East Cape Rancho Leonero
Finally it looks like things are getting back to normal. The dirty green water has cleared dramatically. Water temps are around the high 70's low 80's with flat calm seas and balmy days. Boats have been able to range far and wide in search of porpoise. A few schools have been found and a few tuna picked off early in the morning, but not wide open action yet. Sardines remain scarce but we are getting good quality bigger bait in the form of caballitos, forelitos and mullet(lisa). Most captains have been jigging fresh bait through the day with Lucky Joes or Subiki rigs. If you are coming down soon it may be a good idea to bring some bait jigs.The Marlin bite remains consistent. All anglers that so desire are able to take on a striper as is usual for this time of year. Fish mostly taken with the bigger live bait. The fish are spread all over the east cape fishing area.
About 20 miles straight out are some shark bouys which are loaded with schooling dorado. Some of these fish are extremely small but there are bigger fish around. We hosted the 'Let's Talk Hookup" tournament this week and the big dorado of the week was 52.5#. There were also a lot of 30's and 40's.
Roosterfish action can only be described as spectacular! 50# to 70# fish are the rule rather than the exception. Most of these giants have been taken in the area of the light house. The Forelitos have been the best bait. The fish are lurking in the deeper water sometimes quite far off shore . By hooking the bait through the back one is able to get the bait to swim down deep .This is an excellent opportunity to boat a trophy Rooster.
Some anglers have focused on bottom fishing this week and come away with some good sized Barred Pargo up to 18 #.
San Jose Del Cabo - Gordo Banks
With Los Cabos now hosting the G20 Summit for world leaders, we are seeing unprecedented security forces operating, with safety for everyone being the highest priority. Through this week we expect traveling delays, due to heavy traffic through road blocks and various closures. With this active military presence seen throughout the area, the weather patterns were almost as dynamic, cool Pacific air flows, gusty at times, swirling from all directions, high temperatures did reach 90 degrees over the weekend ,morning’s are still cool, actually very comfortable climate, just has not been what is needed to improve local ocean conditions. With the start of summer season a week away, marine moisture is all there has been, no rainfall in sight, but plenty of sunshine.Anglers are being confronted with these unfavorable ocean conditions, not so much cooler temperatures, greatest factor being the high chlorophyll levels that is creating greenish brown waters that just do not attract the baitfish which in turn bring in the gamefish. On Terrafin SST charts, the green water was ranging to 40 miles offshore, even there it does not even appear blue. Inshore water temperatures are averaging 70 to 74 degrees, not too cool, just the dirty current has not been what we want to see. This same pattern persists to as far north of Punta Arena, where there is a water break up to 76/78 degrees. So water temperatures are okay, there needs to be a switch in currents, to sweep in cleaner conditions, so anglers can find what they came to expect. There was some encouraging reports of improved ocean conditions outside of San Luis Bank, where on Father’s Day local panga boats were participated in an annual event, winning fish was a 36 pound dorado, a 34 pound dorado was second. Now we have heard late notice talk that authorities will be closed the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Port on June 18 & 19, we have not even officially been notified and many charters are scheduled for these dates, anglers have purchased expensive plane tickets, prepaid for all inclusive packages, rented vehicles, gone shopping, spent lots of money, all planning to fish for a day or two even more, now at the very last hour we are supposed to notify that the Port is Closer, refund all payments and say that we are deeply sorry for this poor judgment and baseless decision. This event has been planned for a year, you think local business operators could have be notified of any closures far enough in advance to not disappoint visiting anglers, hopefully there can be reversal of thoughts, otherwise we are all looking at losing more disgruntling tourists.
Not many anglers appear to be in town now, perhaps more would be ready to go fishing if recent reports were more encouraging, ocean conditions have been tough and then having to deal with traffic delays, etc…I believe many people are just hanging out at their resorts and enjoying the isolated relaxation, there are definitely more political diplomats and their entourages than normal tourists.
