 |
Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
May 5, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers –
May 5, 2002
Though we are still officially in spring, it is now starting to feel more like summer, as temperatures are averaging about 90 degrees and the humidity is rising, the nights are still cool enough to sleep comfortably, a nice time of year and many anglers are now visiting Los Cabos in anticipation of enjoying some of the great sportfishing which typically occurs during the month of May. This season conditions have been a bit cooler than normal and traditional fish migrations have been somewhat behind schedule, but with the water temperatures finally warming up to the 73 to 75 degrees range off of San Jose del Cabo, this has been encouraging news and has also attracted migrating striped marlin, dorado and wahoo into range of the fishing fleets. Supplies of live bait held steady, with both mackerel and sardinas available. It is the time of year when large school of mullet start moving inshore and this should be happening in coming weeks, and this ought to attract the larger snapper and roosterfish. For the time being though, most of the action has been offshore, anywhere from 2 to 25 miles out.
Last week anglers fishing the Gordo Banks enjoyed excellent action for wahoo, and this bite held up through about midweek, when the fish became very shy and only the first boats to arrive at the banks early in the morning had any consistent action on these elusive speedsters. The fleets out of La Playita had the advantage for this bite on wahoo, because of their close proximity to the Gordo Banks and average catches ranged from 1 to 3 wahoo per panga, with sizes ranging to 35 to 60 pounds. Trolling with Rapalas, Marauders and skirted lead heads proved to be most successful, though a few fish were also hooked on live mackerel. The backside of the full moon can often affect the fishing negatively and we expect the action to improve once again in the coming weeks. Wahoo are very shy when it comes to excessive fishing pressure and once the word of the big bite was out there were at least twenty boats on the spot and the fish became spooky from the all the noise. The Inner Gordo Bank was not the only area producing wahoo, as many fish were also being hooked on trolled lures off of Chileno and Gray Rock, from 3 to 7 miles out. Dorado were now more numerous throughout the region, with more of them now being located to the north, in the Sea of Cortez, bait fishing produced the better catches, though fish were also hitting trolled lures, sizes ranged from 10 to 40 pounds. Now that the wahoo bite has temporarily slacked off, more anglers will be targeting dorado and striped marlin. The red crabs that had been so thick on the offshore banks have not been seen on the surface much in recent days, though large schools of pargo are being seen, it has been a different story trying to hook them, a handful were taken on yo-yo jigs, sardinas and the red crabs, fishing with light tackle was the key to hooking them, especially when they were seen near the surface.
More striped marlin were moving closer to shore, attracted by the warmer blue water and were striking both lures and live bait. Stripers were running larger, 120 to 200 pounds. No particular spot was hot everyday, as the fish were spread out, but many boats did account for multiple marlin days. Quite a few mako sharks were also showing in local waters, readily striking live baits, but also occasionally striking high speed trolled lures, most were in the 50 to 100 pound class.
Good Fishing, Eric
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
