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| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
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| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
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| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
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| Not all animals with the word fish in their names count as fish. |
| Though their names may suggest otherwise, cuttlefish, starfish, and jellyfish aren’t actually fish. Generally-speaking, fishes must have skulls, gills, and fins. Surprisingly, though, not all fishes have proper spines. |
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| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
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| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Just how man species of fish are there? |
| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Even Catfish are finicky |
| Taste Buds ? Catfish have a more refined sense of flavor than humans. Our 10,000 taste buds may seem like a lot, but catfish can have as many as 175,000. This helps them find the exact location of their next meal. |
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| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
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From Jan 01, 1999 To Sep 22, 2025
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Jan 21, 2012; 12:27PM - THE RISING SUN
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Mark Rayor
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The rising sun
This week the East Cape has experienced more calm
days with warmer weather than in the past several
weeks. With the break in weather private boaters
fishing in shore have been getting some early
morning action. Sierra, white bonito, roosterfish, jack
cravell and even a few small dorado have been
busting large schools of sardines up and down Buena
Vista beaches.
Humpback whales with their calfs and huge schools
of mobula manta rays have also arrived and can be
seen putting on a show from shore.
Most of our local resorts have closed for the winter
and only one or two charter boats have been fishing
daily. Traveling long distances and fishing off shore
has not paid off. The best action has remained near
shore.
The Sea of Cortez is one of the most magnificent
bodies of water on this planet. I have posted a few
random photos of the sunrise I wake up to every
morning. Looking out my window it is impossible to
wake up without a happy face.
I am reminded of one of my all time favorite movies
'Groundhog Day' staring Bill Murry. In the movie
Murry wakes up every morning to his alarm clock with
Sonny and Cher singing 'I Got You Babe'. He
experiences groundhog day, day after day after day.
Every Groundhog Day it is always a treat to watch the
movie.
Bill Murry got 'You Babe', I get a much better deal
with these sunrises every morning.
Slept in this morning and caught this before even
getting out of bed.
For some great photos check out my blog
Mark Rayor
teamjenwren.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
US cell 310 308 5841
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Jan 16, 2012; 11:25AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 9-15, 2012
WEATHER: The weather had a few fluctuations this week as our lows varied from 57 to 71 degrees depending on the amount of cloud cover and the wind. With a cloud deck that moved in during the middle of the week we had warmer weather with early in the week being the coolest. Daytime highs were pretty much the same with an average of 82 degrees. We did experience a little spit of rain on Friday evening and early Saturday morning with more being felt toward San Jose than here in San Lucas.
WATER: Surface conditions were pretty good this week with the exception of Saturday when we had some strange winds happen. Early in the morning until about 8AM the wind was almost gale force blowing from the north up in the Sea of Cortez causing great amounts of chop on the water and some larger than normal swells, then it died off. About 11 AM it returned for 30 minutes but in the opposite direction, coming in from the south, then we were back to normal light winds. Sea surface temperatures on the Cortez side were 74 degrees inside the 1,000 fathom lone and 73 degrees outside that area. On the Pacific side there were three bands of water, 72 degrees close to the beach and then out to the banks, 71 degree water across the San Jaime and the Golden Gate, then warm 76 degree water to the west of the San Jaime on the 1,000 fathom line.
BAIT: Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: Fishing is so strange, one day they are there and the next day they are gone. This past week they seemed to have been gone, maybe on vacation to visit relatives. There were still some Striped Marlin being caught, but my guess is that only 20-30% of the boats were getting hooked up, and most of the action was incidental with fish being seen while targeting other species. Scattered fish were found on the Pacific side from one to three miles off the beach by boats working that area for Dorado and there were still a few small concentrations scattered about to the north 25-35 miles. A few fish were reported from the Palmilla area toward the end of the week but they were not biting well. Perhaps the full moon had something to do with the bite not being on. We had one fly fisherman who had a fish come into the teasers but just eyeballed his fly, then refused to eat a live bait. Go figure....
