Thanksgiving week in Los Cabos always seems to be busy with visiting families and this year was no exception, though this is also typically the period when tourism starts to slow down for several weeks as people start to gear up for the coming Christmas Holiday season and priorities are sidetracked. Up until this past weekend the local weather conditions would have to have been considered to be ideal and warmer than usual, the north winds have been virtually a non factor up until now and accordingly water temperatures have continued to hold at the 80 degree mark. On Saturday there was a cold front that moved through, it started with winds out of the west to northwest and by mid morning had switched from the south, with gusts to over 25 miles per hour, this created very sloppy ocean conditions and for a long wet boat ride home for the sportfishing fleets that were fishing in the direction of the Sea of Cortez on the Iman or La Fortuna Banks. By Sunday morning the wind had laid down with only a residue of wind chop remaining. Throughout?? the region the water temperature were now in the 76 degree (Pacific side), to 80 degrees off of the San Jose del Cabo area.

Live sardinas became scattered off of the Puerto Los Cabos rock jetties where these baitfish had been so abundant for the last couple of months. This week commercial pangueros were having to go has far as Chileno Bay to find the preferred baitfish, this meant the panga fleets from La Playita were having to back track to Palmilla where they would meet up with the bait suppliers and then head back towards the northern fishing grounds of La Fortuna and Iman. It was worth the time spent obtaining the live sardinas because this was the bait of choice for the yellowfin tuna action, drift fishing while chumming was the most productive technique and anglers found excellent action for tuna in the 10 to 20 pound range.?? Some tuna up to 30 pounds were found and one 59 pound specimen was also accounted for by a Gordo Banks Panga. The yellowfin definitely were the most dominate speices this week, dorado numbers dropped substantially, though some fish in the 5 to 15 pound class were still encountered, much of this action was in the same general area as where the tuna were schooling.

Anglers accounted for respectable numbers of wahoo through the first part of the week, but over the weekend on the full moon this action dropped off. Early in the week a fair percentage of charters reported catching one or even two wahoo per outing, most of these fish were striking on Marauders, skirted led heads, Yo-Zuris, Rapalas or rigged ballyhoo and live skipjack. Average size ranged from 25 to 40 pounds. If the north winds do not become too relentless in the coming weeks we are hoping the wahoo will remain active into the month of December, typically the week following the full moon is not the most favorable time, but by the first of December we are optimistic that the bite will turn back on.

The billfish action continues to be found on the banks off the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, as fleets were scores multiple catches of striped marlin on a daily basis.

Other catches included limited numbers of sierra, cabrilla, pargo and triggerfish.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 116 charters for the week with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 1sailfish,1 mako shark, 1,245 yellowfin tuna, 92 dorado, 64 pargo, 22 cabrilla, 32 triggerfish, 48 sierra, 7 amberjack and 44 wahoo.