Which each passing day the crowds of anglers are increasing, as the fall season is now official here and the mega buck tournaments are just around the corner. Visitors have been greeted within near perfect weather conditions, warm days and clear sunny skies. It is also the time when the north winds start to become predominant, just like clockwork they are starting to pick up, but so far have not been a nuisance, averaging only 6 to 10 miles per hour.?? Water temperatures ranged from 83 to 86 degrees, ocean swells were minimal, though there was quite a strong current running south out of the Sea of Cortez. At this time there is a tropical low pressure system located several hundred miles southwest of Manzanillo and it is appearing to show signs of some development, though it does look like it will most likely continue on a westerly track and miss the Baja Peninsula.

Live bait supplies have been sufficient, with caballito, sardinas and mullet available. Sportfishing fleets are now fishing in directions of the Pacific and the Sea Of Cortez. The striped marlin action continued to be excellent on the Pacific, towards Golden Gate Bank, the stripers were striking aggressively on lures and bait, with catches of six or more fish per charters common. Good numbers of dorado were also found from just around Los Arcos to south of El Faro.

The panga fleets based out of San Jose del Cabo concentrated most of their efforts from Palmilla, Gordo Banks and north to Iman Bank. Good fish counts held up throughout the first part of the week, most common catches were yellowfin tuna and dorado, with a mix of billfish and bottom species, though the later part of the week and through the weekend this action dropped way off, going from an average of over a 12 combined fish to just two or three, hard to say where the fish have gone, conditions have not really changed much and bait supply has been good. Pangueros will have to do some more scouting to find some more consistent action for the coming week. The Inner Gordo Bank had been producing early limits on yellowfin tuna, most of them in the 10 to 15 pound class, but with a handful of larger specimens up to 50 pounds accounted for. This bite on the Bank completely diminished, with the better action switching north to the Iman Bank, but then over the weekend that bite also dropped way off and reports of better tuna action off of Palmilla came in. Anglers seemed to have better success on sardinas, but the fish were also striking on a variety of medium sized lures.

One of the more unusual catches of the week was a 50 pound roosterfish that hit a sardina that was being trolled on the surface near the Iman Bank, every season in October we do hear of a handful of roosterfish being taken further offshore, away from their normal inshore habitat. On the same bank, off the bottom, there was a mix of pargo, cabrilla and dogtooth snapper being accounted for. As well as a few early season sierra starting to appear in the fish counts. Not many reports of any wahoo action this past week, it is the time of year when these fish normally become more active.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 76 charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 1 roosterfish, 2 wahoo, 6 sierra, 5 surgeonfish, 31 cabrilla, 42 pargo, 6 dogtooth snapper, 92 dorado and 236 yellowfin tuna.