Report by
Cass Tours
EAST CAPE
Water- Mixed from 68 to 78..Warmer south. Mostly flat one windy but fishable day this week.
Air- As usual, very nice spring weather, with highs in the low 80's..
Another so so transitional week. Lots of Striped Marlin on the outside banks. Very picker biters, some boats baiting as many as ten fish without a take. Anglers chance of releasing a billfish about 50/50 again this week. A few big bulls to 40#'s taken this week all on trolled lures. Inside has been good with smaller to medium sized Roosterfish very active. Limits of Pompano in the five to ten pound range for all anglers. Some nice Pargo taken to 25#'s this week. Very mixed water for the last couple of days, a full ten degree difference between the water north and warmer water south.
Billfish- Loads of Stripers. Very, very picky biters. Anglers targeting billfish are seeing and baiting dozens of fish, with very little luck. They seem to have no interest in trolled lures. All taken on live Mackerel or trolled Bally Hoo. Off all the drop-offs from La Ribera to Frailles.
Dorado- Big fish but not very many. The occasional bull taken on trolled marlin lures..In the same areas as the billfish. All fish around 30 to 45#'s..
Inside- Wide open quality Pompano fishing. Lots of Gallo's to ten pounds. The Pargo bite has picked up.
CABO SAN LUCAS
I talked with Roberto Marquez, the Fish Cabo Fleet owner this morning, and he said there was plenty of billfish action but the fish just wouldn't stay hooked. Yesterday, the "Fish Cabo" got luck and released 1 striped marlin following 12 billfish strikes for the day. They just couldn't get the fish to stick and this was not an isolated incident. It was happening throughout the fleet. They tried slow trolling live baits with no luck at all then switched to live bait drop backs and again, with no luck at all. The billfish just would't cooperate. The same report was coming in from all of the various Cabo sportfishers and was another one of those frustrating fishing days. On the bright side was the numbers of billfish being seen by the boat crews and anglers and it will turn around. Just a matter of time. Our combined fishing report for a total of 28 days fished reflected 8 stripers released, 2 mako sharks, 2 dorado, 2 jack crevalle, 17 skipjack tuna, 17 Sierra and 6 yellowtail.
Cabo Climate: Just terrific weather with warm, sunny days and pleasant evenings and temps that ranged from 58 nights to 82 daytime highs.
Sea Conditions: Mostly cooler waters on the Pacific side with temps at 67-68 on the Golden Gate & Jaime Banks. Just inside the banks and closer tto shore the water temps fall to 61-62 and extend down to Cabo Falso and stretching out across the 1000 fathom curve. Water temps rise dramatically to 75 degrees from Palmilla Point, out across the 1150, beyond the Cabrillo Seamount and northeasterly across the Gorda Banks and on to Las Frailes.
Best Fishing Area: The billfish are building in numbers in the Gorda Banks area and while not too eager to stay on the hook, plenty willing to bite at the artificials.
Best Lure/Bait: Billfish are very eager to strike at the lures but continue to be "short biters" and not staying hooked.
Live Bait Supply: Remained very good, even through the full moon phase, with a mix of mackerel and caballitos.
SAN JOSE DEL CABO - GORDO BANKS
As the extended spring break comes to an end, crowds of tourists are now lighter. The weather is practically perfect, clear sunny skies with highs in the low 80s. There was still some unpredictable winds coming from various directions, but for the most part anglers found ocean conditions to be pleasant. Water temperatures are now ranging up to about 72 degrees offshore of San Jose del Cabo and towards Los Frailes, much cooler currents are found in the direction of the Pacific.
Charters found a mix of caballito and sardinas for bait, though in recent days the supplies of sardinas became very scattered from Palmilla to Chileno where they had been so plentiful and now the bait netters will need to search out new sources, perhaps in the direction of Vinorama once again.
Clarity of the water has improved to the north of Punta Gorda, there were good numbers of striped marlin encountered from the Gordo Banks to Desteladera, most charters targeting the billfish were having multiple opportunities while trolling lures and casting baits to tailers and feeding stripers. A handful of dorado were also found on the same fishing grounds, some of them up to 30 pounds, most of the time just single fish.
Not much being heard about yellowfin tuna, there were occasional sightings of tuna on the Iman Bank, but only a few of these fish were actually hooked into, the yellowfin would vanish as quickly as they appeared. Last weekend there was one 120 pound tuna reported by a panga from La Playita, several other fish over 40 pounds as well. It is now the time when we should start seeing more tuna action associated with traveling porpoise.
There were a few wahoo to report in recent days, strikes on baits and lures on the fishing grounds from La Fortuna to San Luis, smaller sized fish up to 20 pounds, but nevertheless an encouraging sign. Surprisingly there were still many whales being sighted in the area, this is the tail end of season, most are headed north now.
Along the shoreline anglers are finding sierra, roosterfish and jack crevalle, as well as some yellowtail. Most of the roosterfish are in the 5 to 12 pound class, fun fighters on light tackle. Please remember that these fish should be released to mature and provide future stock, many anglers are not aware of this and many of the local skippers just do not seem to think about the future much.
Palmilla Point saw increased action for yellowtail, fish ranging up to 30 pounds, still no huge numbers, but more productive than it had been, drifting live caballitos down deep was most successful, though some anglers also had strikes on yo-yo’s. Towards Cabo San Lucas there were areas where anglers reported good action on the yellows while trolling deep diving Rapalas. It appears the bottom action is improving, more larger fish showing up, there were some amberjack starting to bite, one 80 pound fish was taken mid week and others in the 30 to 60 pound range, again no big numbers, but at least they are starting to appear in the counts. These amberjack were mainly taken while working yo-yo jigs off the structure. Various snapper, pargo, cabrilla and grouper rounded out the action off the bottom.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 64 charters this past week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
4 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 26 dorado, 16 shark, 18 striped marlin, 18 bonito, 16 amberjack, 24 yellowtail, 11 pompano, 58 pargo, 84 roosterfish, 33 cabrilla, 12 grouper and 185 sierra.
