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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja

Capt. Eric Brictson
May 20, 2001
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report

Anglers - May 20, 2001

The weather pattern for the past week changed dramatically, it started with a thick marine fog layer for several days and then by the weekend the first real heat wave of the year swept in, with high temperatures reaching over 90 degrees, the air was muggy and the arrival of the upcoming tropical season could be felt. There were good numbers of tourists in town and many of them had plans to go sportfishing. For the fleets out of San Jose del Cabo they have been searching the entire area, trying to find the best possible action. Ever since the previous week on May 9 th, when the tuna purseiners cleaned out the Gordo Banks, pangeros have not been able to locate any yellowfin tuna or dorado to speak of, just one or two, hear or there, and have resorted to bottom and inshore action until offshore action improves.

The clarity of the water is once again improving and is mostly blue from five miles and further offshore, the temperature has ranged from 73 to 75 degrees. There were not any large concentrations of the yellowfin tuna to be found. The live bait situation became extremely difficult. With live sardinas having scattered, there were only mullet available in limited amounts and these baits did prove to be very affective. The few tuna that were caught this past week either came on iron jigs by anglers bottomfishing or further offshore by trolling feathers or cedar plugs where schools of porpoise were located. The fleets based out of Cabo San Lucas had mackerel and other larger baitfish, this gave them the edge in being able to find billfish action. The marlin bite was up and down, with the best bet now on the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula, areas from Red Hill to Desteladera have seen increasing numbers of striped marlin, along with a few swordfish, ten to twenty miles from shore was where most of the billfish were found, hitting on both live bait and trolled lures.

For the panga fleets it was a tough time trying to replace the action on the Gordo Banks for yellowfin tuna, that had been so consistent for months on end, but the damage has been done and we will have to hope that the tuna will once again return in similar number, as to when this happens, that is hard to predict. In the meantime the pangeros have mainly been working the various rock piles from Palmilla to San Luis, finding a good mix of amberjack, yellowtail, pargo, bonita, cabrilla and grouper. Not in big quantity, anywhere from 3 to 10 fish per boat, with almost all of these bottomfish being taken on yo-yo style iron jigs. The largest fish caught were amberjack in the 30 to 40 pound class, but most of the fish averaged 10 to 15 pounds. Schools of bolito are moving onto the fishing grounds and this is a favored bait and should attract more dorado and tuna.

Before the sardina supplies ran dry anglers were able to catch sierra, pompano and roosterfish close to shore, but with there only being larger mullet available it was tough to entice the smaller inshore fish, since they were not that interested in artificial lures either. It is the time of year when roosterfish activity increases and everyone is patiently waiting for that to happen. Schools of mullet are now migrating into local waters but the sardina situation could drag on.

Good Fishing, Eric

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Specializing in super pangas fishing the local fishing grounds off of San Jose del Cabo for dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish, black, blue and striped marlin and a variety of other inshore and bottom species.

Contact Info:

Gordo Banks Pangas
10087 Shadow Rd.
La Mesa, CA 91941
Phone: 800 4081199
Alt. Phone: 011526241421147
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