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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
July 21, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
July 21, 2002
So much for the cooler than usual summer conditions, this past week saw temperatures reach
into the upper 90's. Tropical and muggy conditions, in fact there is a tropical storm Douglas brewing at this time, now gaining strength off the coast of Manzanillo, looks as though the southern Baja will be having high surf develop within several more days, though it appears that the rainfall will stay further over the Pacific. Water temperatures have now warmed to an average of 74 to 77 degrees and at the same time it has cleaned up, with blue water now being found consistently offshore. There was some breeze picking up by midday, from the northeast, east and then from the south, the seas were a bit choppy by later in the afternoon, but this did help keep the conditions bearable. Bait supplies of mullet and mackerel were plentiful, with the mackerel being the preferred bait for chasing marlin and dorado offshore and the mullet were best for closer to shore for roosterfish, amberjack, jack crevalle and pargo.
The overall fishing report was still not up to Cabo standards, though it has improved over last week. Good numbers of striped marlin and a few blue marlin were found spread out offshore, from Chileno to north of the Gordo Banks, anywhere from 4 to 15 miles offshore. Boats that targeted billfish had a daily average of one fish, along with other missed strikes, though many boats did account for multiple billfish days. Stripers were averaging 120 pounds, though others up to 200 pounds were reported. Blue marlin in the 250 to 400 pound range were also accounted for. With the clean warm water moving in this has made the marlin start striking trolled lures more readily, in fact on some days it appeared that the marlin actually preferred the plastic lures over live bait.
Dorado were being found also at about a one per boat average, weights ranged from 10 to 40 pounds, the fish were taken about on an equal ration with lures and live bait. Only a few reports of yellowfin tuna being found offshore and most of them were small football sized fish, some associated with porpoise and others were just blind strikes. There were also several wahoo that hit lures in the open water.
Panga fleets were limited on the distance they could travel, so many anglers were opting to target bottom rock piles and along the beaches for various species, but only had minimal success on amberjack and roosterfish, also a few pargo, pompano, jack crevalle and late season sierra were rounded out the catches. One of the best bites that happened this past week was right off the beach of La Playita, by shore anglers. One afternoon there were some 15 snook landed, all 15 to 40 pound fish, other days there would be 4 to 8 or just several fish landed, all were of good size and this was the best bite of the year for these prized gamefish that are rarely taken from boats. Snook like feeding very close to shore, in the muddy water, where there is a mix of fresh water, as in front of the San Jose Estuary, which due to high tides, broke open to the ocean this past week, sending many small baitfish, shrimp, and other tasty morsels out along the local beaches, this apparently is what triggered this big bite for the snook. Also there were sierra, jacks, halibut and roosterfish landed from the beach, including one monster roosterfish estimated at 80 pounds, landed by local panga skipper Chame Pino off the beach of La Laguna.
Good Fishing, Eric
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