Puerto Los Cabos, Baja - September 20 report by DALIKEN SPORTFISHING

[DALIKEN SPORTFISHING]

Figured some of y'all who've talked about doing a Baja trip might want a current read on what's happening down here, because this has been the best week we've had in a while.

For anybody used to running way offshore out of Freeport or POC to find tuna, the thing that surprises most Texans down here is how short the run is. Our tuna grounds, the Iman and San Luis banks, are well inside a normal day trip out of Puerto Los Cabos. You're fishing, not just riding.

Right now both banks came up in activity and it's excellent. What makes this week unusual is both size classes are going at the same time.

There are cows over 200 pounds in the mix. Those come on slow trolled live bait, 1.5 to 2.5 knots, just enough to keep the bait swimming natural without drowning it. Heavy gear, 80 to 130 class, 50W to 80W two speed, 100 to 130 main to a 200 to 300 leader, 9/0 to 11/0 circle, harness and belt on. It's a patience deal, you put the bait out and you sit on it, sometimes for a long quiet stretch. But the fish are there to make it worth doing.

Then there's a pile of 20 to 40 pound tuna eating live sardines, and that's the one that makes everybody happy. Drift over the marks, set up up-current and let the bait work back naturally, keep a steady chum line and match your weight to the drift. Rods stay bent all morning and everybody on the boat gets their turn. If you're bringing your wife or your kids or a buddy who's never done offshore, this is the week for it.

The one I'd actually put on your list though is the cubera snapper. We're getting them all sizes including good fish 30 to 40 pounds. They're on El Cardon and on the inshore points close to the beach near a spot the local captains have always called La Casa Rosa. If you've ever hooked a big snapper on a Gulf rig and had it bury you in the structure, you know exactly what these do, except they're bigger and meaner about it. Lock the drag down before the bait ever goes in the water and lean on them the second they eat. You get about two seconds. Heavy gear, 60 to 80 class, fast retrieve reel, 65 to 80 braid to 80 to 100 fluoro. They eat as good as anything you'll put in a cooler.

Timing has mattered. Six to nine thirty in the morning is the window, sunrise is around 6:10 right now, flattest water and the most willing fish. Second window four to about six ten with sunset at 6:15, and the cuberas have been better in that late light.

Moon is waxing gibbous building toward full, so the tides are climbing back toward spring range and the current gets stronger every day this week. That's a big piece of why the banks are fishing so well, the current is stacking the bait up.

One honest heads up for anybody with a trip on the books. Civil Protection here issued a preventive alert. Three low pressure systems are developing off the Pacific coast and one of them carries an 80 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone, with models showing it could come toward this area around Wednesday the 23rd, either passing near Cabo San Lucas or heading into the Sea of Cortez toward Sinaloa. Forecast is still fluid. Same as hurricane season on the Texas coast, you watch it daily and you don't argue with a closure. We check the Port Captain notices every morning and nobody runs if the port is shut.

Water's warm, humidity is thick, highs around 90 with a chance of afternoon showers. Typical September down here.

Good time to be fishing if the weather cooperates.

Out of Puerto Los Cabos, San Jose del Cabo.

Austin - Daliken sportfishing