Cass Tours Fishing Report - April 7, 2014

Rancho Leonero - East Cape
Once again a pretty solid week of fishing. Being early season pressure is still light. Beautiful weather with days in the mid 80's and water temps holding around 75. We had a breezy day yesterday but boats still went out.

The Dorado are still around in numbers. A lot of small schools with the bigger fish in the 25lb range. The best bite has been right out in front of the ranch within a mile. Ballyhoo still working well.

Mixed in with the Dorado anglers have been picking up real good quality African Pompano. Go to our web page and check out the photos. These were taken on whole ballyhoo dropped to the bottom.

Striped marlin are spread all over the East Cape. The La Ribera banks proving the most productive. These are big robust stripers and commonly give a good fight.

Rooster fish action is beginning to heat up again in the region of the light house. It has been a little slow around the Ranch this week.

Sierra and Jacks were prowling around the entrance to the marina. Pargo and Cabrilla are available on the bottom for those willing to give it a try.

San Jose del Cabo - Gordo Banks
Spring break tourist activity seemed to have slowed some, even though the actual local Easter Holiday week does not begin until mid month. Weather has been nearly perfect, highs in the low 80s, there has been scattered cloud cover, burning off as the days progressed. Winds were moderate, mostly from the east and switching from the south, ocean temperature now averaged in the 70 to 75 degree range, a slight drop from last week, but still warmer than normal for early April. Quite a few whale sightings continue, despite this now being late season for these mammals, the majority have already began their northern migration.

Offshore , anglers found hit or miss action for the billfish, spread out, no concentrations of baitfish to attract any big numbers of striped marlin, fish were found further offshore some days and then as close as two miles to shore on others, clarity of water varied with the flowing currents. Dorado were found every day, though only in small groups, more of these fish were within several miles of shore, this is where half beak schools (ballyhoo) have been schooling. Weights averaged 10 to 15 pounds.

No yellowfin tuna to speak of, except an odd fish up to 30 pounds, being hooked into while working high spots with yo-yo jigs, from Iman to San Luis Bank. The most common catch were the Eastern Pacific bonito, striking readily on the iron jigs, ranging 3 to 10 lb. There was more porpoise activity now being seen offshore, though not many yellowfin were being reported. Early morning proved to be the best time for fishing over the rock piles, mixed in with the feisty bonito, were a handful of quality snapper, amberjack and cabrilla. Yellowtail action has been very spotty, most of the fish we have seen were nice 25 to 35 lb. A couple of these hogs were even hooked into while drifting live baits just outside of the Marina Jetty entrance.

This whole year has been abnormal, with warmer winter weather and ocean water temperature, enough so, where tropical pelagic species such as wahoo and dorado have remained in local waters throughout the winter and into the spring. Everyday there have been reports of wahoo being either hooked into, seen free swimming, or actually landed, most of this wahoo action was found from Punta Gorda and north along the ledges, towards Vinormama. A couple of fifty pound plus wahoo were accounted for, most of the ‘hoo landed were in the 20 to 30 pound class.

Close to shore there were lots of powerful jack crevalle moving in, also some juvenile sized roosterfish and sierra. This action could be wide open with sardinas, but none of these smaller baitfish have been available in recent months, with the main bait source now being either live caballito or rigged ballyhoo. We did see one 12 pound snook caught right off of the panga dock area, this fish hit on a live bait.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 84 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 9 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 8 yellowtail, 17 amberjack, 80 dorado, 28 jack crevalle, 48 sierra, 22 roosterfish, 580 bonito, 15 cabrilla and 32 misc. pargo.

Cabo San Lucas - Gaviota Fleet
This was one of those "Have & Have Not" weeks for fishing from Cabo San Lucas.  Fishing the same area, one boat could have several billfish for the day while the other caught nothing.  It just happens that way and I have personally skippered boats from Cabo San Lucas and seen both sides of that issue.  Frustrating is a civil word for that type of a day and occasionally, it can stretch into several days.  It's enough to make a skipper shiver watching other boats catch fish for their anglers and no matter what you do or try, change lures, trolling distances, trolling speeds, change hooks and line sizes, slow troll live bait, skip rigged baits, it all winds up as a blank.  It just goes with the territory of sport fishing.  The "Gaviota VIII" was high boat for the week and one of the "Have" boats, landing/releasing 6 stripers for 2 days fished at the 1150 Fathom Spot.  The total overall fish counts for 20 days reflected 18 stripers, (17 releases) 3 dorado, 3 roosterfish, 2 red snappers, 5 skipjack and 11 Sierras.

 Cabo Climate:  Partly cloudy but warm, toasty days with intermittent sunshine and temps that ranged from 61 nights to 87 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions:  The Pacific side temps were 73-74 from the shoreline to 8 miles out & pushing up against cooler water at 71.  Warmer waters, 74-75, extended from the inner-edge of the Jaime Bank, passing by Cabo San Lucas and extending on into the Sea of Cortez, up and beyond Los Frailes.  Surface breezes flowing from the easterly directions to 16 mph.

Best Fishing Area:  The 1150 Fathom Spot was by far the best with most boats having a couple of opportunities with fish that just didn't want to bite.

Best Bait/Lure:  Live bait, (caballitos) and slow trolled rigged ballyhoo were by far the best bet for the billfish.

Live Bait Supply:  Live bait supply remains very good for the caballitos at $3.00 each.  Availability of the frozen ballyhoo also available from the bait vendors at $3.00 each.