippery and put a hamper on planned outdoor activities.
Ocean water temperatures have been in the 72 to 75 degree range throughout most of the region. Winds have been swirling from the north and then shifting from the south, averaging 10 to 20 mph. These conditions have been a factor for where charters could practical fish on any given day. Recently the most consistent local fishing grounds have been found north of Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna to Iman. Anglers have been obtaining sufficient supplies of sardinas from bait boats that have been netting the schooling baitfish near Vinorama and hauling them back towards the same grounds where the fleet has been concentrated.
Early in the week some decent yellowfin tuna in the 15 to 30 lb. class were being landed, at a ratio of anywhere from 2 to 6 per boat, not bad for the heart of winter, this is normally not even yellowfin tuna season, the fish were striking on sardinas while using lighter leaders, they would bite in flurries, becoming quite finicky and not whiling to compete with the skipjack and bonito at times. As the weather deteriorated, so did this tuna action. Hopefully after this system passes through and as conditions settle back down, the action will rebound. While good numbers of dorado continue to be found on the Pacific, these fish have been more elusive in the directions of San Jose del Cabo, though actually a few more dorado were being found in recent days, often very close to shore, practically where the sierra bite has been happening, dorado sizes improved some, a handful of bulls up to 20 pounds or more were accounted for.
Bottom action was sporadic, quite a variety of species in the area, but no consistency or big numbers of any given species. A few yellowtail are starting to show up on the various rock piles, most of the yellows that were caught have hit on yo-yo style jigs and have been quality fish in the 25 to 35 lb. range. We will be anticipating more of these powerful jacks to arrive in the coming months, as this is the time when these fish migrate through the Southern Baja region. A handful of pargo, cabrilla, bonito, triggerfish and white tuna have been rounding out the action over the rocky structure.
Sierra have been the dominate fish found close to shore, also a few snapper, roosterfish and other jacks. Two separate incidents of whales being trapped in commercial net gear were reported from areas north of San Jose del Cabo, never did we hear what became of any rescue attempt, though hopefully this puts increased pressure on these bands of reckless commercial co-ops to relocate back to their mainland headquarters. Overall we have not been seeing as many whales as would be expected, maybe more are still on their way south, or have decided to stay on the Pacific side of the Peninsula.
Not much in the way of billfish activity being reported, though we have heard that striped marlin are being encountered in spread out numbers offshore, searching for their food source, this has been mainly 5 to 10 miles from shore, but still no large concentrations, they are on the move now, looking for schooling baitfish.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 69 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 6 yellowtail, 47 yellowfin tuna, 82 dorado, 110 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 44 bonito, 22 white tuna, 20 cabrilla, 10 huachiango, 16 yellow snapper, 14 mojarra, and 160 skipjack