Cabo San Lucas - Gaviota Fleet
The billfish bite fell off considerably this past week and for no apparent reason. Another bite was starting to develop above the Gorda Banks, toward Destiladares area, but overall, the billfish were scattered in all directions on the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo. High billfish boat for the week was the "Gaviota VIII", reflecting 3 sailfish for a single day, along with a single dorado, fishing the Herradura area, out front of Cabo San Lucas. The overall fish counts for a combined total of 17 days fished reflected 7 stripers released, 3 sailfish, (2 released) 18 dorado, 4 yellowfin tuna and 17 skipjack tuna.Cabo Climate: Mostly cloudy days with sporadic periods of sunshine and temps that varied from 76-90 degrees. Tropical Storm, Douglas, provided a good rain on Wednesday night and Thursday and the possibility for more rain is likely for the next few days, albeit, predicted at about a 30% chance.
Sea Conditions: Pacific side, from the shoreline to 25 miles out, wrapping around Cabo San Lucas and up to Las Frailes, is all reflecting 84-85 degrees. Early in the week was a couple of rough and bumpy days that faded into surface breezes flowing mostly from the southerly directions that ranged from flat calm mornings to about 9 mph by afternoons.
Best Fishing Area: The better marlin bite was above the Gorda Banks that had just begun to develop. The Herradura area produced the sailfish for a single fishing day aboard the "Gaviota VIII"
Best Bait/Lure: Live bait was the best bet for the billfish but a few billfish were also taken on rigged ballyhoo baits and artificials.
Live Bait Supply: Remains excellent for caballitos at the $3.00 per bait rate and the frozen ballyhoo baits are still available at the same rate.
San Jose del Cabo
Light crowds of visitors have been greeted by tropical weather patterns as we start the new month of July. Very humid conditions now, created by the recent development of Tropical Storm Douglas, which followed a path off to the northwest. This system brought scattered moderate to heavy thundershowers across Southern Baja on Thursday morning, many outdoor activities were cancelled, including local sportfishing charters, though by mid-day skies had cleared and presently the forecast appears more favorable. This is now the season where it is hard to predict the weather more than a couple of days ahead of time.
Swells increased with this distant tropical disturbance, but diminished as the storm’s distance away increased. Ocean conditions were calm, with a rolling swell, no wind to speak of in recent days. Water temperatures were 80 degrees or warmer throughout the region and clean blue water was found close to shore.
Anglers were able to find a mix of caballito, moonfish, as well as some mullet on most days and there was reports of sardinas now schooling in the vicinity of Los Frailes and further north, so that is an optimistic sign. Most common species being found out of the San Jose del Cabo area have been school sized dorado, at times very abundant and other days a bit more scattered. Majority of these dorado were juvenile sized, particularly the ones found close to shore, a handful of larger dorado up to 20 pounds have been encountered further offshore. Anglers were having good success on the schooling fish while trolling with hoochie type lures and strip baits.
Only an occasional yellowfin tuna accounted for out of Puerto Los Cabos, though charters making the long haul from the East Cape, where they have been able to find live sardinas, have found decent action on tuna in the 15 to 30 pound class near the San Luis Bank, these fish want the sardinas and have been hard to entice on anything else.
Roosterfish were found patrolling the shoreline, though the action has been hit or miss, recent trend showed these jacks more active early in the day, so far we have not seen the epic bite that there was last season. Jack crevalle were numerous along the shoreline and a few sierra were found as well. Surf fishing anglers have reported some quality sized snook to over 40 pounds during the last few week period, these prized fish hit on various baitfish as well as a variety of artificial casting lures.
Near Iman, to the San Luis and Vinorama high spots there was good action early in the morning for red snapper (huachinango), with a mix of some amberjack, cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish. Anglers did well early in the day on yo-yo jigs, as well as drift fish whole and cut baits, though this action tampered way off as the sun rose higher in the sky. This was time when most charters were shifting attention to trolling offshore waters for possible dorado and billfish. There was a mix of sailfish, striped and blue marlin now on local grounds, though not in any significant numbers, as more bolito and skipjack begin to congregate on the local fishing grounds we expect action to become more consistent.
Still have not seen any big inshore run of dogtooth snapper, sporadic action only, though this is the month when this action can be at its best, before moving to offshore structure later on in the summer.
Local panga charter fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers accountjng for a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 4 striped marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 26 bonito, 55 red snapper (huachinango), 13 amberjack, 18 roosterfish, 3 sierra, 225 dorado (many juveniles released), 10 cabrilla and 18 triggerfish.