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Probably the fish of the week in terms of numbers, at least for the off-shore species, they were not the fish of the week in terms of size. Most of the fish found were football sized, and they were being very picky when it came to feeding. Scattered pods of Porpoise were found from just off the beach to 30 miles out on the Pacific side and one out of three held these smaller fish. The key to success was small hootchies, as small as two inches fished on 20 pound leader. With the fish ranging in size from 6 to 15 pounds you still got a good fight if you were using the lighter tackle, but if one of the very few fish in the 35 pound class happened to bite, well, Katy bar the door, you were in for a struggle and more than likely were going to lose the fish. Boats traveled up to 50 miles to the west trying to find larger fish in the warmer water but did not have any success.
DORADO: This week was almost a repeat of last week's action as the fish are small and few in number. As the water continues to cool we will observe this trend continue. The best concentrations of Dorado were found off of the Palmilla area close to the beach. Chumming heavily with Sardinas brought the fish around then it was a matter of getting them to eat. Since the limit is two Dorado per person, it was hard to justify the run up there and the time spent just to catch some of these fish which averaged 8 pounds. On the Pacific side there were fish scattered between just off the beach to three miles out, most of them in the warmer water up above San Cristobal. Slow trolled live bait worked if you were willing to put in the time, at least there were plenty of whales to watch while waiting for a bite!
WAHOO: I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.
INSHORE: While the offshore fishing has been spotty and mostly consists of smaller members of normally larger species, the inshore fishing has been pretty darn good. While most of them are not large, we have been having great success with Sierra, almost everyone has been able to limit out on these fish. Average size is under 5 pounds but there have been a few schools out there that have been averaging 7-8 pounds. As well as the Sierra, there have been some decent reports of Yellowtail being caught on the Pacific side, some of the fish over 30 pounds. An average, at least this week, was 15 pounds but while there were good numbers out there, not all the boats that were trying for them had success. You had to fish a rock or ledge in 150-250 feet of water that showed marks on the depth sounder and make repeated drifts over it. With the target area so small it was easy to get off the mark and only end up with one or two fish. Also, jigging or yo-yo'ing was the way to get to the fish and not a lot of anglers are familiar with the correct method of working these lures. Also on these rock-piles were Grouper, some to 30 pounds and they were just as likely to grab a lure and tangle in the rocks as a Yellowtail was! A scattering of Roosterfish were reported but no large numbers, and there was plenty of action on Bonito and Skipjack.
FISH RECIPE: Most often posted on the blog on Thursdays, check it out once in a while to see what is new!
NOTES: While the fishing has slowed down, the weather has been great! All we need is for the Marlin to start biting and we will be having a great season. With the inshore species picking up the slack it is almost impossible to get skunked out there, but you have to be patient. Plenty of Dolphin to watch offshore, whales along the beach, good water conditions, it all makes for a nice day on the water. Return with fish for dinner and it's a success! This weeks report was written to the sounds of Sirius Radio channel 6. Until next week, tight lines!
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Jan 14, 2012; 07:50PM - THE TYPICAL HOOT
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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THE TYPICAL HOOT
The buzz of reports that a few nice yellowtail have
been landed on the East Cape has locals excited. The
largest problem is that strong north winds typical of
this time of year are keeping anglers on the beach
most days.
Tired of watching the wind blow we took our annual
camping trip to Mag Bay. This is the time of year on
the full moon and new moon that we experience
extreme tides.
La Paz is our first stop where we load up on supplies
for the week. Then it is up highway 1 toward Ciudad
Constitucion. Turning off the highway we head
toward the water down a washboard dirt road for
about 20 miles until reaching a small fish camp. The
pangeros there work mostly at night for shrimp and
crab and we are able to buy all we want. Just past the
fish camp is a tiny naval base. Past the base the road
leads us to a beautiful deserted beach where we can
camp at the waters edge.
