Fish Report

BY GARY GRAHAM

Cabo San Lucas

Limits of dorado were common for most of the fleet targeting them. The trick was to release the smaller ones until a larger one came along. And every once in a while, a 25-pounder would show up.

Adding to the excitement, a wahoo bite, one of the best eating fish caught locally, would come along. Jason Jeter and Kayla Van Fleek managed to land a five-foot-long, trophy-sized wahoo weighing 52 pounds, in addition to 20 or more dorado bites.

While another boat near them hooked, caught, and tagged a wahoo.

Other action also included billfish, a striped marlin, along with a few large blue marlin. Rebecca Ehrenberg, fishing alone, tagged and released 8 of the 10 striped marlins she hooked, as well as yellowfin tuna.

Inshore, sierra mackerel, roosterfish, and skipjack were taken by boats fishing closer to shore.

The location is from the old Lighthouse to Migrino or farther out for dorado, yellowfin tuna, and billfish on the Pacific side.

The weather conditions have been calm seas with sunny skies, and humidity.

The average water temp has been from 83-to-86-degrees F.

The best lures have been live and dead caballito, ballyhoo, hoochies, red/black lures, green/yellow, guacamayo, feathers, cedar plugs as well as some tuna on kites.

Puerto Los Cabos

Most local charters have been working the grounds from Santa Maria, Palmilla, Gordo Banks, and north to Vinorama. The overall bite was more scattered and there has been no consistent spot. Anglers found limited numbers of yellowfin tuna, and the largest we saw was in the 50-to-70-pound class, and then there was the smaller 10-to-20-pound grade mixed in with them. 

The locals had a few days where they had a good tuna bite off Palmilla during the late afternoon for a nice grade of 40-to-50-pound fish, but this action faded out later. We did not hear of any additional big tuna taken off of the Gordo Banks.

The final big tournament of the season, the WON Tuna Jackpot, with approximately 130 teams heading in all directions, should see some nice-sized yellowfin being hauled in.

One of the more common gamefish recently were the dorado, though the majority were smaller-sized fish; not many of them were over 10 pounds, and anglers should remember to practice catch and release for these smaller-sized dorados, especially since this is the one species where you can tell from a distance which fish are males or females. It does not make sense to kill the smaller-size females which are filled with eggs, as these fish are one of the faster-growing species. Please give them a chance to mature!

Only a handful of wahoo were landed recently. We expect with the conditions shaping up, these fish should become much more active in the upcoming weeks. Off the bottom, the highlight has been a few dogtooth snapper up to 40 pounds, more triggerfish, and small pargo, as well as an occasional cabrilla, bonito, island jack, or rainbow runner.

Along the shore, we saw jack crevalle, roosterfish, sierra, and more triggerfish. More sierra will begin to move in as the water temperature cools down and winter sets in.

East Cape

The water is between 85-to-86-degrees and clear, flat, with exceptionally light SE winds in the afternoon.

The air has been in the low 90s, but it is cooling! Mornings are in the low 70s with clear skies. Beautiful weather!

Fishing has improved for wahoo, yellowfin, dorado, billfish, and although there are many sierra which is unusual for this warm water, all of the above-named fish are being taken daily. There is also plenty of good bait available (sardina).

This has been the best weeks of the year for wahoo from south of the white cliffs to Iman Bank and from one to three miles off the beach. Almost all the wahoo have been from 20-to-60-pounds and taken on Rapalas, although a few were caught on Cedar Plugs. One boat took four. Anglers targeting the wahoo are catching at least one.

The dorado has been a good, consistent bite, and they are in the same areas as the yellowfin. Large schools of fish from 10-to-30-pounds with almost all taken on sardina although a few were caught on Hoochies.

The yellowfin were taken by anglers targeting them, scoring tuna in the 5-to-70-pound class; most fish have been around 20 pounds. 

The areas from Rincon Bay close to the Pulmo Park west boundary are holding some nice-sized yellowfin that have been taken on sardina along with some dorado mixed in. Although the bait is holding a lot of game fish, it’s making for very picky biters. It’s unusual for the sierra bite to be happening in October, but this year it is wide open! Sierra are normally around in the winter months in 70-degree water. These are good-sized fish to 8 pounds. Big Almaco jacks and pargo were also taken.

La Paz  

We can tell the seasons are changing. The air temps are getting cooler with the highs in a comfortable 85 degrees on the average with pleasant evenings.

However, with the temperature change, we’re also getting more winds, especially from the north, winds that blow from about November to April can make fishing a little bumpy and choppy. It can also hinder our ability to get to certain fishing holes and even to get to the places where we get live bait. 

That’s what has happened recently. We had two to three days of fairly windy conditions and white-water on the ocean. For better-or-worse, not too many folks are fishing this week which will be typical as we get closer to the holidays. More snowbirds than anglers are coming to town and they are looking for sunshine, plus there are more walk-in anglers just looking for one day of fishing out on the water. 

And there has still been some excellent fishing. Some boats did better than others. Some areas were much more productive than others. 

The Las Arenas fleet had the most variety.

We found some tuna … finally … after almost an entire season with none. The guys had to run a far distance, however. They went south almost to the north end of the East Cape. They made it one day, but then after that, it was too windy to get there on subsequent days. 

Still, there were some legit 10-to-20-pound dorado, cabrilla, snapper, jack crevalle, bonito, several types of pargo, and we even got one big dog-tooth snapper as well that we pulled out of the rocks. 

For our La Paz Fleet, for several days, it was simply too windy. It was all whitecaps and rough water. However, there have been dorado right in the bay around where the big tanker ships are anchored off Punta Prieta only about five minutes from where we launch. There’s also sierra under those big boats. Outside, we have been seeing more marlin although we couldn’t get any of them to bite. Soon it’s going to be breezy again, but not as bad as before. ,