Although this week marks the official start of the summer season, you sure would think it was more like winter or early spring by the way the local ocean conditions were. Persistent southern winds pushed in chilly Pacific currents, reaching as far as Los Frailes and this dropped water temperatures to the mid 60s, with a break of 72 plus degree water being found some twenty plus miles offshore. This influx of cold off colored water caused a dramatic affect on the fishing, scattering any inshore action that had been going on and forcing fleets to travel long distances in search of more favorable water conditions. Live bait remained plentiful, with sardinas, mullet and caballito all available. It was hard to believe the weather forecast from day to day, they would predict light winds and then on the same day the south wind would kick up to nearly 25 mph. This pattern is not that unusual for the month of June, except that this year it has definitely proved to be more extreme than in the past decade or so. It appears that this will be one of those years that weather pattern will not normalize until mid July, then surely the water will remain warm throughout the remainder of the summer.

The cruiser fleet found that their best chance was to head straight out from Cabo San Lucas and Chileno, anywhere from 20 to 40 miles offshore, this is where they found cleaner blue water of 74 degrees and a mix of striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna. Often times the striped marlin that were found had lock jaw, but with persistence some of them did bite. Dorado were not numerous, but some very nice sized fish were accounted for, with reports of bulls weighing 30 to 60 pounds striking on trolled lures. Yellowfin tuna continued to be scarce, but some schools of football-sized fish were encountered further offshore traveling with porpoise.

Panga fleets found little options besides searching for any available action close to shore or off rocky high spots. The cold water brought any roosterfish activity to a standstill and it was mainly some scattered jack crevalle and sierra that were found along the sandy beaches and the numbers of them were limited. There was a better chance at hooking into either a pargo colorado or dogtooth snapper while trolling mullet along rocky beach stretches in about 30 to 40 feet of water, some fish up to 30 pounds were landed, but once again not in any significant numbers. Yellow snapper in the 4 to 8 pound class were probably the most common species being caught, striking on sardinas in about 50 feet of water on spots from Punta Gorda to La Fortuna. San Luis Bank produced a mix of amberjack and huachinango for anglers working yo-yo jigs and various baits off the bottom. Amberjack weighed up to 30 pounds and the huanchinago (red snapper) ranged from 5 to 10 pounds. Cabrilla, sheephead, whitefish, triggerfish, pompano, bonito and halibut rounded out the catches, though none of these species were particularly abundant.

We expect similar fishing action until the conditions offshore improve, this could happen in a couple of days or weeks, just have to be patient and follow the reports, it is only a matter of time that our summer season breaks wide open.

The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 73 panga charters and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 2 dorado, 2 mako sharks, 9 dogtooth snapper, 31 pargo colorado, 124 yellowtail snapper, 15 cabrilla, 11 pompano, 17 amberjack, 18 roosterfish, 22 sierra, 19 jack crevalle, 25 Mexican bonito, 32 triggerfish and 4 halibut.

Good fishing, Eric