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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
July 15, 2001
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers - July 15, 2001
The crowds of tourists were now moderate in Los Cabos, which is the normal situation during the summer months. Weather patterns continue to be unpredictable and a bit cooler than normal, though the daytime highs are in the 90's. This past week there was a tropical storm that developed some 500 miles south of Cabo San Lucas and this did create some heavy surf conditions during the second half of the week. The storm did not development much strength and quickly dissipated, but not before it pushed more cool water back towards the Sea of Cortez and over the weekend the average water temperature dropped to between 70 and 75 degrees, this after it having been up to 80 degrees just several days before.
The fleets were fishing areas from Cabo San Lucas to north of Punta Gorda and the most consistent action was found along the shoreline or near the various rock piles, with La Fortuna and Iman most popular. Daily catches included; yellowfin tuna, amberjack, skipjack, jack crevalle, roosterfish, pargo and dorado. Fish were taken on artificial lures but the better action was found by anglers using live bait, there was plenty of bait available for the first half of the week, with sardinas, mullet and caballito all available, but by the weekend out of San Jose del Cabo bait had become almost non-existent, as the heavy surf and cooler water scattered most of the inshore bait schools. The lack of live bait did directly effect the daily fish counts per boat, but it did not mean that the fish could not be caught without it, as some anglers did account for quality catches while trolling with rapalas, feathers and cedar plugs. Average catches per panga throughout the week ranged from 3 to10 tuna, 1 or 2 dorado, with a couple amberjack, skipjack, roosterfish and jack crevalle mixed in. Live bait on the average produced about double the action than did trolling lures. Yellowfin tuna ranged from 10 to 50 pounds, amberjack to over 40 pounds and dorado were up to 20 pounds.
Roosterfish to 20 pounds and more were landed but now that the schooling mullet have scattered it will not be as easy to find them. It is not uncommon for live bait to become scarce at this time of year and anglers will have to start improvising with other methods, like catching larger baitfish offshore and using them as both whole and strip baits. They will need to wait at least until the water warms backs up into the upper 70's, which should not take long at all once the current switches. The color of the water is greener than it is blue, but this should change soon as the water warms up.
The reports offshore for marlin varied from anglers reporting not much at all to others that had action for striped marlin, dorado, sailfish and even a few blue marlin. One panga skipper that was getting ready to gaff a 30 pound tuna reported that he had a monster black marlin pass right under his boat, trying to catch the hooked yellowfin, this was within two miles of Punta Gorda, so it should not be long before the black and blue marlin move into the Gordo Banks area.
Good Fishing, Eric
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