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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 1, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers –
December 1, 2002
The month of November was very crowded with anglers, which is normal for the peak fall season, but it was also full of unusual weather patterns. First there were the relentless northeasterly winds that came earlier than usual and howled persistently during the first couple of weeks, then it was the unseasonable warm temperatures that felt more like October than November, and last but not least the month ended with a nasty cold front moving in from the southwest that brought stormy ocean conditions and more than three inches of rainfall to parts of Southern Baja. The rain was much needed, but was an unfortunate situation for visitors that were scheduled to fish during this time. Prior to the recent storm the fishing was showing signs of breaking wide open, particularly for medium sized yellowfin tuna found close to shore. A couple days of cold rainfall and nearly a week of practically no sunshine contributed to cooling the water temperature down to the 76 to 77 degree range, also the clarity was off, greenish water was reported and overall the action was down from the previous week. The seasons first gray whale sightings were reported, this is another sign that cooler water is on the way.
The average catches per charter boat ranged from 2 to10 fish in combination, with dorado the most common catch, included was a mix of yellowfin tuna, skipjack, wahoo, sierra, pargo, striped and blue marlin, as well as some sailfish. Live sardinas remained abundant along the beaches from Palmilla towards Cabo San Lucas and in recent days the baitfish were found schooling off of
La Playita. These were the baitfish of choice, especially for a chance at catching the tuna, lots of skipjack remained throughout the areas and at times dominated the action, but on other days the yellowfin tuna would take over and anglers were able to catch as many as 6 to10 fish in the 10 to 20 pound class. The most consistent area for these tuna were in the areas from Red Hill to Cabo San Lucas. Dorado were found in these same spots, average catch was two or three per boat, sizes were up to 25 pounds and the normal size was 10 to 15 pounds. They were striking on trolled lures, but more of them were caught on sardinas or trolled skipjack. As a result of the rainfall many of the local arroyos did run off into the ocean and some lucky anglers found floating debris that were stacked with quality sized dorado, the strong offshore drift was quickly carrying this debris out of range.
Closer to shore there were increasing numbers of sierra, jack crevalle and skipjack showing, they provided great action for light tackle enthusiasts. Though the action over the weekend did taper off some due to the stirred up conditions and the negative tidal factors, tides are now such that there is an extreme falling tide all morning long and this will remain the pattern until after the new moon. Inshore fishing typically would be more favorable during an incoming or peak high tide phase. This is the time of year that fleets will start to target species closer to shore, to escape the choppy offshore waters and in order to find more consistent action. Even though the fish do tend to be smaller, at least people can catch something and be comfortable doing so.
Wahoo are becoming scarce, with only a handful now be caught, but if conditions switch around they could go back on the bite. For now only an occasional fish was being caught, on both trolled baits and lures, most of them were weighing 25 to 45 pounds. As the water continues to cool, it will be that much harder to find wahoo, typically the last action of the year is found off the Pacific Banks such as San Jaime or Golden Gate. At this time there were still some scattered ‘hoo found north of Punta Gorda, but most likely it will now become harder to find chihuil, which had been the preferred baitfish recently.
Good Fishing, Eric
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