Light crowds of tourists were now traveling to Los Cabos and this past week they saw a change in weather patterns, as a cold front from the north attributed to dropping temperatures to the mid 50s in the early mornings, with daytime highs or about 75 degrees. Still very comfortable compared to many areas across the United States, people get spoiled in Southern Baja and anytime you actually feel the need to possible put on pair of paints, instead of shorts, we consider it quite wintry. Northern winds have become more steady, most days picking up to 10 or 15 miles per hour by mid day, there were reports from the East Cape region of winds even stronger than this, even to the point that charter boats were not even launching. Ocean water temperatures ranged from 71 to 74 degrees throughout most of the area and clarity varied from the day to day, there were encouraging reports over the weekend that the water was cleaning and nice and blue in the vicinity of the Iman Bank.

The week started off with a couple of slower days for the fleets searching areas north of Punta Gorda, as the wind created choppy conditions and stirred up the water. The live sardinas continued to be found along the rocky beach stretches from Palmilla to Chileno, they were available in sufficient quantities everyday. By mid week a new bite developed for yellowfin tuna, in very close proximity to shore, within one to two miles from the beaches, straight out in front of the San Jose del Cabo / La Playita / Puerto Los Cabos areas. Pangas and cruisers alike were catching limits and more of yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 20 pound size. Using the live sardinas was the ticket to success, drift fishing while fly lining or using light sinkers to get your bait down a little deeper. This same area also saw a few striped marlin up to 120 pounds accounted for, as well as a handful of dorado up to 20 pounds. Often times small krill / shrimp will congregate in this region and this in turn attracts the yellowfin and other game fish, even though at this time it is the tuna that continue to dominate the action.

With the water clarity now reportedly improving in the areas to the north of Punta Gorda, we are still holding out hope that the wahoo will decide to cooperate and go on one last bite before they all decide to migrate in a southerly direction. In fact on Saturday a commercial panguero reported seeing a free swimming school of over one dozen wahoo on the Iman Bank, but was not able to hook any of them, at least this means they are still around and with this coming full moon phase chances are that a few will be hooked into during this coming week.

Other catches included a mix of pargo, cabrilla, triggerfish, bonito, sierra and amberjack. Though most of the week the popular bottom spots were not productive due to windy conditions and fast drifts. The better bottom action was found closer to shore had most of these fish were under ten pounds, though they produced very tasty fillets.

There were still some great reports of striped marlin action from areas on the Pacific, though it was not like it had been, many fish were seen, but they could not be enticed, the influx of cooler water had the baitfish and the marlin on the move, look for the action to pick back up in closer proximity to Cabo San Lucas and in the direction of Chileno.

The combined panga fleets sent out approximately 48 charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 2 wahoo, 3 striped marlin, 18 sierra, 24 bonito, 15 cabrilla, 7 amberjack, 46 triggerfish, 58 various pargo species, 18 dorado and 395 yellowfin tuna.