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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
November 17, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers –
November 17, 2002
Anglers continued to arrive in the Los Cabos area in large numbers and they were being greeted with pristine weather conditions and an assortment of gamefish providing action throughout the local fishing grounds. Sunny skies, with temperatures in the high 80s, low around 60 degrees, through much of the week there was persistent northeasterly winds to deal with and on these days the charter fleets, particularly the pangas, were limited as to where they could affectively fish. There were sufficient supplies of sardinas being netted by pangueros from Palmilla point to Santa Maria. Sardinas were the bait of choice for anglers fishing closer to shore, especially affective for the tuna and dorado. The inshore waters from Palmilla to Cabo San Lucas provided shelter from the north winds and this is where the majority of the fleet was going. On the days when the wind laid down, there was also some great wahoo action found in the areas of the Gordo Banks and further into the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures ranged from 78 to 82 degrees and with recent swells created by tropical depression 16 E the inshore was stirred up and a bit greenish, but further offshore the water was reportedly clear and blue. An abundance of small black skipjack were schooling in local waters, averaging one or two pounds and making great live baits for wahoo, dorado, sailfish and bottom fish.
Larger tuna were located some 20 to 40 miles from shore, mixed with porpoise, many fish from 60 pounds on up to over 100 pounds were landed, the majority of this action was from larger boats fishing straight out from Cabo, or towards the Pacific. The panga found good action for smaller yellowfin tuna, in the 10 to 20 pounds class, the hot spot was right in front of the Cabo Arches, with live sardinas as the preferred bait. Light line was the key, plenty of chum and a little luck to stay away from all of the skipjack and needlefish. At times some anglers had more success using dead sardinas and having them slowly drift down in the same chum line. Boats were landing as many as 12 tuna, though others had only one or two. Mixed in the same spot were dorado, averaging one or two per boat, average fish was 10 to 15 pounds, with a few tipping the scales to 30 pounds.
Wahoo were active, being found in small schools throughout the region, on both the Pacific and San Jose Del Cabo sides. Fish were striking on trolled lures, as well as live baits, like skipjack and chihuil, average size fish was from 30 to 40 pounds. This was the first week where the wahoo really started to hit the rigging live baits with consistency. Of course chihuil were not easy to come by, due to winds creating the fast drift on the Gordo Banks. Gray Rock or Whale’s Head, was one of the best places to troll with live skipjack and hook into a sizable wahoo. Many fish to over 60 pounds were caught from this area recently. Anglers should realize that when you do land one nice wahoo that makes for a successful morning, anything after that is a bonus. Some pangas had as many as 8 wahoo in a few hours of fishing time, now that is some fast action, particularly when you know they had other strikes that they did not connect on.
There were a handful of nice sized blue marlin landed this week, including one blue that was caught by Chris Reily, who was visiting from the San Francisco Bay area, he was fishing on a 31-foot cruiser launching from Palmilla. The numbers of striped marlin did increase, with stripers now found 6 to 15 miles off Chileno and Red Hill, but even more of them were found in the cooler waters of the Pacific. Sailfish were located closer to shore, hitting the same baits that anglers were using to target wahoo, tuna and dorado.
Not much being talked about by anglers fishing from the shoreline, though sierra action should improve steadily as the water temperatures cool and more schools of sardinas move in along local beaches.
Good Fishing, Eric
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