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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
August 25, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
August 25, 2002
Southern Baja California weather continued to be scorching hot and humid, highs of 95 and lows of 80 degrees, sunny skies with only a scattering of tropical clouds and no rainfall. The ocean conditions were unusually calm for the first part of the week, but on Friday the swells became substantial due to the presence of Hurricane Fausto that passed within 500 miles of Cabo San Lucas before heading straight out on a westerly track. The storm swell quickly resided and over the weekend the seas had settled back down. The swell did push in some different currents, slightly cooler water which was also greenish. Average water temperature from Cabo to north of San Jose ranged from 78 to 85 degrees, the coolest water was found on the Pacific side of Cabo. Sportfishing fleets found the action to be more consistent in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. No particular area was reported as being a hot spot, as fish were spread out and found throughout the region, more consistent action was found within several miles of shore. Catches included marlin, sailfish, dorado, yellowfin tuna and wahoo, with none of the species being overly abundant, boats were averaged just several fish in combination each day. Inshore baitfish supplies became scarce by the weekend, as the large swell scattered the sardinas and mullet, combined with low morning tides, made it difficult for pangueros to find much with their throw nets.
Most charters were doing more trolling with lures due to the lack of live bait, though there were schooling bolito offshore that could be caught and used for trolling, they proved to be one of the best bets for finding big dorado. Though the majority of the dorado now being caught have ranged from 10 to 20 pounds, in recent days there have been increasing numbers of larger bulls also mixed in the fish counts, with several of the bulls tipping the scales to 60 pounds or more. Not much reported in the way of floating debris, which is normal when there is no rainfall to wash out the local arroyos, there is always that chance though of finding a floating log, rope or dead mammal and then you can really find out in a hurry what a wide open dorado bite is all about.
The tuna bite has been slowly showing signs of coming to life, last week there was a monster 300 pound plus yellowfin caught some 6 miles off of Cabo on a trolled marlin lure and also several other tuna that reportedly weighed from 100 to 200 pounds, those these were just a handful of fish. Most of the tuna found were of the football sized variety, 5 to 20 pounds, some associated with schooling porpoise and others were just blind strikes. Trolling medium sized feathers and cedar plugs worked well, and when sardinas were available they proved even better yet. Most of the panga fleets did catch at least a couple of tuna per day and others lucky anglers reported as many as 8 or 10 in a day.
Wahoo action tapered off after the influx of greener water, but never the less they were still be hooked daily by anglers trolling with skirted lead heads and rapala type lures, also several were reported on yo-yo style iron jigs. Most of the 'hoo that were landed weighed in the 25 to 40 pound class. They were found from Chileno, Red Hill to Iman and San Luis Banks. Though some anglers had multiple wahoo days, most people felt fortunate if they landed one of these highly sought after gamefish.
The hot snook action off of the San Jose Estuary once again tapered off, but now that the surf has settled down and more baitfish are schooling close to shore this bite could turn back on within a days notice.
Good fishing, Eric
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