Cooler Weather Does Not Slow Down The Dorado Bite
Capt. Eric Brictson
February 14, 2009
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
February 14, 2009
Anglers –
Tourists visiting the Los Cabos area this past week noticed that the weather conditions were a little cooler than the reports from previous weeks, still paradise like compared to about 95 % percent of the U.S. during winter time. There were scattered clouds in the a.m., turning mostly sunny by mid day, with highs in the upper 70s. A bit more wind prevailing from the north, this stirred up the water early in the week, but the fishing action continued to very good considering what time of year it is. Ocean temperatures ranged from a low of 68 degrees towards Los Frailes, to an average of 70 to 73 throughout most of the Southern Baja region.
The striped marlin action remained wide open for anglers fishing the Banks on the Pacific and some marlin were also found in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, but not in comparable numbers such as on the Golden Gate Bank, where the large concentrations of baitfish are attracting the billfish. For the medium sized gamefish, like dorado and yellowfin tuna, it was the areas north of San Jose del Cabo where the best action was found, fleets concentrated on the spots ranging from the Gordo Banks, Punta Gorda, La Fortuna and Iman Bank. Live sardinas were being netted by the commercial panga fleet near Cardon and this was the bait of choice for the type of fishing now being encountered, either slow trolling of drifting over the various location. There was still a very strong current running south to north, this made it almost impossible to try fishing the bottom, but the surface action remained very consistent.
Dorado were the most common species found, boats were catching easy limits, with many other fish being released, weights ranged from 10 to 20 pounds, with a few exceptions of larger fish mixed in. There were more schools of dorado found closer to shore, than there were further out, some dorado were even found right along the beaches where anglers trolled for sierra and roosterfish, which were also very active in recent days, providing great sport for light tackle and fly angling enthusiasts.
The yellowfin tuna action slowed down at the start of the week as north winds increased, but there had been quality tuna of 25 to 50 pounds being found consistently on the La Fortuna and Iman Banks, the fish would come up on the chummed sardinas and it took a lot of bait in the strong current to keep them on the surface feeding, many boats were ending up with 2, 3 or 4 nice tuna, along with plenty of dorado in the same area. At this time the weather has settled down and we expect that the tuna bite should pick back up where it left off.
Over the last weekend the wahoo action continued strong off of Punta Gorda, fish ranging up to 50 pounds were landed, trolled lures, cast jigs and trap hooked baits all were working. The wahoo were concentrated in one small area, in 80 to 150 feet of water and would go on the bite unpredictably at certain times of the day, when tides, currents and clarity all were to their liking, more often late morning. Though on Monday morning conditions at this same spot had turned over with greener colored water and so far the wahoo have not wanted to bite this week, but as conditions return to how they had been we expect that this unprecedented wahoo bite in February will continue.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 102 charters for the past week, with anglers reported a fish count of:
1 sailfish, 5 striped marlin, 28 wahoo, 42 roosterfish, 28 bonito, 12 amberjack, 18 pargo, 88 sierra, 565 dorado and 92 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
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