THE CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR THE GAVIOTA SPORTFISHING FLEET AND FISH CABO FLEET
According to Captain Roberto Marquez, the billfish were plentiful
throughout the area but getting them to bite was next to impossible. He
said, "we baited 38 stripers over a 2-day span without a single strike
and I feel the frustration of our anglers for each of those days. On
the end of the 2nd day, we landed a big dorado, near 50 lbs., for our
Calgary, Canada client that definitely saved the day for our anglers,
but still, no billfish and that is what they had come for. While they
got to see many striped marlin we were unable to get them connected to a
cooperative biter". Then,
on Wednesday,
we fished up the Pacific side, above the Golden Gate Bank and inside
toward Todos Santos and found an area of stripers that did want to bite
and we landed 3 fish for the day, all released and that gave us a total
of 5 stripers and 3 dorado for the 4 days fished. The overall catches
for a combined total of 19 days fished reflected 12 stripers, (11
released) 1 sailfish, 2 mako sharks, 3 yellowfin tuna, 6 skipjack and 32
dorado, (the dorado sizes got up to about 50 lbs.)
Cabo Climate: A mostly sunny and warm week for Cabo San Lucas, with temps that varied from 72 nights to 96 daytime highs.
Sea Conditions: Sea temps from the Golden Gate on the Pacific side,
down to Cabo San Lucas and around the corner and up to the Gorda Banks,
all held stable at 77-78 degrees. Above the Gorda Banks a couple of
miles and up beyond Las Frailes, the temps climbed to 83-84 degrees.
The surface breezes were flowing in, mostly from the southwest, from
calm to about 15 mph.
Best Fishing Area: The better billfish catches all came from the Pacific
side of Cabo, from Migino and farther up the coast, including an area
about 2-4 miles southwest of Todos Santos on the Pacific side of Cabo,
almost 35+ miles from Cabo San Lucas.
Best Lure/Bait: Live bait was the best but a few fish were being caught on the frozen/rigged ballyhoo baits, too.
Live Bait Supply: Remains very good and readily available at the $3.00 per bait rate.
GORDO BANKS - SAN JOSE DEL CABO
We are in the later part of the spring season, with moderate sized
crowds of tourists now visiting, this is always the time when families
are busy finishing school semesters, preparing for graduations, summer
adventures, etc. Local weather patterns made a complete circle this past
week. We had just seen the season’s first Hurricane form to the south
of Cabo San Lucas, Amanda, this system pushed tropical humid air over
the Southern Baja, stormy conditions which never amounted to much,
besides some higher ocean swells, in recent days we are feeling strong
southerly winds push cooler Pacific air and ocean currents in the
direction of the Sea of Cortez. There is much marine moisture, creating
morning clouds, being swept away by gusting winds later in the day.
Ocean water temperature in the past couple of days has plummeted from
80 plus degrees, to 72 degrees throughout the inshore region from Cabo
San Lucas to Los Frailes, some 10 to 15 miles offshore of Vinorama to La
Frailes is where the 80 degree temperature break is now lurking. This
colder current is a dirty greenish color as well, unfavorable conditions
contributed to scattered much of the baitfish and gamefish from this
zone. As conditions settle, conditions will rebound, as this is the time
of year where things can change quickly overnight.
There are many species of gamefish that have been encountered in
local waters this spring, though none of the species have been
particularly abundant, with the exception of the offshore action for the
striped marlin, which at times was very close to shore, then further
out, this action has been very consistent for nearly two months, just
tapering off this past week, as food sources migrate so do the gamefish.
Sailfish, thrasher shark and scattered dorado were also found on these
same billfish grounds. No big schools of dorado, mostly solitary fish, a
couple of bulls up to 40 pounds were accounted for this week, this is
now the season for the larger bulls.
Before the ocean water turned over and became greenish throughout the
inshore zone, we were seeing a handful of yellowfin tuna and wahoo in
the fish counts, most of these fish were taken while trolling the
grounds from San Luis to Vinormama, some fish weighing near fifty pounds
were landed. We should see this action return as the ocean conditions
clean. The activity will be determined by what exactly happens with
these strong Pacific currents, something we deal with every year at this
time.
Roosterfish are dominating the inshore scene, fish to over fifty
pounds were landed this week, trolling with live moonfish has been the
ticket to taking a monstrous strike. Changing conditions slowed this
action and pushed it further to the north, but surely will shift back
our direction soon enough. Still waiting to see schools of mullet move
in along local beach stretches, their migration is late this year, last
year we never saw mass abundance of mullet, though it sure was an epic
year for big numbers of larger sized roosterfish, these are prized
fighting, unique gamefish, not known for eating quality, with limited
habitat, should be protected, caught and released with care, in order to
mature, reproduce and fight another day.
Bottom action has produced mixed success and recent winds had shut
that option down, though there have been some impressive specimens of
dogtooth snapper, amberjack and cabrilla accounted for, spotty limited
numbers though, drift fishing with bait or working the yo-yo jigs were
best options.
The combined panga fleets
launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 82 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting
for a fish count of: 2 thrasher shark, 8 yellowfin tuna, 9 striped
marlin, 5 sailfish, 7 wahoo, 10 amberjack,13 cabrilla, 12 sierra, 24
dorado, 8 dogtooth snapper, 25 bonito and 88 roosterfish.
It was another good week down on the East Cape. This week started with the Tournament
Anglers Association 2014 Marlin Tournament at Hotel Palmas De Cortez. The TAA had 24 anglers fishing 12 boats
over three days. They caught and
released 90 Striped Marlin, 2 Sailfish and 1 Blue Marlin. The group also landed a couple of nice
Dorado that came in at over 40lbs. (see pictures below). The winner of this year’s tournament was Danny Brooks and the
winning team of Dick Wallace and Danny Brooks.
That’s it for this
week amigos! 
