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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
November 24, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
November 24, 2002
There are not too many other places that can match Los Cabos' pristine fall time weather conditions and at the same time provide anglers with world class angling opportunities. Crowds of visiting fishermen have remained steady all month, but it does appear that the majority of tourists are anglers and overall the town is not as crowded as usual. Surely the coming Holiday season will bring in more people who will be seeking out the warm 85-degree sunshine. Water temperatures still are hovering in the 78 to 80 degree range, which means the prospects for a good month of December look very good. The winds that have plagued the area the past couple of weeks resided by mid-week and the weekend was especially calm. The water was slightly warmer in the areas from Cabo San Lucas towards the Gordo Banks and this is where the majority of the sportfishing fleets are concentrating their efforts. Overall catch ratio were high, though actual numbers of fish per boat was 2 to 6 fish in combination, catches included black marlin, striped marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, sierra, grouper and pargo. Most common baitfish being used was sardinas, they were found along the rocky shoreline from Palmilla to Cabo Real. Schools of smaller skipjack were scattered throughout the area and were regularly being used for bait, especially for wahoo. Since the recent full moon these smaller skipjack were harder to locate.
The wahoo bite has continued to be impressive, with fish being found in all directions, the actual numbers that were landed dropped as the full moon developed, though they were still taken daily. Many wahoo were seen free swimming by, as boats were drift fishing and they would come up on baits, but it was another story enticing them to bite. Finding the right bait proved difficult in recent days, but for the pangueros that did have the expertise and patience to chum up a few chihuil on the Inner Gordo Bank, they reported that these candy baits would guaranteed a wahoo strike. Chihuil have been tougher than usual for the local pangueros to catch, sometime taking an hour to catch just one or two of them. There are concentrations of wahoo on the Banks, but they have not shown much interest in trolled lures, preferring the hard to catch chihuil. Near Gray Rock and on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas wahoo were hitting both lures and live skipjack equally well, this is where the larger fish to 90 pounds were found, though the average wahoo has been more in the 30 to 40 pound class.
Dorado action improved slightly over last week, still most boats only had one or two of them, but the sizes were larger than they had been, many of the fish were in the 15 to 30 pound range. They were found scattered in all directions, hitting on bait and lures. Yellowfin tuna action tapered off as it usual does during a full moon and the panga fleets were targeting tuna in the area of the Cabo arches to the Hyatt Hotel, this is where tuna averaging 10 to 20 pounds were striking on sardinas. At times the skipjack dominated the action and the tuna could just not be found, but when anglers found themselves in the right place they could end up catching a dozen nice tuna. There were some impressive yellowfin catches. Schools of porpoise moved within several miles to shore in the area of Chileno and the tuna were associated with them, on Friday angler Walt Soper from the Oceanside Senior Anglers hooked into a 108 pound fish that hit on 50 pound line with several small sardinas pinned on one hook. Soper was fishing with panga skipper Chame Pino and battled the fish for one and a half hours, they also landed nice sized wahoo and dorado on the same day.
Most of the billfish action was now for striped marlin, which have been showing up closer to shore and in greater numbers, they were found off of Chileno and on the Pacific. Several blue and black marlin were also accounted for, including one 350 pound black that was landed from a La Playita panga.
There was not much to report off the beach except smaller pompano and croaker in the area of
La Playita. Several nice sized rooserterfish were seen chasing baitfish, but no hook-ups were reported.
Good Fishing, Eric
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