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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
September 3, 2001
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
September 3, 2001
The once parched Baja landscape has now transformed into a tropical green desert, with the addition of a few more days of on and off rainfall at the start of this past week. There was hurricane Flossie that passed out to the west and some of the outer bands of clouds did bring the much needed moisture and the surf conditions shut down panga operations out of La Playita from Monday through Wednesday. The weather at this time of year is very unpredictable and can rapidly change, through this month it will be much of the same, then by October it will typically settle down. The water temperature has continued to average 80 to 85 degrees and with the recent swell activity, the color closer to shore was stirred up and greenish, further offshore though it was clear and blue.
Anglers found excellent action on yellowfin tuna, dorado and big marlin. One of the best areas was on either the Inner or Outer Gordo Banks. Using both live sardinas and chunk bait from skipjack or bolito the tuna fishing turned red hot over the weekend, most of all the yellowfin being landed ranged from 35 to 55 pounds and boats averaged between 3 and 10 fish per morning. The fish could be seen feeding on the surface and were aggressively crashing on all of the free chummed sardinas. Anglers were reporting the best success while using 40 or 50 pound tackle with hook sizes from 2/0 to 7/0, depending on which type of bait was being used.
Dorado were found in schools of fish averaging 7 to 15 pounds, but there were still some of the larger bulls mixed in. Trolling a variety of lures was the way to locate the fish and once found the followers could be easily enticed by the live or strip bait. Red Hill was one of the more productive areas for dorado, also off of Punta Gorda, it seems that they just were unable to compete with the tuna, which were dominating the action on the Gordo Banks.
Over the weekend the big marlin really went on the bite, the Outer Gordo Bank was the spot to be and trolling with larger sized live bait, like skipjack, bolito or yellowfin tuna proved to be most affective. Several black marlin to over 500 pounds were landed and many even larger ones were lost after extended battles. One black marlin of an estimated 800 or more pounds was lost after a marathon of more than nine hours when it finally wore through the 400 pound leader, angler was Todd Clarke from the Dana Point area and he was fishing with panga skipper Marcelo Gonzalez. They did catch the monster jumping on video several times. The last time Clarke was fishing out of a panga he caught a 200 pound tuna, he will have to land the big marlin another day, he sure does have a hell of a fish story about the big one that got away.
Good Fishing, Eric
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