With the summer season now officially over we have started the busy Fall Season. Weather remained calm in the Eastern Pacific through most of the week, no rain until Saturday, when the remnants of Hurricane Marty swept by and left scattered thundershowers and wind gusts to 30 mile per hours in certain isolated areas, by later in the day conditions settled down and that seemed to be the end of this system. Heat index still over 100 degrees, with very high humidity. The climate should become more comfortable in the coming weeks. We were closely watching the development of Hurricane Marty far to the south early in the week, this system quickly dissipated mid-week, after slowly progressing through apparently unfavorable environment for further strengthening and for progressing northward. A great thing for us, we hope these storms continue to go elsewhere, we expect in several more weeks the chances of any further tropical storm activity will be slim, though with these strong El Niño conditions you never really know what might happen.
Ocean water temperatures are now in the 85 to 88 degree range, clean blue water is found within several miles of shore, strong currents have slackened some. Full moon phase recently passed and contributed to a few tougher days for anglers, coinciding with early morning low tides and higher surf conditions, this made the sardinas much harder to find and net for the commercial fleet. Another option for bait was slabs of giant squid, not easy to obtain though, local super markets carry them and some bait vendors are starting to also offer packages of squid in the same marina launch area.
The yellowfin tuna were the main species now being cooperative and for this reason targeted, only an occasional dorado or two and wahoo have not been active this past week either. Working the bottom structure anglers found a scattering of miscellaneous species, main catches were small to medium grade pargo and snapper species, a few decent cabrilla and amberjack also in the mix. Local fleets have been fishing in different directions, most consistent action was found from close to off of Santa Maria, to the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. In recent days the bite near Cabo San Lucas for the smaller 5 to 15 lb. yellowfin tuna, has faded compared to previous weeks, lots of pressure and limited supplies of baitfish, as well as there now being a problem with aggressive sea lion activity, these pesky predators have just returned recently and are waiting on the same fishing grounds for their chance at any possible easy meal.
Action near Vinorama improved for tuna in the 10 to 20 lb. class, with an occasional fish to 50 or 60 lb. mixed in, chance at a wahoo or dorado from this same area as well, though not many were actually landed, these fish are on the grounds, being seen free swimming and feeding on chum. These yellowfin were striking mainly while drift fishing with squid or sardinas. Proving to be finicky earlier in the week, making a big showing on the surface but not wanting to strike. The bite on the Gordo Banks improved through the week, with a quality grade of 50 to 90 lb. fish being accounted for in decent numbers, strong group of fish, with most anglers now using gear ranging from 40 to 80 lb. The key on the Gordo Banks has been having the squid, the more the better, lots of chumming involved.
Marlin action seemed to slow down this past week, one smaller blue marlin was caught from La Playita, and a handful of sailfish. Some of the yellowfin action late in the week was found under pods of traveling porpoise on the outside of Gordo Banks, drift fish squid underneath the porpoise, fast moving deal, who knows where this action will be the next day.
Overall with the weather remaining calm, this is allowing the ocean conditions to become more favorable and we are anticipating a great fall bite, continuing through and into winter.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 119 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 1 blue marlin, 356 yellowfin tuna, 28 dorado, 3 wahoo, 35 white skipjack, 18 bonito, 10 rainbow runner, 4 dogtooth snapper, 26 yellow snapper, 6 amberjack, 38 triggerfish, 14 cabrilla and 13 barred pargo.