Anglers - November 25, 2001 Though the fall weather has been paradise like during the month of November the tourist industry throughout the area seems to be slower this season than last, the economy is uncertain and people are nervous about flying. There does seem to be a high percentage of anglers visiting the San Jose del Cabo area, the panga fleets continue to be very busy. The ocean conditions through the month of November have been very calm on the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula, with the exception of this weekend when the wind did pick up from the northeast and limited where pangeros could effectively fish. The water was stirred up and greenish close to shore, but further out it was clear and blue, with temperatures averaging right around 80 degrees. Supplies of sardinas remained plentiful off local beaches, but the concentrations continued to move almost day, there had been large schools of the live bait right in front of La Playita, but in recent days they moved to Costa Azul. Overall the catches included yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, pargo, rainbow runner, amberjack, sailfish, skipjack, cabrilla, bonita, sierra and roosterfish. The yellowfin tuna continued to be the most common species targeting by the panga fleets, the areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman is where the most consistent action is being found. With the larger tuna taken off the Inner Gordo Banks. The bite was up down, with early morning being the best time this past week, for anglers that specifically fished the Banks and targeted the tuna with sardinas and chunk bait, they usually would end up with from two to five tuna per panga in the 40 to 75 pound range. Other schooling tuna, in the 10 to 35 pound class were being chummed up in the areas of Cardon and Iman, with live sardinas working well. Some dorado were found mixed in the same areas as the tuna, but there were few of them and most of the ones caught were less than 15 pounds. The cruiser fleets that were fishing further out and towards Cabo San Lucas did report fair catches of nice sized dorado. Several sailfish were reported from the La Playita pangas, hitting on sardinas and chihuil. At least one big marlin was reportedly hooked while trolling a skipjack around the Gordo Banks, but it eventually was lost. Most anglers targeting the 40 to 80 pound tuna, which have been the common size, are using 40 to 50 pound line and hook sizes from 2/0 to 6/0, depending on the type of bait you use. Wahoo action did show signs of improvement for the anglers specifically targeting them with live chihuil as bait and in the areas from Iman to Vinorama. Some of the more proficient anglers landed as many as 5 wahoo up to 45 pounds, but this was an exception, most anglers felt very lucky to catch one or two of the wahoo. Most of the wahoo that were hooked the past few days, came from the area of Vinorama, close to a 20 mile ride from La Playita, and hit best on live chiuil, though some hook ups were reported on trolled lures such as marauders and skirted lead heads. The average sized wahoo brought in was from 25 to 40 pounds, but there were others close to 50 pounds accounted for. There were more sierra now moving in, most were hitting on sardinas and weighing under 4 pounds. A few roosterfish were caught this past week, one was a 35 pounder, taken while bottomfishing off of Iman Bank, it was a strange place to find one of these inshore roosterfish and the fish was released. Schools of rainbow runners continue to hang around in the warm local waters and anglers are hooking them with live sardinas, most of the rainbows are small 3 to 5 pound fish, but a couple monsters close to 20 were reported. Good Fishing, Eric