Mag is about as close to utopia for an outdoorsman
that I can imagine. On the low tide there are areas
where we can harvest a bucket of chocolate clams in
about an hour. On high tide fishing the mangroves is
always action packed for a variety of species. That is
not to mention sighting hoards of different birds,
whales and porpoise close up.
For a complete report with lots of great photos check
out my blog.
Mark Rayor
teamjenwren.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
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Jan 9, 2012; 10:43AM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
January 2 - 8, 2012
WEATHER: Our lows this week were in the mid 60's and the highs in the mid 80's, just about perfect once again! If you want to get away from that cold white stuff come on down! We had partly cloudy skies mid-week but the week started and ended with plenty of sun. It was a bit strange though in the fact that for the past several years we have had at least one day of at least sprinkles in each of the first four weeks of the year, now we have broken that pattern.
WATER: The swells stayed small all around the cape, in fact they were so small on the Sea of Cortez side between San Jose and San Lucas that it almost seemed we were on a lake. On Saturday the water on that side looked like a mirror as well with almost no wind ripples. On the Pacific side the swells were 2-4 feet and again with almost no wind for most of the week. The breeze did kick up just a little bit on Sunday morning but it only put a small chop on the almost flat water for a short time. At the end of the week water temperatures almost across the entire fishing area were 71 degrees with the exception of cooler, greener water of 70 degrees in the area of the Golden Gate Banks, a small intrusion of 73-74 degree water on the 95 spot and south of there. To get to any consistent 74-76 degree water you had to go 50 miles to the southwest.
BAIT: Small Caballito, some Mackerel and some junk baits were available at $3 each, frozen horse Ballyhoo could be had for between $3 and $4 each and there were a few sardines to be found toward San Jose at $25 a scoop.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: The Striped Marlin bite is still down from what we were seeing at the beginning of the week before when some boats were getting double digit numbers just to the inside of the Golden Gate and slightly north along the beach, but the fish seemed to have started biting again as this week toward the end of the week a few boats fishing the same area were getting between two and five releases per day. Of course there were a few scattered fish elsewhere, but this seemed to be the best place to go for a good shot. There was a problem however. You HAD to have the right bait to get them, they were not biting on lures or on junk baits or on Caballito, they were focused on Mackerel. If you were not at the bait boats early, or could not find and mackerel in the area to catch on your own, you may as well give it up, the fish were that picky. But....if you had the right stuff and were there early you stood a decent chance of getting bit. Naturally our fingers are crossed that more Mackerel maker it into our area and the fish follow them. On another good note, we had a Panga fishing on the 3rd that spotted and tried to bait what is the first Swordfish I have heard of this year. The Captain and experienced angler both estimated the fish at between 400 and 500 pounds and found him on the Pacific side just off the lighthouse. They baited the fish only to have it sink out after several attempts to get it to eat both dead and live bait. A sign of things to come?
YELLOWFIN TUNA: The great bite we had last week continued into the beginning of this week as boats were able to get on decent quality fish of between 25-35 pounds only 18 to 25 miles offshore on the Pacific side. How quickly things can change! Almost the next day the currents changed and the larger fish were gone, only to be found in the warmer 74 degree water 40 miles to the southwest. Closer to home there were still Yellowfin to be caught but they were smaller fish in the 8-15 pound class, and even they were being a bit picky. I did not hear of any reports of Yellowfin coming from the Sea of Cortez side of the Cape, even the Gorda Banks did not seem to have any of the home guard fish on it. If you did get into the smaller Yellowfin the best lure was small hootchies in darker colors, small red being one of the favorites.
