Anglers - December 21, 2003 Merry Christmas! The Holiday Season is now upon us, everyone is busy with last minute preparations and many people are planning to travel to warmer destinations, with Los Cabos, Baja California being one of their favorite choices. Local weather has been extremely pleasant, sunny days, high temperature near 80 degrees and lows in the low 60s. There had been persistent northerly winds blowing, but in recent days they have resided and anglers have found ideal ocean conditions. Water temperatures throughout the region are ranging from 72 to 75 degrees, over this past weekend there was a cooling trend, pushing in a current of water in the low 70s. With the new moon phase there were also very extreme tidal changes, these perhaps being contributing factors to why the overall fishing action tapered off compared to last week. The majority of fishing charters were successful, most common daily catches were dorado, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, bonito, sierra, pargo, cabrilla and striped marlin. There are still limited numbers of the exotic and elusive wahoo being hooked up, but with cooling water temperatures this tropical species will soon be migrating to warmer southern waters. The numbers of dorado increased this past week, most charters accounted for 2 to 6 fish in the 5 to 15 pound class, and a few larger bulls of 20 to 50 pounds were also encountered. They were spread out in smaller sized schools, with much of the activity found within a couple of miles from shore. Trolling with live sardinas was particularly affective, other fish would strike hoochie skirts, feathers and cedar plugs. Many of dorado being taken now were smaller females and it was important for anglers to remember to release them unharmed so that they can spawn their eggs and we can have even more dorado in the future. Yellowfin tuna were not quite as cooperative as they had been last week, but on most days they were being found in respectable numbers. Much of the action was found anywhere from 3 to 15 miles offshore among traveling porpoise. Most of fish were in the 12 to 25 pound range, but other fish to over 100 pounds were also hooked into. The Inner Gordo Bank was holding large tuna now, it was a challenge to get them to bite, it was a mix of sardinas and chunk bait that accounted for the most strikes, and fluorocarbon leaders of 60 to 80 pound proved to have an advantage. This bite was on and off and for the most part anglers were doing well if they landed one or two of these larger yellowfin that weighed from 40 to 150 pounds. Pangueros reported major problems with a group of sea lions, where on some days it was impossible to land any fish without them being attacked by these opportunistic mammals. You knew it was serious when skippers were bringing out a collection of rocks in order to chase the sea wolfs away. Anglers found wahoo scattered throughout the blue offshore water, no significant numbers, but a few lucky anglers accounted for two or three of them in one morning, majority of the strikes were on trolling lures, with the exception of a handful on sardinas and chunk bait. Wahoo could be seen free swimming under the pangas on the Gordo Banks, but with the cooling water temperatures they could just not be enticed into striking. Cooling currents have brought more bottom species onto the local rock piles, anglers were catching cabrilla and pargo up to 12 pounds while using different baits and yo-yo jigs, this bite is just starting up now and we will most certainly be practicing more of this style of fishing during the coming months of winter. The seasons first whale sightings were also reported. Happy Holidays! Eric