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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 2, 2001
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
December 2, 2001
A cold front swept through all of Baja this past week, strong winds from the north made for chilly and rough conditions for offshore anglers. Between the full moon and stormy weather the overall catch rates were substantially less than in recent weeks. Some charters were only tallying a couple of small fish like sierra and pargo for their entire effort, but overall success rates were generally better than that, consisting of a few tuna or more, along with a mix of other species. Before the wind starting blowing anglers did find some great action for yellowfin tuna, wahoo and dorado on the fishing grounds from Gray Rock to the Gordo Banks and north to Iman and San Luis Banks.
The most consistent bite was for the 10 to 20 pound tuna, while using live sardinas for bait, though there were several tuna in the 60 to 80 pound class accounted for by anglers that were drifting with chunk bait on the Gordo Banks. The full moon period usually does make the fishing more difficult and this month definitely seemed to follow that rule. The availability of sardinas, which has been the favored bait of choice for the medium sized gamefish, became scarce, and on some days there just was not enough of the fresh bait to go around. The heavy tides and surf conditions caused a mess once again off the beach of La Playita and scattered the baitfish. Water temperatures still averaged close to 80 degrees, which was also about the high daytime temperature.
Early in the week there was some great action found for wahoo by anglers that specifically targeted them with live chihuil for bait, in the areas of Iman and San Luis Banks. There were reports of anglers landing as many as three to five wahoo during a morning trip, along with loosing other strikes. The catching of the chihuil baitfish was not always an easy task, and would vary each day as how many you could get. They were definitely what the wahoo wanted though, and there were several stories told by anglers about the wahoo that jumped high out of the water as they were striking the trolled chihuil, resulting in a screaming hook up. Of the wahoo that were brought to the scales, most were in the 30 to 45 pound range.
Dorado became very spread out and most of the small schools that were found consisted of fish weighing less than 10 pounds, they're a few exceptions though of some larger bulls in the thirty pound class. Cabo San Lucas seemed to be the spot for dorado now, as there were reports of nicer sized fish being found further offshore, especially on floating debris.
Sierra, pargo and a few roosterfish were rounding out the catches for the majority of the panga charters, with the best action being found near Punta Gorda and using live sardinas. As the tides settle down and the moon darkens we expect the action to improve in the next week. The wind will be a main factor, it can be relentless at times.
Good Fishing, Eric
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