DORADO: The Dorado bite continues to wind down as the water cools. And the fish are getting smaller. On the Cortez side the fish were found between Red Hill (the Westin Resort) and the Gorda Banks. These were small fish, a 10 pound fish was cause for celebration and they were not easy to come by. The best bait was sardines. Chumming heavily and fly-lining them on light flouro-carbon leader resulted in limits of these smaller fish. On the Pacific side the fish were slightly larger, but not much, and there were fewer of them. Slow trolling live bait just off the beach in 200 feet of water resulted in most of the better catches, and a large fish this week would have been 15 pounds with most of them barely reaching 10 pounds in size.
WAHOO: I saw a couple of Wahoo flags flying this week but there is a distinct possibility they were for Sierra as I did not hear of any Wahoo caught.
INSHORE: The good news is that there are some decent Yellowtail out there, just not a lot of them yet. One boat trolling lures just off the beach landed a fish of about 30 pounds during the middle of the week and several Pangas reported fish to 20 pounds, but not in any numbers. A few larger Roosterfish to 30 pounds were caught while drifting live bait along the beach searching for Yellowtail and Dorado and there were fair numbers of smaller fish right on the beach. Sierra have started to make a showing along the sandy stretches of the beach as well but the sizes have been small, so far only one school of large fish has been reported. Most of the ones I have heard of have been in the 3-4 pound class.
FISH RECIPE: Mary just posted a great recipe of a Dorado lettuce wrap, darn that was good stuff! Hopefully we will have another recipe up this week as well, hope it is as good!
NOTES: This has been a good week for fishing, not great, but pretty good. Mostly a matter of the right place at the right time, as it most often is. With great weather, good fishing, whales to watch and the holiday crowds gone it is pretty darn nice! Time to take the pup to the beach for the Sunday walk, home for a good breakfast and a Bloody Mary then down to town for some football! This weeks report was written to the sounds of and the feel of my pup panting and nosing me to “get done now dad, it's time for the beach!”. Until next week, tight lines!
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
January 8, 2012
Anglers –
As vacationing families now return home so children can resume their school
schedules, crowds of tourists are much lighter than how they were during the holiday
season. The weather has been on a warmer trend, mostly sunny skies, light winds,
with high temperature ranging into the 80s. Ocean water temperatures were now
ranging from 70 to 74 degrees. Clarity varied from area to area, but overall
conditions were improved over previous weeks.
Anglers were able to find live sardinas for bait without much difficulty and there
were schools of mackerel and sardinetas found locally. Fleets were fishing in all
directions, this past week there were more consistent reports coming from the
Pacific side of Cabos San Lucas, this is where water temperatures were warmest.
Areas off of Chileno, Palmilla, Cardon and Iman also produced scattered action.
The striped marlin bite was most productive off of Cabo San Lucas and the Old Light
House areas, three to fifteen miles from shore, scores of tailing billfish could be
seen on any given charter, though these fish proved to have lock jaw at times,
different techniques were used with varied success, trolling lures, casting and
soaking live baits, etc..Even though mackerel were still found schooling off of San
Jose del Cabo, charters in this region have not seen much in the way of marlin this
past week on these grounds.
Dorado were being found in smaller sized schools, fish averaged 5 to 15 pounds, with
a percentage of larger fish up to 25 pounds accounted for. The dorado were found
close to shore and also out on the offshore fishing grounds. These fish can grow up
to five pounds per month, better to release smaller sized dorado so that they can
spawn and have the chance to grow to maturity. Dorado have been fairly abundant in
recent weeks, considering that this is the tail end of the normal season for them.
This is the time when more inshore action typically begins, so far there has been
limited activity for sierra, with juvenile roosterfish also being found, we look for
this action to improve as the season progresses. This is also the season when more
bottom species become more prevalent, so far only mixed results for some cabrilla,
pargo, bonito, amberjack and yellowtail have been found. Trolling with live bait,
hoochies and rapalas worked close to shore and jigging with yo-yo’s over structure
produced a mix of cabrilla, amberjack, bonito and snapper. Lots of hammerhead sharks
are congregated on rocky high spots now, they proved to be a nuisance when trying to
catch the targeted species.
