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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
March 22, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
March 22, 2003
Springtime is now officially here and there has been plenty of warm sunshine for the crowds of tourists visiting Los Cabos. The fishing did slow down this past week, with the main factor being a strong cold current that has plummeted water temperatures to 67 to 69 degrees throughout much of the region, there were areas of 70-degree water located within a couple miles of shore, from Chileno to the Gordo Banks. Pangueros out of San Jose had more difficulty locating sardinas and supplies of this preferred live bait was limited. Mackerel was the most common baitfish now, the most consistent fishing was coming from areas closer to shore, and this is where the water was slightly warmer than further offshore. In recent days the most common inshore species found were sierra, pargo and dorado, average catches were about ten fish per boat in combination, the majority being sierra.
With the cooler water now moving in, the dorado bite off of San Jose del Cabo became increasingly spotty, pangas were averaging only one or two per day, sizes were respectable, up to 25 pounds, they were hitting on sardinas, mackerel and rapalas. These fish were located in the similar areas as the sierra, as well as being found scattered offshore by the cruiser fleet, no large concentrations of fish. The next couple weeks could produce similar reports, unless the water warms back up. It is the time of year when fleets break up the days action and try more bottomfishing, so far there has been only minimal success for bottom dwellers like amberjack, snapper, cabrilla and grouper, there has been a very strong current running and this made it almost impossible to efficiently target the rocky structure, when it does slacken we do look forward to better bottom results, it will be time to get the yo-yo jigs out.
There continued to be large concentrations of red crabs in the area of the Gordo Banks. The resident yellowfin tuna are now gorged on these small crustaceans and have no appetite for anything else. They could be seen rolling on the surface, but were not interested in anglers offerings. This will most likely be the same story until the crabs thin out, in the mean time commercial pangueros have been scoring well with the pargo (huachinango).
The cold current also brought in off colored greenish water and the striped marlin action was very scattered, many of the cruisers are now fishing closer to shore until the conditions improves offshore. Early in the week there were reports of football sized yellowfin tuna traveling with porpoise, this was some 20 to 30 miles offshore and a hit or miss deal.
This winter produced excellent all around action, big numbers of tuna, marlin, dorado and sierra, but now we are in a lull, another transition period, waiting for ocean conditions to warm. It will be only a matter of time and in the mean time we will hope that it is sooner than later. This is not all of the discouraging news, the local gill netting pangueros are back at it in full force, targeting sierra, croaker and pargo, but catching other species as well. There were several incidents of nets being cut and damaged in areas near Punta Gorda, so now they are setting their gear right off the beach of La Playita and the San Jose Estuary, where they can keep watch of the nets, a sad situation that we hope can be outlawed as soon as possible.
Good Fishing, Eric
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