Near capacity crowds of anglers flooded the Los Cabos area, they were greeted with pristine weather conditions, clear sunny skies, with highs of close to 90 degrees. North winds were mild, from 6 to 8 miles per hour and the overall ocean conditions were very comfortable, only minimal swells were reported. Water temperature is slowly starting to drop, now averaging 80 to 82 degrees, clarity varied, but was somewhat improved over last week. All of the angling pressure caused a sardina shortage over the weekend, as supplies of these preferred baitfish off of Palmilla and the Puerto Los Cabos Marina area were scattered and much of the bait being found was of smaller size.

San Jose del Cabo fleets were concentrating efforts on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks to Iman. The most common catch was yellowfin tuna, drift fishing with live bait was most productive for the tuna that were averaging in size from 10 to 15 pounds, with a handful of larger fish weighing up to 50 pounds mixed in the same schools. Dorado were also found on a daily basis, though the numbers of them were fewer than the yellowfin. The dorado were striking on lures as well as the live bait, the fish ranged from 5 to 20 pounds for the most part, with the exception of a few larger bulls. Over the weekend the numbers of dorado were greater than earlier in the week, as many pangas reported catching 6 to 10 fish per charter.

Wahoo continued to be elusive, though a few were being hooked into on trolled lures in the areas from Cardon to Vinorama, with most strikes ocurring early in the morning. Of the few wahoo that were landing in the fish boxes, most of them were in the 15 to 30 pound class.

A couple of roosterfish in the 50 pound class were caught and released in the vicinity of Iman Bank, out of their normal habitat of close to shore, but this has become to be a trend during the fall season, that a handful of larger roosters are reported from the offshore banks, some of them while drift fishing baits with weights off the bottom, or on deep water rapalas.

Billfish were more plentiful on the Pacific, more striped marlin than blues or sailfish. Only a scattered of the billfish are being encountered off of the San Jose del Cabo area, some of them in very close proximity to the shoreline.

The status on the progress of Puerto Los Cabos Marina is that more infrastructure work is being completed and a handful of large sportfishers are now docked inside, as well as the majority of the local pangas, though such necessities as freshwater, fillet stations and parking facilities still need to be completed. The bridge work across the San Jose River Flood zone is continuing at a snails pace, with some luck maybe by next summer it will be completed.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 195 charters this past week, with anglers accounted for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 14 wahoo, 3 roosterfish, 22 cabrilla, 48 various pargo (snapper), 610 dorado, 1,555 yellowfin tuna and 44 sierra.