Crowds of tourists continue to be lighter than usual, though we do anticipate more visitors in the coming weeks as school terms terminate and summer vacation begins. The weather has been near perfect, ocean water temperatures have dropped due to a northern current pushing in Pacific water and this has created cooler air temperatures accordingly, averaging in the lower 80s. Early in the week there were moderate winds out of the northwest, but they all but subsided by the weekend and anglers enjoyed excellent ocean conditions. Water temperatures have continued to fluctuate greatly, varying from the low 60s on the Pacific to the upper 70s in the East Cape area, but mid-week the cooler currents actually reached as far as Buena Vista, dipping down to 70 degrees before gradually starting to warm back up. These rapidly changing conditions has not helped the fishing stabilize and has made for inconsistent action, as concentrations of baitfish keep moving and gamefish are scattered.

Depending on where your charter launches from, there was a mix of mackerel, mullet, caballito and sardinas for bait, most of the time the supplies were plentiful. Though no particular species of fish was overly abundant there was a good variety of species being caught, catches included striped marlin, dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, bonito, roosterfish, dogtooth snapper, yellow snapper, jack crevalle, cabrilla, pompano, amberjack and sierra.

The marlin bite dropped off some this week, but some charters were still landing multiple stripers per day. Sizes on the billfish averaged in the 80 to 150 pound range. Dorado had showed up in the fish counts last weekend, but as the water temperatures cooled throughout the week they became very few and far between. Yellowfin tuna reports were limited as well, with most of the action reported coming from 30 to 50 miles offshore of the East Cape region.

Wahoo had started to appear in the areas from Gordo Banks to north of Los Frailes, but with the influx of cooler water this came to a standstill, though hopes are that as the currents swifts and warms back up these highly sought after gamefish will once again become more active.

Along the shoreline angles were targeting dogtooth snapper, pargo colorado and roosterfish. The numbers of roosters are increasing, but still have not peaked, the fluctuating water conditions being a factor, they can now be seen chasing bait in the surf line, very exciting to watch the surface explode in white water of frantic mullet with slashing roosterfish attacking from underneath.

Yellow snapper continue to be the mainstay of the La Playita panga fleet, as the area of Cardon was producing good numbers of these quality-eating snapper in the 4 to 10 pound class. There were also a few amberjack, cabrilla, surgeonfish and pompano being accounted for from this same region.

Puerto Los Cabos marina project continues to progress in the final stages. This weekend they brought in a mega sized dredger that apparently will be able to break up and remove the remaining rocks blocking the entrance channel, an armada of Navy personnel is operating this project.

The combined La Playita panga fleet sent out approximately 55 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 5 wahoo, 11 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 15 dorado, 9 yellowfin tuna, 215 yellowtail snapper, 14 dogtooth snapper, 58 sierra, 22 Mexican bonito, 9 amberjack, 18 cabrilla, 29 pompano, 22 surgeonfish, 18 jack crevalle and 88 roosterfish.

Good Fishing, Eric