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.
It was quite a week in the East Cape.
This was definitely the week for variety. Of course we saw the usual
tuna and dorado bite, with lots of small to medium size fish hitting the
dock. I should mention that there was a tuna over 200lbs. caught next
door at Martin Verdugo"s. Most of the tuna I saw were from 10 to 40
pounds and the same could be said for the dorado. 
But
enough about dorado and tuna. This truly was a great week for variety.
We found out that the IGFA 20# line class record had been broken by
Jack Kautz of Lodi, CA with a giant 101lb. rooster caught near the
Lighthouse. Then Robert Dykes from Orange Park Acres, CA landed another
monster rooster which could be 90-100lbs. while fishing with Chuy on the
Rude Boy. Along with the giant rooster landed by Robert, Lucinda Dykes
from Cottage Grove, OR and Curtis from Ladera Ranch, CA
landed roosters estimated at 35, 45, 50, 70, 80 and 100 pounds all
within an hour and a half in front of Lighthouse point. Then we saw a
monster Amber Jack landed which was estimated at over 60lbs. The Rude
Boy also came back with a small grouper which we had not seen too many
of this summer. Then later in the week the Gene Duchene group landed the
first big wahoo of the season estimated at 40lb. while fishing on the
Whiskey. 