Yellowfin tuna action has switched this past month from the Sea of Cortez to off of
the Pacific and Chileno, associated with porpoise most of the time, more often
anywhere from 10 to 20 miles offshore. Most of these fish were in the 15 to 30 pound
range, though there were reports of tuna up to 100 pounds or more encountered. With
fluctuating conditions this bite was hit or miss. In recent days there were signs of
more yellowfin action.
No shortage of whales now, the Iman Bank has been a hot spot for humpback whales,
while the gray whales prefer the inshore waters off of the Pacific beaches.
There have been news bulletins about a new Mexican law now starting to be enforced
this month, Tourist Visas are now required for all anglers fishing in Mexican
waters. This will not be a factor for anglers traveling by air to Los Cabos, since
tourist visas are officially processed and stamped on arrival at the SJDC airport.
This law is going to impact anglers departing by sea from Southern California and
the heading south to fish in Mexican waters, these anglers will need to obtain their
tourist visas in advance.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out
approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2
wahoo, 5 yellowfin tuna, 235 dorado, 14 roosterfish, 112 sierra, 8 amberjack, 2
yellowtail, 12 hammerhead shark, 25 bonito, 18 cabrilla, 3 dogtooth snapper and 28
pargo.
Good fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Jan 4, 2012; 12:05AM - Northern BC Canada Fishing Report January 2, 2012
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Category: Canada
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Author Name: Noel Gyger
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Fishing Report from Noel Gyger http:// www.noelgyger.ca for Monday January 2, 2012 Terrace and Kitimat
Current LIVE Fishing Report can be read anytime 24-7 at: http://www.noelgyger.ca/current-fishing-reports.htm
Commentary: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE We have had lots of snow and cold temperatures this winter, so fishing has been a difficult. Those who ventured out have been rewarded with some great winter Steelhead. If you go stay warm and dry and be safe.
Skeena River: Water is clean. Some great Steelhead can still be had. Plus some good Trout Fishing. Reg: all wild Steelhead everywhere in British Columbia are catch and release.
Kalum River: Both the lower and upper sections are in good shape. A good run of Steelhead is in the river now. I have reports of some good catches.
Lakelse River: The water is in good shape and fishing for Steelhead, Trout is fantastic.
Zymoetz (Copper) River: Water is in good shape but lots of snow to contend with. Too bad as the Steelhead fishing has been excellent. Facts: Last year we had a record run of Steelhead, let’s hope at least we have another good run this year….so far so good.
Kitimat River: Trout fishing is very good.
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Jan 2, 2012; 02:28PM - TALK ABOUT IMPACT
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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The East Cape fish report for the last week of the year
is pretty grim. The north winds gave us a break for a
couple of days but the fish did not.
Reports from the handful of charter boats that fished
off shore was the water is off color, cold and lacking
life. The 32 contestants that fished the beach in
Felipe Valdez's annual sierra tournament only
accounted for one fish.
On a brighter note lets talk about what was.
My old man started me fishing on half day boats at
six years old. It was time spent with my dad that I will
never forget. I'm certain that is part of the reason I
have so much passion for sportfishing fishing today.
In 2011 we were fortunate to introduce fishing the
Sea of Cortez to more young people on our Jen Wren
boats then ever before. Each youth parted with a
positive experience and memories they will always
remember. I believe this will have a life-long impact
on their lives.
It gives me great personal pleasure to help provide
the experience, share in the excitement and see the
smiles on young faces. After their return home from
vacation, it is very rewarding to hear back from
parents about how their kid could hardly wait to share
their fishing experience with friends and also wrote
school reports about their adventure.
For some great photos check out my blog spot:
http://markrayor.blogspot.com/
Mark Rayor
www.teamjenwren.com
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Dec 26, 2011; 01:23PM - THAT'S THE BREAKS
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: MARK RAYOR
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THAT'S THE BREAKS
Wishing all my friends a belated Merry Christmas and
a prosperous New Year.
