 |
Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
January 20, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
January 20, 2002
Travelers were greeted with warm and sunny skies in Los Cabos, high temperatures were ranging from 75 to 80 degrees, and overall it was pretty hard to beat for the middle of winter. Crowds of tourists were still somewhat behind last year's numbers, but this situation appears to be showing signs of encouragement. The water temperature has fallen to an average of 70 to 72 in the waters out of San Jose del Cabo, while out front of Cabo San Lucas there is still one last warm pocket of 75 degree water. Wind did not play much of a factor this past week, as for the most part ocean conditions were comfortably calm. The early morning was still a bit chilly, so it was wise to dress accordingly. Blue water was being found as close to shore as 5 miles, but most of the water closer to shore was greenish, which is typical for this time of year, with the cooling trend and strong currents that are prevalent. Live sardinas became very scarce for the panga fleets, with most charters having to rely on lures and other frozen baits. Though larger live baits were available in the Cabo marina.
Daily catches included, striped marlin, dorado, yellowfin tuna, amberjack, sierra, pargo, grouper, hammerhead shark, pompano and cabrilla. Out of San Jose pangeros found it to be very tough going to find any consistent surface activity and for the most part were targeting the variety of bottomfish that dwell on the various rock piles found to the north of Punta Gorda The most productive technique, was to retrieve iron jigs up from the bottom, this is how the majority of the quality fish were taken, including grouper to 50 pounds and amberjack to 30 pounds, though the average catch was in the 10 to 15 pound class. On chunk bait there were some fine eating pargo (red snapper) to be found, though the majority of these were smaller plate sized fish. Iman Bank was one of the better spots, while the Gordo Banks has had reports of almost no action and very murky water. Yellowfin tuna, which had been providing the main attraction have now been caught only as incidental catches by anglers as they were bottomfishing, a few of them were over 40 pounds. So the tuna are still in the area and hopes are that they will go back on the bite.
Billfish action continues to be the main target species out of Cabo, and there were reports of good numbers of them being located, but it was a long run around on the Pacific where the best action was found. The cruiser fleet out of Palmilla was reporting some respectable action in recent days for dorado, with most of the fish weighing from 15 to 30 pounds. They were striking on trolled lures in the areas from 5 to 10 miles from shore between Chileno and Red Hill. Boats were accounting for average daily catches of 2 to 5 dorado, with an occasional striped marlin mixed in.
Along the beaches the action slowed down because there was a lack of schooling sardinas. There were some sierra, jack crevalle, roosterfish and pompano available, but the action was limited without the live bait. Anglers did have some success while trolling with rapalas and hoochies, with the best bite being early in the morning.
Good Fishing, Eric
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
