May 28, 2006 Anglers – Anglers are now finding water temperature ranging up to 77 degrees inside the Sea of Cortez and outside of Todo Santos it continued to be a chilly 65 degrees. Generally the conditions on the Pacific was cool and choppy, while off of San Jose del Cabo the seas were much more comfortable. The majority of the sportfishing fleets are now finding the most consistent action on the fishing grounds from Cabo to the Gordo Banks. Live bait supplies off of the San Jose area became more scattered, with mullet now most common and very few sardinas being found. On some days anglers trolling offshore waters found balls of mackerel on the surface and were able to catch their own bait, on the Gordo Banks bolito and skipjack were plentiful. There were more reports of larger sized roosterfish being seen feeding near the shoreline and several fish weighing up to 30 pounds were reported landed by surf anglers, though so far boat anglers have not had much success. The next two weeks is the time that typically the roosterfish action beaks wide open in the area off of San Jose, so we will keep a close watch on this and hope that supplies of mullet remain adequate. With no sardinas available it was not practical to target other inshore species such as pompano and sierra, while trolling mullet for dogtooth snapper was not very productive either. Striped marlin action was by far the best bet this past week, they were spread throughout the area, most of them being found 4 to 12 miles from shore, but at times even closer in than that. Scores of stripers could be seen swimming on the surface, sometimes in groups of up to a dozen fish, at other times they could be spotted feeding or free jumping. Though with all of the natural baitfish in the local waters now it was not always easy to hook up, often it required repeated attempts in order to entice them. In the area of the Gordo Banks panga anglers were doing very well for the billfish while trolling with either bolito or small skipjack, which could be caught on small hoochies, spoons or flies. A few sailfish were also reported, but the dominant action was for striped marlin in the 100 to 150 pound range. Boats targeting the billfish were generally averaging from 1 to 4 hook ups per morning. Dorado were being found in the same areas and on the same baits, though they were not as plentiful as were the marlin, about every other boat was catching one or two dorado, with most of the sizes being in the 10 to 30 pound class. Wahoo action came to a standstill after a few fish up to 50 pounds were landed early in the week, though everyday there were a few stories of lost strikes, so it means these fish are still in the area and could become more active at anytime. Yellowfin tuna numbers remain very limited, on some days there were reports of yellowfin in the 10 to 20 pound class being found offshore mixed with porpoise and off of Chileno there were days early in the week when tuna were found by blind strikes on trolling lures, though there was no consistency with these fish at all. Larger yellowfin tuna are still located on the Gordo Banks, over the weekend they were seen feeding on the Inner Gordo Banks, as well as the Outer Bank, there were several reports of hook ups while trolling the larger baits, but most of these resulting in lost fish. Other catches include monster sized jack crevalle to 30 pounds that were found mixed in with porpoise that normally would be attracting tuna, these jacks were very strong fighting fish, but also very strong tasting and typically were being released. The day of June 1 is when the Mexican National holiday of "Dia de La Marina " is celebrated. Particularly enthusiastic for this event are the residents whose work is in the fishing industry. The village of La Playita traditionally has the largest fiestas in the area, with Puerto Los Cabos marina project now nearing completion, we expect that this might be the last year that this event is held in traditional fashion. The combined panga fleets from La Playita sent out 86 charters for the week with anglers accounting for an overall catch of: 52 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 5 mako sharks, 4 roosterfish, 12 pompano, 18 pargo colorado, 11 dog tooth snapper, 11 cabrilla, 16 sierra, 42 dorado, 6 amberjack, 48 jack crevalle, 112 Mexican bonito and 9 yellowfin tuna. Good fishing, Eric