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WEATHER Summer time is back with temperatures in the mid to high 90’s most of the week. On Wednesday it was reported by a friend that at his house in town his weather machines reported 100 degrees and 100% humidity! Thank goodness that most of the week has been cooler than that! In the evenings it has cooled off to the mid 80’s with a slight breeze. On Thursday we had a band of clouds move through the area and they brought some rain with them, accompanied by lightning and thunder early in the day. The rain was not heavy, here at my house it was enough to spot the car windows, but out to the north it rained pretty well, there were reports of an inch in Todo Santos and La Paz.
WATER: Most of the week the water on both sides of the Cape was beautiful, blue and almost glassy. At the start of the week the swells on the Pacific side were in the 3-5 foot range and on the Cortez side they were about the same. At the end of the week the government had issued a surf warning for the Cabo area due to the large swells kicked up by Hurricane Fausto to the south. The only day of bad surface conditions was Thursday when the storms blew through, that really brought the chop up and a few people returned early or cancelled their trips entirely. On the Pacific side of the Cape the water has been 80-82 degrees and just a bit green, on the Cortez side of the Cape it has been several degrees warmer at 82-84 degrees and very clear. The area immediately south of the Cape has been a little cooler at 76-80 degrees and with a green tinge to it. It is only a 30-minute or less run to the blue, warm water.
BAIT: Caballito were the bait of the week with a few Mullet in the mix. The price on these larger baits was $3 per bait. For inshore fishing Sardinas were available at $25 a scoop from the bait boats around the Palmilla area.
FISHING:
YELLOWFIN TUNA: There were days when the fish bit and days they could not be found this week. When they were found most of them were footballs in the 10-20 pound class and the bite was good. If you were in the fish you were getting 12-20 fish per trip. Keeping the suspense up were fish occasionally reaching #50 in the same schools. The larger fish were caught on live bait dropped down in front of the moving schools with the boat pulling away at least 100 feet from where the bait was dropped. Just sitting there after dropping the bait did not work; you had to pull away. The fish were scattered across our area with some schools on the Pacific side and some on the Cortez side, but almost all of them were between 12 and 26 miles out.
DORADO If there was any floating debris found this week the boat that was on the find first did well on Dorado to #30. There were only two instances of this that I heard of, but both times the first boat limited out. Later boats were able to pick up a fish or two, but most of the Dorado found were scattered fish. With the warmer water on the Cortez side of the Cape that is where the majority of the Dorado were found as well.
WAHOO: There were some decent Wahoo caught this week up off of Punta Gorda as well as offshore in the current lines. The full moon we had mid-week seems to have gotten them hungry! Dark colored lures run close to the transom did well as did rigged dead bait run as far as 300 feet behind the boat. Naturally, if you were targeting these fish you had a small wire bite leader in front of the bait or lure, but most of these fish were caught as incidental fish, there fore many more were lost than ended up in fish boxes.
INSHORE: Roosterfish, Amberjack, the occasional pile of Grouper as well as some very nice Pargo made up the majority of the inshore catch this week. With the water being as nice as it was, many of the Pangas were fishing offshore, looking for Tuna, Dorado and Marlin. Quite a few of them got into these fish as well. Having the water like it was made for a decent mix of fish for the Pangas, and these fishermen were probably the most successful this week.
NOTES: Things are looking up with the arrival of the warm water and the bigger fish. We have our fingers crossed that the storms stay to the south and just bring us some clouds and a bit of rain. This weeks report was written to the music of carpenters finishing up my kitchen!
Until next week, Tight lines!
George & Mary Landrum, Juan & Manuel
Report: SAN JOSE DEL CABO, July 20, 2008
Tropical storm activity continues to be surprisingly active for this early in the summer season. Last week there was Hurricane Elida that developed off of the Southern Mainland Mexico coast and tracked on a northwestern path, staying clear of any impact on land. At the present time we have Tropical Storm Fausto developing from the same region and now gaining hurricane force strength, fortunately this system is also projected to follow a more western course, keeping it at safe distance from impacting the Los Cabos area. With the warming days, the water temperature continues to rise. Offshore the water is now in the low 80s and is ripe for hurricane development.
For the sake of local businesses that are already hurting from the poor economy, we do hope that these storms continue to stay out of harm's way. Inshore waters are slightly cooler, 78 to 79 degrees, also due to the strong currents and swell activity the water near shore has been greenish within about five miles of shore, offshore 5 to 15 miles out, the clarity was much improved.
Now into middle of the month of July and we are still patiently waiting for conditions to become more stable, for currents to slack, southern winds to reside and for standard summer fish counts to return to normal. Offshore action is showing signs of more life, a mix of billfish are now being hooking into each day, though not in any real significant numbers. Sailfish, striped and blue marlin were spread out on the fishing grounds, stripers were most common, they were striking on lures, as well as baits such as bolito, caballito and mullet.
Dorado were found more often from the areas where the cleaner blue water was, typically this was three or more miles from shore, they were also striking lures and baits. During the previous week the majority of the do-dos that were accounted for, were larger sized fish, averaging 20 to 50 pounds. This week there were fewer of the big dorado being landed and a noticeable influx of smaller school sized dorado showing up in local waters. Yellowfin were not easy to find, only an occasional report of tuna being encountered, either by blind strikes on lures or bait, also some were found schooling further offshore, mixed in with rapidly moving porpoise. Increased schools of bolito and flying fish are being seen in the cleaner offshore waters and these baitfish are usually a favorable sign for attracting larger sized gamefish.
The Local Panga fleets reported finding more consistent fishing off the bottom rocky structure or closer to the shoreline. Numbers of fish were not that great, but there was quite a variety of species available, catches included, yellow snapper, huachinango (red snapper), dogtooth snapper, cabrilla, amberjack, bonito, black skipjack, surgeon fish, rainbow runner, roosterfish, jack crevalle, pompano and sierra. Drifting or slow trolling with live sardinas or mullet was very effective closer to shore, while retrieving yo-yo iron jigs off the bottom rock piles was most productive in depths of 100 to 80 feet. Jim Fleming was visiting from Quincy, Ca. and landed one of the most impressive specimens of the past week. Jim was fishing with skipper Chame Pino on a 26 ft. Super Panga out of La Playita near Iman Bank when he hooked into a 95 pound amberjack while using a four ounce elongated chrome patterned yo-yo style jig and after a long battle using light 30 pound tackle he was able to bring the monster to gaff.
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos area reported sending out approximately 56 charters for the past week and anglers reported a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 1 blue marlin, 14 striped marlin, 41 dorado, 7 yellowfin tuna, 42 bonito, 36 amberjack, 6 dogtooth snapper, 66 yellow snapper, 28 huachinango, 19 pompano, 15 sierra, 9 rainbow runner, 44 jack crevalle and 98 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
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