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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
June 22, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers –
June 22, 2002
Summer is now officially here, though the weather still has been unstable, with persistent winds from the southwest pushing in cooler Pacific currents and causing the water throughout the area to turn a greenish color. Water temperatures from Cabo San Lucas to San Jose del Cabo ranged from a chilly 65 to 68 degrees. Sportfishing fleets are concentrating their efforts towards and beyond San Jose del Cabo, especially due to the extra frigid Pacific water and the relentless winds, further into the Gulf winds were very light and anglers had pleasant conditions for trolling the shoreline.
There was still plenty of live mullet available, and they were the preferred bait being used to target inshore species like roosterfish and amberjack. Offshore fishing started out fair at first of the week, as a scattering of dorado, striped marlin and a few blue marlin were hooked by the cruiser fleets fishing the waters off of San Jose and further into the Sea of Cortez, but as the water cooler off even more, and turned dirty, the dorado and marlin vanished. Once the current switches back to its normal summer patterns, the water will warms back up into the upper 70’s and the offshore action will be alive again, for the time being though, all we can do is patiently wait for warmer conditions and take advantage of some excellent inshore live bait action for both roosterfish and amberjack.
The most consistent bite for the pangas out of San Jose del Cabo this past week was for roosterfish and amberjack. The fish were hooked exclusively on mullet, slow trolling along the rocky beach stretches north of Punta Gorda. The first half of the week it was the roosterfish that kept anglers busy, as fish to over 50 pounds were landed, many fish were in the 15 to 25 pound class, with 6 to 8 roosters per panga common. By the weekend though, it was the amberjack that were dominating the show. Typically these fish are found in deeper water of 150 to 200 feet, especially while retrieving yo-yo iron jigs, hard work, but they are now on the surface, closer to shore, and taking the live mullet, very exciting fishing, these fish are weighing 20 to 60 pounds and boats averaged 2 to 8 fish daily. Several yellowtail and dogtooth snapper (pargo) were also found mixed in with these inshore amberjack, which were a definite bonus. It seems that the larger amberjack make this annual inshore migration at around this same time each season, these are quality fish, that will test anglers skill and equipment to the maximum. Also producing some of the finest eating fillets available.
Of course most anglers are wondering where all of the world famous surface action for marlin, dorado and tuna is, and rightly so, but the fact is that this is all part of the game of waiting for conditions to be just right and all one can do is take advantage of what species are cooperating at the time. At this specific time anglers are enjoying world class action for roosterfish and amberjack, things change fast here and most likely next week it will be some other species that creates a stir.
Good Fishing, Eric
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