This has been the windiest week of the year for the
East Cape and there is no fishing activity at this time
to report on.
Reflecting back on our fishing year for 2011, Jen Wren
boats had some good breaks and some bad breaks.
Thankfully some days the fish gods just tossed us
one and I call that a lucky break. I have posted some
images of just a few of the lucky breaks we had this
year.
TO VIEW PHOTOS OF SOME REALLY LUCKY BREAKS
CHECK OUT MY BLOG AT:
http://markrayor.blogspot.com/
Wishing everybody tight lines and lots of lucky breaks
in 2012.
Mark Rayor
teamjenwren.com
markrayor.blogspot.com
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Dec 26, 2011; 12:49PM - Cabo Bite Report
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: George Landrum
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FLY HOOKER SPORTFISHING
Captain George Landrum
gmlandrum@hotmail.com
www.flyhooker.com
http://captgeo.wordpress.com/
Cabo Fish Report
December 19-25, 2011
WEATHER: The clouds and cold weather continued for Christmas week. Our walk on the beach with the dog on Christmas morning was done with a jacket on over my t-shirt and swim shorts since the air was a cool 58 degrees. With mostly cloudy skies this week it was not our typical Cabo weather and some of us were thinking it might actually snow in the mountains, Yeah, sure. Our coldest morning was 57 degrees but it was warming up in the afternoons to almost 85 degrees on a few days, and just 78 degrees on a couple of other days. It seemed strange to walk the beach and see people with their knees drawn up to their chests wearing hoody sweaters and towels over their legs sitting in the beach lounge chairs!
WATER: Just like last week, the swells this week were mixed with some days small ones coming in from the east and other days normal ones coming from the northwest. All in all there were no large swells, the biggest were on the Pacific side at 4-6 feet, the smaller on the Cortez at 1-3 feet. As far as water temps went, the water next to shore out to about 5 miles on the Cortez side between San Lucas and San Jose was cold at 68 degrees. Everywhere else it was 73 degrees with a few warm spots of 76 degrees to the southwest 30 miles.
BAIT: Some Caballito and a few Mackerel were to be had at $3 per bait, mostly boats were getting junk bait for their money so many were going with frozen Ballyhoo instead. There were some Sardinas at $25-$30 a scoop as well.
FISHING:
BILLFISH: I am surprised that we have not had concentrations of Marlin in our area since the water is the right temperature, but they just have not made it here yet. Not to say were are not catching any, far from that, it's just that we are not getting double digit numbers in our area. The Striped Marlin are here and the boats that are concentration on them are getting several a day to the boat, but we are not yet seeing the groups of four and more tailing together on the surface. Many of the boats have been concentrating on the usual drop areas such as the flats off of the lighthouse and the ridge at San Cristobal and putting live bait down halfway to the bottom. Others have been working 5 miles from the shore looking for tailing fish. Running a few ballyhoo in the pattern seems to be a very successful method as that added bit of enticement can turn a looker into a biter.
YELLOWFIN TUNA: Plenty of fish in the 12-25 pound range are to be found between 5 and 25 miles out and there are larger fish out there too. While catching the smaller ones it is not uncommon to see fish in the 100 pound class breaking the surface as they chase baitfish. The best bets for the smaller fish have been very small red hootchies, trying to imitate the krill that are showing up. On the larger fish it has been more difficult, but dropping back a rigged live bait a half-spool has worked for many boats if there are not other boats to run over the line. Boats hat have been working a kite with a rigged bait under it have also done well on the larger fish. Limits have been very possible on the smaller tuna this week, the larger tuna have been much more difficult to come by. The best areas have been on the Pacific side but I did hear of a few boats that worked the are between the 1150 and the Cabrillo Seamount and found good schools of fish.
