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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
October 27, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
October 27, 2002
This past week there was all of the excitement of the APEC meetings taking place in Loc Cabos, but they were almost overshadowed by the rapid development of the category five Hurricane Kenna off of southern mainland Mexico. This is a very unusual to have such a powerful storm form this late in the season and this area was very lucky to have the hurricane pass within only a couple hundred miles before following a track towards Puerta Vallarta, Tepic and San Blas, where it made landfall and caused devastating damage. Southern Baja did receive a couple inches of much needed rainfall and there was fifteen-foot storm surf that developed, which caused some serious erosion problems throughout the area, especially on the beach of La Playita, out of San Jose del Cabo. Sportfishing fleets were shut down for Thursday and Friday, but by the weekend were back in business.
Water temperatures were still in the 80-degree range and daytime highs reached 90 degrees, with lows in the 60s. Anglers found very comfortable fishing conditions and daily catches that included dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo and billfish. The most consistent action was for dorado in the 5 to 10 pound class, large schools on these small dorado were found throughout the region and anglers were catching as many as 20 per morning, with the majority of them being released to be caught another day. Slow trolling with live sardinas and strip bait proved most affective, but the fish also were hitting on a variety of lures.
The wahoo action did slow down since the passing of the recent full moon, but they were still being found in limited numbers. The areas of the Gordo Banks, La Fortuna and Iman seemed to be the best bet and anglers that trolled lures such as marauders, rapalas and skirted lead heads were catching wahoo in the 20 to 40 pound range. Though most of the wahoo were striking the high-speed trolled lures, several anglers did reportedly have strikes while using small live skipjack rigged with trap hooks. Anglers who caught one wahoo felt lucky at this time, because there were just not many actually being landed at this time, we look for this action to improve now that the moon phase is darkening.
Yellowfin tuna were showing signs of more activity and some monster-sized fish were reportedly seen feeding on the Outer Gordo Banks, though they could not be enticed in the biting. Smaller tuna were found closer to shore and anglers had some success with both live sardinas and trolling lures. These fish ranged up to 25 pounds, but most of them were less than 15 pounds. With the designated closed area from Palmilla to Cabo San Lucas due to be reopened this coming week, we expect more action to be found in this area.
Billfish action was reportedly on the slow side and very spread out, with sailfish, striped and blue marlin being found in scattered numbers. This is the beginning of another transition period, as the larger black and blue marlin start to move out and more striped marlin will start returning from
their annual California migration.
Nothing much to report for anglers fishing off the beach, though many roosterfish were seen feeding on baitfish off of the La Playita beach, they were a bit out of range for most anglers.
Good Fishing, Eric
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