December 19th


, 2011 BY GARY GRAHAM


cold more than 20 years ago and Southern Baja weather suits me just fine. Temperatures hovering in the mid-80s, no scraping ice from the windshield and enough fish biting to keep me interested. I think I made it to heaven without doing the dying thing.


quit doing I


crowd pleaser for most. Not huge scores be- ing racked up just steady catches from a couple to a handful with the best action close to shore on the Pacific side for both pangas and cruisers.


A few wahoo were found in a variety of places including under the shark buoys offshore to Gordo Bank and closer to shore near some of the rocky points that dot the shoreline. Nothing large with the best weighing in the mid-twenties and some even smaller.


are still the


Inshore produced a mixed bag with sierra domi- nating the catch off the beach at Migriño where the best action was found. Out- side the rocky shore on the Pacific side it was snapper, a smattering of smaller roosters along with a good run of pompano mixed in. San Jose. Cooler sea temps along with inconsis- tent weather conditions took its toll on the fishing. While the dorado fishing was good, “where” was al-


ways the question from Santa Maria, Gordo Banks, La Fortuna to Iman Bank. If anything floating could be found it usually meant there would be plenty of dorado beneath it and the action would be good. Catches could be from a couple to limits all around of fish rang- ing from dinks to grandes tipping the scale up to thirty pounds. In the same areas there were a few wahoo unusually small with some barely weighing ten pounds.


The recent cold front slowed the yellowfin tuna bite we have enjoyed for so long. At least three hundred- pounders did make it to the scale. As the weather im- proves we expect the tuna to become more active once again.


Da oord


.COM


Fishing the bottom pro- duced the usual cabrilla, yel- lowtail and pargo along with a few of the larger yellow- tail usually referred to as home guard. Unfortunately Continued on page 23


Throw in a few frothy margaritas and some fresh chips and salsa and I’m a happy camper. Hope your tastes are as simple as mine and you have a great time in what I consider the best winter wonderland ever. Tight lines and a Happy New Year! Gary Graham, gary@garycgraham.com Cabo San Lucas. Ev- eryone is looking to the north, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the large schools of billfish from farther up the coast out of reach of the local day boats. Meanwhile the day boats are content with one and delighted if they find two billfish to bal- ance out the flags on the outriggers. The boats ven- turing farther north up the Pacific side are producing even better counts for some, while others strike out entirely. Hopefully it won’t be long before the billfish schools begin to come into range and the catches improve. Yellowfin tuna remain elusive. Still some larger ones are being caught at Gordo Banks if you are will- ing to put in the time. Off- shore it is the old ‘run and gun’ game searching for pods of porpoise that have tuna traveling with them. When found, they may be football sized up to 40+ pounds. Kites have become a not-so-secret weapon for catching the larger fish, pro- ducing a few exceeding the hundred pound mark.


20


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40