August 7, 2005 Anglers – Anglers enjoyed calm ocean conditions this past week, though the numbers of tourists in town were relatively light. Weather was warm, as would be expected during the month of August, with highs of about 95 degrees and humidity of about 60 percent. At this time there are no new storm systems developing to the south and so far the tropical storm season has been very mild. Sportfishing charters were fishing on both the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez, with the region from Chileno to the Gordo Banks and then north to Desteladera, San Luis and Vinorama being more popular. Water temperatures varied from 78 degrees on the Pacific, up to 85 degrees into the Sea of Cortez Live bait along the shoreline continued to be scarcer, but on most days anglers were able to find limited supplies of sardinas, mullet or caballito. Schools of bolito and skipjack were found on the offshore fishing grounds, but they proved hard to catch after the early morning hours. Overall the fishing action would have to be considered to be slow, though the variety of species being found was extensive, the problem was that no particular species was abundant and the average charter was only landing maybe two, three or four fish in combination, of course there were some exceptions. The Gordo Banks area was starting to show a bit more activity, but still not providing the action that would be expected for this time period. A few yellowfin tuna up to 70 pounds were hooked into by anglers using chunk bait, along with several medium sized dorado and dogtooth snapper. Divers that were probing on the same spot reported seeing some dorado and tuna, but they were not in any significant numbers. There were more fish being found around the vicinity of the San Luis Bank, but the yellowfin in this area were mostly in the 20 to 30 pound class, many could be seen feeding, but with the limited bait supplies it was not easy to chum them up and entice them into the feeding mood. Off the bottom anglers using yo-yo jigs were hooking into a few cabrilla, huachinango, amberjack, yellowtail and tuna, but once again these numbers were few and far between, though of the fish landed they were of quality. Dorado continued to be scattered and being caught at the rate of about one fish for every two or three charters, sizes ranged to over 30 pounds. Excitement was in the air after reports of a new IGFA world record wahoo of 184 pounds being landed by 15 year Sara Hayward from Texas on July 29, she was trolling a green and black marlin type lure about five miles outside of the Cabo San Lucas Arch, but this week there were only a few wahoo catches reported and nothing that even came close to the size of Sara’s monster, this will be a record hard to break. Along the shoreline there were some roosterfish and jack crevalle to 30 pounds that were striking on trolled mullet, though most anglers were now targeting offshore species. Surf fishermen using live mullet for bait off of the San Jose Estuary area reported catching a handful of snook, one snook that was landed reportedly weighed about 30 kilos and could of qualified for a new IGFA record but was not submitted, another one of nearly the same size was lost after a long battle due to the angler not having anyone to help with a gaff, it broke off right on the wet sand and will live to fight another day. The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 67 panga charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 1 blue marlin, 11 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 1 wahoo, 32 dorado, 44 yellowfin tuna, 2 yellowtail, 22 amberjack, 14 cabrilla, 40 huachinango, 28 yellowtail snapper, 8 rainbow runners, 22 jack crevalle, 16 roosterfish and 15 bonito. Good fishing, Eric