Early in the week there were limited numbers of striped marlin and dorado found in the cleaner offshore waters, then currents switched again, pushed in browner colored waters and progressively slowed down the action. The best chance at finding action was closer to shore, anglers were slow trolling and drifting with baits such as caballito, mullet or moonfish. Early in the week there was a good bite for amberjack right directly off the PLC Marina rock jetty entrance, especially at first light, one local commercial pangero reported landing a 80 pound amberjack, most of the ambers landed were in the 20 to 50 pound range, fortunate boats had two, three or even four of these quality fish.
During the week the common species found were amberjack, jack crevalle, roosterfish, sierra, pargo and cabrilla. None of these were numerous, but some charters did account for decent catches of three ,four or five quality specimens. Roosterfish were congregating more around the jetty area due to higher presence of baitfish, not much bait activity along beach stretches now, as inshore conditions rebound we should see a big influx of mullet.
At this time we are being told by Port Officials that we can no longer fish in this jetty area, guess that was inevitable, being that these boats are fishing where boat traffic is heavy, though now there are more military boats than anything else. It would be nice if these patrol boats acknowledged the Marina’s no wake speed limits, these turbo jet PT patrol vessels create heavy wakes, damaging dock structure and have already been reasonable for many snapped dock lines.
Heavy commercial inshore gill net operations continue on both the Pacific side of CSL and north of SJDC. This is an incredibly destructive technique, though is very lucrative for the individuals involved, systematically and indiscriminately trapping any species that swims through this particular shallow zone, including pargo, snapper, roosterfish, cabrilla, parrot fish, pompano, amberjack, sierra and many others, often snagging turtles and even mammals. When this gear does breaks off, it is often encountered drifting with decomposing fish, while continuing to kill others. These fish camps do have legal permits, somewhere up higher in the political chain there has to be someone that realizes what damage this is doing to such a fragile ecosystem, which will not be able to sustain itself much longer at this rate of decimation. When reporting this situation to local officials, of course no one wants to get involved, this form of fishery needs to be abolished all together, there are alternative methods, this should not be political, we are talking about future resources for generations to come, it is discouraging to witness such negligence.
The combined panga fleet out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 18 dorado, 12 bonito, 39 amberjack, 9 grouper, 19 cabrilla, 12 jack crevalle, 66 roosterfish, 6 pompano, 32 huachinango, 22 yellow snapper, 20 triggerfish, 10 sierra and 5 pargo colorado.
Cabo San Lucas Gaviota Fleet
Another week of very difficult fishing for the Cabo San Lucas sportfishing fleet and reports from the skippers on "limits of off-color and dirty water in all directions for at least 20 miles or so". When one views the terrafin sea surface charters for the area surrounding Cabo San Lucas, it's easy to see why the fish aren't being cooperative or absent from the area. While the sea temps are good from Cabo Falso and around to the Sea of Cortez side, the water clarity in most areas appears from off color brown to off color green and certainly not conducive to the normal clean, blue, waters of this area. Lots of current changes and upwellings throughout the area are keeping the billfish catches at a minimum level and everyone is waiting for the improvement to the conditions. Still, as poor as the water conditions are, the boats that did fish reflected a near 50% billfish catch rate that I found remarkable. The overall catches for 13 days fished reflected 6 stripers released, 5 dorado and 3 Sierra for their efforts.Cabo Climate: Mostly sunny, warm and clear days with temps that ranged from 71 nights to 93 daytime highs.
Sea Conditions: Cool waters on the Pacific side at 70-71 degrees and an almost constant 10-15 mph surface breezes, a medium swell condition and white caps. Temps rise to 74-75 at Cabo Falso and continue to rise tto 77-79 above ad outside the Gorda Banks on the Sea of Cortez side. All areas out to 20 miles or more are inundated with very poor water clarity conditions.
Best Fishing Area: The boats are fishing in all areas from near to far and there is no concentration of fish in any given area at this time.
Best Lure/Bait: None were specified in this report but I would venture that most of the billfish were likely taken on live bait that were visually seen on the surface, allowing for a casted presentation.
Bait Supply: Caballitos were readily available for the anglers throughout the week.
