The weather patterns finally are starting to feel like Fall, though daytime temperatures were still warm reaching up to 90 degree, early morning lows are about 65 degrees, ideal climate actually. One drawback is that we are also feeling the north winds in recent days for the first time this season, up to 20 mph, this has made for choppy conditions on fishing grounds north of Punta Gorda. Water temperatures are now in the 84 degree range, no distinct area of a drastic temperature break. Swells have been moderate and early in the day most days ocean conditions were nice. Crowds are heavy this week, with the Won Tuna Jackpot Tournament having over 150 teams participating, this is the season’s final high stakes event.
There continue to be no sardinas available, baitfish supplies now consist of caballito, squid on most days, also ballyhoo starting to be available, some charters are looking for chihuil for use as trolling baits. Seems like during these big tournament events the bait situation becomes more limited, lots of hoarding going on.
Fleets out of San Jose del Cabo have been concentrating their efforts from the Gordo Banks to Vinorama, the action that had been productive for several weeks close off of Punta Gorda slacked up and the grounds towards Cardon, La Fortuna, Iman and Desteladera started to show more activity. Yellowfin tuna were being found moving with porpoise and were hitting on strips of squid, though this action was unpredictable as where and when the porpoise and in turn the yellowfin, would be encountered, more often late in the morning. The tuna being caught were mostly in the 40 to 65 lb. class, no big numbers, but quality grade of fish, some tuna much larger were also hooked into, but most were eventually lost due to lighter 50 lb. leaders that were being used to entice the line shy yellowfin.
Dorado and wahoo were also being found on these same grounds, better bite was first part of the week, before north winds played havoc. Wahoo were striking best on various baits, such as chihuil, caballito or rigged ballyhoo, also a percentage hit on trolling lures, sizes ranged up to 54 lb., most fish were in the 15 to 30 lb. range, charters landed as many as five wahoo per morning, though most anglers were fortunate to land one or two of these prized sought after gamefish. Finally we are seeing some nicer sized mature dorado, it has been a long time, still no significant numbers, but chances of finding two, three, maybe four of these fish, same grounds as where the wahoo and tuna have been encountered.
Billfishing was mainly for scattered action on sailfish and striped marlin, some marlin hooked into were unusually small, in the 20 to 30 lb. class, not often do we such juvenile sized billfish, others were of normal size.
Not much inshore or bottom action now, though we did see some red snapper action off of the San Luis Bank, closer to shore there were triggerfish, some yellow snapper, pompano, bonito and barred pargo.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 149 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 12 striped marlin, 14 sailfish, 185 yellowfin tuna, 8 sierra, 10 rainbow runners, 18 huachinango (red snapper), 66 dorado, 48 wahoo, 14 pompano, 18 yellow snapper, 75 triggerfish, 12 barred pargo, 16 white skipjack, 3 surgeonfish, 18 bonito and 5 roosterfish.