Cabo San Lucas
All species combined comprise 86.55%; Billfish 63.03%; Dorado 21.85%; Tuna 42.02%; and Other 3.36%.
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Baja is welcoming the Fall Season. It began with clear, calm skies and warmer air in the mid to high-80s a couple of weeks ago and dropped to the low to high-70s this week, although the water temperatures insist on staying around the mid-80s. Anglers continue to arrive in Cabo to escape the cold rain and snow from their home states, finding solace in the warm water of Baja that the fish haven’t wanted to leave yet.
Tony Rogers from California chartered “LA CORONITA,” a 40-foot Cabo Express, with Captain Manuel, Sr. at the Helm and Mate Jr. running the cockpit. They took him to the La Brecha Spot, where he experienced the thrill of catching and releasing Six Striped Marlin in the 120-pound range on bait. It was one of his most exhilarating fishing days, and the crew shared the day’s excitement.
The “LA CHINGONA 2,” a 64-foot Viking, with Captain Antonio, Mates Luis, and Nestor as crew, when Capt. Antonio Bojorquez took a busman’s holiday and caught Two Yellowfin Tuna that weighed 140 and 150 pounds on the kite and One 40-pound Wahoo on feathers below the San Jaime Bank.
The “FRIDAY BANK,” a 66-foot Viking, with Captain Alex and Mates Saul and Beto, took Ben Perelmuter, Brad Frazier, Dave Johnson, Kevin Detz, Lee Owen, Mark Easterling, Michael McGilligan, Ron Slavin, from McKinney, Texas, twenty miles to the 210 Spot where they hit a trifecta! They caught One 30-pound Wahoo on bait, eighteen 10 to 20-pound Yellowfin Tuna on bait and feathers, and caught and released Three 120-pound Striped Marlin on bait.
Traveling from Fall City, Washington, Dawna Dalosto, Gonzalo Gonzalez, Luz Enith, Aguilar Arias, Mark and Rachel Monte, and Vic Dalosto decided to fish on the “Don Luis,” a 45-footer with Captain Juan and Mate Jonathan. They were taken to the Los Arcos, where they caught Two 25-pound Roosterfish and One 42.5-pound Wahoo. All the fish were caught on bait and were fun fish to catch.
Gordo Banks
The main highlight throughout the week was searching for tuna offshore swimming with the porpoise. Most of these tuna were on the large size – we saw many over the 100-pound mark. One of our boats tried fishing with the porpoise on Friday and Saturday. Overall, they caught nine yellowfin, four fish over 100 pounds, with the largest weighing 124 pounds. The others were nice-sized, anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds. The smaller fish were caught on poppers and squid, and the larger were hooked on lures. Fishing can be challenging on a small panga with one engine, although most boats looking for porpoise offshore are private boats with two to four engines that can get there within 45 minutes. The porpoise schools were spotted close to Cabrillo, 32 to 45 miles from shore. The biggest tuna caught recently was around 180 pounds taken on a squid strip. We continue to catch the small yellowfin tuna towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman Banks. We are finally beginning to consistently see some 30 to 70-pounders in the mix. Most of the action is on live or dead sardina and squid strips. Live sardina has been scarce some days, and a few boats hooked tuna on jigs. But the best action came from the Vinorama Spot.
From Vinorama to La Fortuna, we have caught a handful of nice wahoo, though the bite remains spotty. Most of the bites come early in the morning. We are trolling XRaps, Nomads, and rigged Ballyhoo, and a couple of small dorados were also caught this way. A few boats reported landing smaller wahoo (from 15 to 20 pounds) at Palmilla Point and Cerro Colorado this weekend on Rápalas.
When the current allowed, there was a good chance at a dogtooth snapper, grouper, or amberjack on the bottom. The best bottom action came from the inner Gordo, though Iman has also been decent. While drifting strips of skipjack at the Gordo, one of the boats also caught a wahoo on a surface jig...Good Fishing, Brian Brictson
East Cape
The North Wind started to blow at East Cape in the last few days, but before that, there were still some Roosterfish and wahoo; it looked like the boys were catching an occasional billfish. …Jeff DeBrown
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay/ Suenos Bay
As far as fishing…there are not many folks on the water. We’ve gone from 10, 20, to 30 folks on the water each day for seven straight months to…ZERO. We have some clients booked for December for a few days, but that’s it for now.
We consider mid-October to April to be off-season because the North Winds kick in, and it just gets too darned rough and windy to be out on the water about 50% of the time, and anglers have about a 50 to 70% chance of getting blown off or canceled. I make sure that I tell anyone who wants to book about these weather issues so they have realistic expectations. Or at least they can be flexible on their fishing days, and we can move them to better weather days or tell them to forget it.
Fishing is supposed to be fun, but getting seasick, soaking wet, or getting bounced out of their seats is not fun, and neither is wasting their money and getting canceled.
There’s a reason why all the windsurfers and kite boarders come to the La Paz area in the winter. It’s because we get world-class winds!
Well…almost on cue, the North Winds started up last week. It's not blowing ferociously yet, but 10 to 15 knots is still windy with some 20-knot gusts. I talked to some of the commercial guys, and they said there were some days they could not get their boats in the water. There was even a little rain.
So, except for windsurfers and kiteboarders, the only ones on the water are either commercial fishermen making a living or locals who can fish on the days when the weather permits.
As might be expected, the fish being caught are mixed. It’s a little bit of a toss-up. THERE IS SOME GREAT FISHING right now. The deal is finding the days when the wind will not blow you off the water! But there’s a nice mix of fish happening.
With the wind blowing, the water is already cooling down. That’s bringing in murkier, greener water patches, although some surface temps still show 80-degree water on top.
The cooler water produced snapper, pargo, cabrilla, Sierra, amberjack, and even some yellowtail.
However, there are still some warm-water fish around. Some commercial guys have been able to boat a few tuna here and there. I’ve heard some wahoo are around, and there are a few schools with 5 to 10-pound dorado and even free-swimmers in the 20 to 30-pound class, but those will diminish as the waters continue to trend cooler.
Surprisingly, billfish keep popping up when we think we’ve seen the last of them. Some days marlin is mixed in with the dorado, which has been some of the best fishing. We had one day when blue marlin were chomping like mackerel. Go figure—just another piece of an already puzzling fishing season. You take your chances with the wind. …Jonathan Roldan, Tailhunter Sportfishing ,