DORADO: With the water cooling off fairly rapidly I am not sure how much longer the Dorado are going to be around, but there are still some out there. The warmer water on the Pacific side still holds fish and there are more on the inside than on the outside, but the numbers have dropped since last week. With an average size of 18 pound sand the cooler water the best technique has been to slow troll rigged live bait in areas where Frigate birds are spotted working. There have been limits of Dorado caught this week (2 per angler) but not as many as last week.
WAHOO: While not catching any myself, a few boats we had fishing did manage to get into some Wahoo this week. With the new moon Christmas eve the few days before then did produce some fish averaging 30 pounds. The normal areas such as the Gorda Banks (just on the edge of the cool water) and the rocky points on the Pacific side were popular areas to work and the drop right on the edge of San Lucas bay kicked out a couple of very nice fish for early boats.
INSHORE: Just like last week, the Sierra are starting to bite good and there are some Snapper in there among the rocks if you have the hooks and lead to spare. You are going to hook a lot more than you land and for some reason the Snapper are not swallowing the bait but just chewing on them instead so it was hard to get a good hook-set on them. A few Yellowtail have been reported from the Pacific side so perhaps we will start to see some more action on these great fish as well.
FISH RECIPE: Sometimes posted on the blog Thursday or Friday.
NOTES: Great weather, a large variety of fish to choose from, whales to be watched and not being too crowded this time of year should put visiting us at the top of your travel list! This weeks report was written to the music of Chuck Allen Floyd from his album “Tonight An Angel Fell”, courtesy of my good friends Mark and Allen Bailey. No M. Koch, this is not Mark Bailey from California, it is Mark Bailey from Texas, and he and his family are good, honest friends. Thanks Mark and Allen! Until next week, tight lines!
We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish for safe travels for all of your family during the holidays!
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Dec 25, 2011; 04:15PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose del Cabo Dec 25, 2011
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Bricston
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 25, 2011
Christmas time is here, everyone is now busy preparing for family events. Families
have been arriving in Los Cabos to enjoy the holiday season, escaping the cold
temperatures to the north. With winter time now having officially started local
weather has also cooled off, though the highs are still pleasantly in the 70s, but
with early morning lows down into the 50s, vacationers do need to remember to dress
accordingly.
Ocean conditions changed rapidly this week, as currents moved in from the north and
dropped water temperatures from 70/76 degrees down to 69/72 degrees. Cooling water
is usually associated with greener off colored currents, and this has been the
situation at this time, most areas off of San Jose del Cabo are now off colored,
towards Cabo San Lucas there has been cleaner blue water, but this has not meant
that this has been where the best action for anglers has been found.
With the rapidly changing conditions the fishing action has become more scattered as
well. Earlier in the week there was some great striped marlin action found off of
San Jose del Cabo, this is where schools of baitfish such as mackerel, sardinetas,
chihuil and skipjack were congregated, attracting both billfish and dorado within
several miles of shore. Fleets from all directions were concentrated on this spot,
marlin were hooked while soaking baits down deep, trolling on the surface, as well
as casting into feeding frenzies on the surface, which often occurred mid day and
into the afternoon. As the greener cooler currents swept in, this bite slowed way
down accordingly. The northern winds also kicked up, which is usually the pattern at
this time of year, two or three days of wind, then a couple of days of calmer
conditions, before repeating the same cycle.
On the Gordo Banks anglers found more skipjack than anything else, also plenty of
problems with hungry sea lions, no yellowfin tuna to talk about this week, as dorado
and striped marlin were the main surface species now being encountered. Not much in
the way of bottom action, but we do expect to start scouting out more of the
structure prospects in the coming weeks for some fire cracker sized yellowtail,
amberjack and snapper. Along the shoreline anglers were now finding sierra and
roosterfish, but this action varied from day to day, and depended on the
availability of live sardinas. Dorado were also found at times right in the surf
zone, there were even a reports of dorado up to 15 lbs. being landed by surf anglers
near Punta Gorda, this is the time when dorado can be found closer to shore, where
more baitfish are concentrated. Most of the roosterfish now being hooked into are
juvenile sized, with a handful of them reaching up to 15 pounds.
