Cass Tours Fishing Report - September 16, 2013

Rancho Leonero - East Cape

Water- Inside 87, outside 90, as hot as it's been all year... Clear flat all week. Midweek some afternoon north breezes.

Air- Cooler than last week. Highs in the low 90's. Midweek we had a couple of afternoon northerly winds, really cooling everything down. Very pleasant for this time of year.

The fishing was very similar to last week. That's good news! Again this week we are enjoying a wide open Yellowfin and Dorado bite. The bill fishing is very good and consistent, with quite a few more Sails than last week. The inshore fishing has really improved with lots and lots of big Gallo's being released. The La Ribera banks are producing nice big Amberjack. The Sardine have finally showed up. Good news this has helped the fishing. Lots of Squid around. Abundant bait.

Yellowfin- Right off La Ribera. All free swimmers. Mostly football sized, with a few quality fish mixed in. There are a lot more Skipjack this week. Anglers are releasing two or three for every Yellowfin. All anglers limiting daily. Both chunk Squid and live Sardine are deadly. Trolled Hoochies working.

Dorado- From a half mile to five, directly off the hotel and spread throughout the bay. Most anglers limiting. Mostly schooling fish in the 6 to 12# class. Some big bulls to 40# mixed in. The return of the sardine has helped the fishing.

Bill fish- Not much pressure, as most anglers opting for the tuna and dorado. A strong consistent bite again the is week. Anglers targeting are releasing at least one, most multiples. A lot more sails this week. About 2/1 with the Stripers. A Blue or two a day are being released by the hotel fleet.

Inside- Big Gallos! Some whoppers to 90#'s! The roosterfishing was good the week before last, this last week off the charts. Very very good Roosterfishing! The return of the sardine has really fired them up. All the bigger gallos on live Caballito. Lots and lots of quality fish on Sardine.

San Jose del Cabo - Gordo Banks

Local weather has settled down this past week, this has given the area a chance to dry out after all of the recent rainfall. The desert landscape has transformed to a lush green color, days remain warm, with scattered tropical cloud cover and high humidity. With each passing day we are starting to feel a hint of fall in the air, particularly early morning. There is now a low pressure system developing off of the Southern Mexico mainland coast and we will be monitoring its progress closely, as this is the time when the local environment is favorable for tropical storms to form rapidly.

Crowds of tourists are light now, this is the time when family priorities shift towards starting the new school year. It will be soon enough when the busy fall fishing season is in full swing. For the anglers that are making the trip they have enjoyed great fishing action in recent days. Most consistent bite has been found on the areas north of Punta Gorda, from La Fortuna to San Luis Bank, for yellowfin tuna and dorado. Ocean current has been swift from the south, this has made any bottom fishing that much more difficult. Water temperatures are in the 84 to 87 degree range, clear blue conditions are found within a couple of miles from shore.

Squid has been the best bait for the yellowfin tuna, the giant squid are being jigging up by the commercial fleet in dark hours and sold to charter boats in the morning, there are also limited supplies of caballito, still no sardinas available. Drift fishing with strips of squid on light tackle has been the best bet for catching limits of yellowfin tuna, the fish were now larger than in previous weeks, averaging 15 to 20 pounds. The larger cow sized tuna that were starting to show up on the Gordo Banks have not been active this past week, though surely they are still in the area, we expect these cows to become more active soon.

Dorado schools have been spread throughout the area, found by trolling lures and baitfish. The majority of the fish have been smaller sized, though with patience anglers have been able to find some larger sized dorado mixed in. Limit on these fish is two per license and the inspectors are enforcing these regulations. Only a few wahoo being accounted for, they become sluggish in the warmer water, we expect that these speedsters will become more active as fall conditions transition in the coming weeks.

Billfish have slowed this past week out of San Jose del Cabo, only scattered reports of mostly smaller sized striped marlin, surely there are black and blue marlin lurking on the grounds, they just are not readily striking lately, the way the conditions are anything could happen on any given day.

No inshore action being reported, bottom action was limited to a handful of amberjack, pargo and grouper, though no numbers to speak of, though a few impressive fish were accounted for, amberjack up to 78 lb. and one grouper over 100 pounds landed by a La Playita commercial pangero, current has been relentless, hard to effectively drift fish the bottom structure when moving so fast.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 75 charters this past week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 8 wahoo, 5 amberjack, 2 grouper, 16 red snapper, 300 black skipjack, 415 yellowfin tuna and 550 dorado (many released).

Cabo San Lucas - Gaviota Fleet

Another great fishing week from Cabo San Lucas with excellent dorado catches and for the boats that worked at it, good billfish catches, too.  High boat for the week was the Fish Cabo, reflecting 9 stripers released and 1 sailfish released, along with 32 dorado for their 4 fishing days and followed by the "Gaviota IX", reflecting 6 stripers released and 1 sailfish released along with 8 dorado for 2 days fished.  The overall fish counts for a total of 18 days fished reflected 21 stripers, (20 released) 5 sailfish, (4 released) 2 yellowfin tuna, 8 skipjack tuna and 121 dorado.

Cabo Climate:  Dried out a little bit this past week but still some scattered thunder showers in the mountains.  The days were cloudy to partly cloudy and a couple of sunny days in the mix.  Temps ranged from 75 nights to 95 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions:  One port closure day due to adverse weather conditions but the remainder of the week was decent sea surface conditions and offered good fishing results.  Sea temps holding up well and the warmer waters are starting to show up on the Pacific side of the peninsula and held well at 83-84 degrees from the Finger Bank and southerly to Cabo.  Cabo to San jose Del Cabo saw a decrease to 81 degrees and the change was from the Gorda Banks and northerly, back up to 84 degrees. Mostly light and variable surface breezes in the 5-13 mph ranges but from various directions thru the week.