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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
March 2, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
March 2, 2002
Moderate crowds of tourists were enjoying the beautiful 85 degree weather, plenty of sunshine, with only some scattered clouds. The days were unpredictable, this can be the typical pattern during transition time from the end of the winter season to the beginning of springtime. One day it would be flat calm on the ocean, while the very next day there could wind out of the northeast or from the south. The for the most part anglers did have comfortable conditions, on Monday there was fog that socked things in and made it interesting to find where you were. Average water temperature was about 70 degrees, with warmer water to 74 degrees located some 15 to 30 miles offshore. There was plenty of live mackerel available and in recent days the population of sardinas has increased along the beaches of San Jose del Cabo. The whale activity continued to provide additional sightseeing attractions. Fleets were scouting out a wide area looking for the best possible action, with the cruisers concentrated mainly from Chileno to the Gordo Banks, 12 to 30 miles offshore. They reported mixed results for striped marlin, dorado, yellowfin tuna and skipjack. While pangeros generally stayed closer to shore and accounted for a mix of bottomfish, dorado, sierra and skipjack.
The last few day of February saw the fleet out of La Playita having their best dorado action in the past couple of months. Trolling the spots from San Luis to the Gordo Banks, from 3 to 12 miles out they found as many as 8 dorado per boat, with sizes ranging up to 35 pounds, and even larger fish reportedly hooked up and lost. By the weekend this bite had slowed way down and just a scattering of the dorado were found. There were big schools of "white"skipjack found trolling further offshore, these fish were not associated with porpoise and were of the good eating variety, similar flesh as that of yellowfin tuna. Most of the yellowfin tuna reportedly were found mixed in with schooling porpoise 15 to 30 miles out, the majority of them being football size models, but others did top 80 pounds, of course not all anglers were lucky enough to find any of tuna at all, feast or famine.
There were still quality bottomfish like grouper, amberjack, pargo, cabrilla, bonita and triggerfish available for the anglers whiling to give the extra effort needed with the yo-yo jigs. Most of these fish were ranging from 5 to 15 pounds, but every so often they would top 30 pounds. The same rock pile areas of San Luis, Iman and La Fortuna were producing an unusual number of sierra, as far as 4 miles from shore, it seems that these fish might be learning that one of the best ways to avoid getting trapped in a gillnet is to move further from shore.
Striped marlin action ranged from excellent to so-so, as some anglers accounted for as many as three released marlin in one day, up to 150 pounds, while other reports were that the stripers encountered were not interested in feeding. Which could have been the effects of the full moon. There were also some very extreme tides recently and this never does seem to give any advantage to the anglers. The marlin were often coming up on the trolled lures and one of the better techniques was to slide back a live mackerel once the fish was in the lure spread.
Good Fishing, Eric
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