Fish Report

Cabo San Lucas

Striped marlin fishing has picked up as they are starting to move down from Mag Bay. Most of the fish are being caught at the Lighthouse so far on mackerel pitching baits and dropping to 160-feet drift fishing.

Dorado fishing has slowed. We have been catching a few, although they are not schooled up anymore; most of the fish are being caught in pairs.

Yellowfin tuna fishing has been okay – one day we will find them, the next day – zero. The schools are very small. The Horseshoe has been the best area, though there’s not a lot of fish, even there – there’s from two to four a day at 12 to 25 miles out. Most fish are in the 30-to-60-pound range.

The wahoo has slowed with the largest weighing less than 20 pounds.  

Inshore

Sierra have been super from Solmar to Rancho Migrino weighing in the 5-to-8-pound range. They are great for ceviche and smoking. There have been a few roosterfish and a few small grouper.

LOCATION: From Cabo Falso to Migrino, Pozo Cota to Golden Gate, and San Jaime.

WEATHER CONDITIONS:  Temperatures are still reaching the high seventies during the mid-day, but a windbreaker or sweatshirt is needed in the mornings. Light winds in the afternoons to 10 knots with sea temps averaging around 78 degrees; on the Pacific side, it has remained 76 degrees. 

BEST LURES: The best bait and lures have been live sardina, mackerel, or dead caballito along with ballyhoo, hoochies, and feathers.

Puerto Los Cabos

There are minimal numbers of tourists visiting, as many people are preparing for the holiday season or they are dealing with the ongoing COVID pandemic. The weather is turning towards winter-like patterns. We saw scattered cloud cover and low temperatures as chilly as 55 degrees, with most days warming up to near 80 degrees. 

The wind was predominately out of the north limiting where anglers were able to comfortably concentrate their efforts, although the wind did slack and ocean conditions were again more favorable. 

Water temperatures are now averaging from 75-to-77-degrees, with clearer blue water found on our normal fishing grounds. Off-colored currents are near Vinorama and towards Los Frailes.

Anglers have mainly been using sardina and caballito for bait. We should begin to see mackerel and sardineta move onto local bait grounds, as this is always the time of year when this happens. Most boats are fishing the areas from Chileno, Red Hill, Punta Gorda, Cardon, and Iman. We saw lots of sierra closer to shore, most in the 2-to-5-pound range, striking smaller-sized lures as well as the sardina. 

We have also been seeing more dorado which have been larger and there were even a handful of bulls over 20-pounds spotted. With the ocean still warm for this time of year, we expect this dorado action to continue through the month. Also, there were good numbers of wahoo accounted for, striking on trolled Rapalas, various bait, and yo-yo jigs. Sizes ranged from small juvenile fish to fish over 40-pounds with most of the wahoo being smaller in size.

Tuna action has been spotty for the past several weeks, though recently, we did see more of the yellowfin being hooked into from near the Iman Bank, and drift fishing with sardina was the best bet for this action. Sizes ranged to over 40 pounds with some boats accounting for two, three, or four of these fish.

Not much bottom action was being done. with few numbers of anglers in town, often choppy ocean conditions make this harder and the fact that surface action was the most productive action now happening. We did see more striped marlin moving into local waters, so it will not be long now until the billfish make their main migration toward the Sea of Cortez following their favored food source.

More and more whales are being sighted as well since we are now nearing peak season for these migrating mammals.

East Cape

This is the time of year when the hotels have few customers and even fewer are interested in fishing. However, a few Palmas de Cortez has boats have found some nice-sized dorado, along with sierra and a few jacks along the shore.

Since kiteboarding has gained in popularity over the past decade, most of the other visitors are lured to the area to take advantage of the seasonal north winds that are common from now through April. 

La Paz  

About the only folks in town right now between the holidays are folks here to find some sunshine from colder places in the world. And indeed, the sun has been out mostly … although relatively speaking, we think it’s been on the chilly side. However, it is sunnier than places in Canada, Alaska, and Montana. However, even that was not guaranteed as we actually had FOG! That’s right … real FOG! 

A thick London-style fog descended on the city that made it look eerie. Of course, then the sun came out and cooked it all away.

Likewise, as is typical this time of year, the winds did blow, especially as the days wore on with some gusts to 25 knots. As for fishing, there are not that many anglers around anyway, but for those that went out, it was either pretty rough, making it hard to get to the fishing grounds and get bait or, they were getting blown off the water by the late morning or in the early afternoon. 

There are still some dorado around that are running up to about 20 pounds. Some wahoo were hit at the south end of Cerralvo as well and commercial guys still keep seeing some big tuna north of the island, although the fish are moving too fast and not taking any hooks. Inshore, cabrilla, and snapper, as well as jack crevalle, provided action when there was nothing farther out.