A handful of wahoo were taken this past week, but most of these fish were more the
sized of sierra, strange to see such smaller sized ‘hoo, wonder where their parents
are? Probably heading south by now.
We are now transitioning into winter time type fishing action, typically we find
quite a wide variety of species, maybe not as large as in the warmer months, but
there can be great light tackle sport and most of the fish are of the good eating
variety. We will anticipate improved inshore action, the time that more numbers of
yellowtail should move in with the cooler currents and striped marlin should
continue to dominate offshore.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 65 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count
of: 27 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 172 dorado, 9 wahoo, 12 pargo, 15 bonito, 250
black skipjack, 34 roosterfish and 18 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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Dec 25, 2011; 04:12PM - Gordo Banks Pangas San Jose del Cabo Dec 19, 2011
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Bricston
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Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 18, 2011
Crowds of tourists visiting the Los Cabos area are now light, with the official
start of winter next week, cooler temperatures from the north are reminding us that
even in Southern Baja we do have seasons. A cold front has moved in this week and
kept high temperatures below the 75 degree mark, more cloud cover associated with
this front, but no rainfall to speak about. Winds have been averaging 10 to 15 mph
from the north, less than they were at the start of the month. Water temperatures
dropped into the 70 to 74 degree range, cooler off colored greenish currents are
pushing in a southern direction from Los Frailes.
With the lighter crowds this past week, the supply and demand situation for the
available bait has improved. Sardinas were now being found off of northern beaches
by the commercial netters, but with their limited market now, not every day are they
looking for the sardinas, with the easier to find caballito continuing to be found
inside the marina jetty area. The schools of mackerel which had been found off of
San Jose del Cabo the past couple of weeks seemed to have vanished in recent days,
perhaps something to do with the full moon phase or local shrimp trawling
operations. At present time schools of mackerel have returned off of San Jose del
Cabo and there has been a very good striped marlin bites as well, three to found
miles offshore, billfish were balling up bait and feeding on the surface.
Off of San Jose del Cabo there has not been any consistent yellowfin tuna action
found, besides maybe a few fish early in the week taken off of the Gordo Banks,
these tuna were in the 60 to 70 pound class, other fish were seen breezing on the
surface, but they were not interested in biting. As cooler off colored water moved
in there were reports of no tuna even being seen on these banks. There have been
reports of football sized yellowfin tuna being encountered traveling with porpoise
off of Cabo San Lucas, more often 10 miles of further from shore, but this has been
spotty and there have been more consistent catches of striped marlin and dorado on
the Pacific. Some charter boats were releasing as many as three or four stripers in
one morning. Marlin are also being found in the direction of the Gordo Banks, but
not in the same numbers as on the Pacific. Trolling lures and various baits all were
accounting for marlin strikes, fish were averaging 80 to 130
pounds.
For the fleets out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos, their mainstay has been for
dorado, these fish were found in good numbers throughout the week, Particularly from
Punta Gorda to La Fortuna, most charters were catching limits and releasing other
fish as well, lures and bait are working equally well. Sizes ranged up to 25 pounds,
average dorado was 10 to 12 pounds.
Strong currents made it difficult to concentrate on any bottom action, but we expect
to do more of this as winter conditions settle in. Sierra are making a stronger
showing now along the inshore stretches, this action should become steady during the
coming months. Roosterfish continue to be found while trolling baits closer to
shore, most of these fish are now weighing less than ten pounds, a handful of large
specimens, though they are strong fighters and fun sport on light tackle.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent
out approximately 53 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count
of:
14 striped marlin, 285 dorado, 6 wahoo, 6 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 36
roosterfish, 12 bonito and 44 sierra.
Good Fishing, Eric
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com
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