Squid Strips Save the Day as Cabos Yellowfin Reach 69 Pounds

Sardines dried up on several days last week off San José del Cabo, and the fleet found out fast what happens when you lean on squid strips instead: boats working San Luis and Iman came home with yellowfin in the 20-to-50-pound class, and the week's biggest fish tipped the scale at 69 pounds.

Gordo Banks Pangas, operating out of La Playita at Puerto Los Cabos, logged the results in their April 5 update. When sardines were running, captains could scatter live bait and let the chaos do the work. Without them, squid strips became the go-to, and the fish that bit tended to run heavier. That pattern has shown up repeatedly in the fleet's logs: live sardines pull numbers of smaller five-to-ten-pound fish, while cut squid consistently draws the thicker-shouldered yellowfin. This week confirmed it again, with the best boats boating up to seven tuna on their peak days.

The productive grounds clustered around rock structure: San Luis, Iman, La Fortuna, and the area known locally as 25. These spots hold current breaks and bait-holding structure that yellowfin key on in early April, and drifting squid strips through them requires more discipline than most anglers expect. The presentations that died quickest were the ones weighed down too heavily. Tuna feeding on squid are reading the motion, and a strip that sinks unnaturally fast or hangs stiff mid-water column gets left behind. A light touch on the sinker, just enough to get the bait into the strike zone without killing its action, kept strikes coming. Line class matters here too: going heavier than the situation demands telegraphs the rig and shortens the bite window fast, particularly when fish are holding in clear, settled water over structure.

Drift angle was the other variable separating full boxes from lean ones. Captains who positioned the boat to let the squid strip work down-current through known holding areas found consistent action. Those who fought the drift or let the bait trail behind the hull at the wrong angle simply weren't getting the strip in front of fish. Seven tuna in a day from a panga is a real number, and it came from boats threading both the approach and the presentation correctly.

Jacks and dorado also showed during the week, giving mixed-bag days for those who weren't locked in exclusively on yellowfin. The dorado action added variety for anglers who covered more ground between tuna spots, while jacks were a consistent side presence around the structure areas.

For anyone planning a charter out of San José del Cabo in the coming days, the takeaway is practical: load squid in the cooler regardless of what the sardine situation looks like at first light. The 69-pounder did not care that the preferred bait was absent.