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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 22, 2002
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
December 22, 2002
From the crew of Gordo Banks Pangas we wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
Crowds of anglers have been unusually light this past week and hopefully the New Year will bring more tourists. Winter time is now officially here, though the weather has felt more like spring, warm sunny days, with highs around 80 degrees. Water temperature is now averaging 74 to 76 degrees and swells have been minimal, the wind has not been much of a factor recently either, slight breeze picking up during the afternoon. Anglers enjoyed comfortable conditions on the water, a bit chilly early in the mornings, lows in the 50s, but warming up nicely by mid-morning.
Most of the panga charters are now concentrating closer to shore for smaller gamefish, but the cruisers fishing out on the Pacific are finding striped marlin action, as well as some larger yellowfin tuna and dorado.
Off of San Jose del Cabo the most consistent bite has been for sierra off of Palmilla point, the action has been early, with rapalas and hoochies both working well. Sardinas were available, though fishing with them was not easy due to all of hungry birds in the area. Boats were catching up to a couple of dozen sierras, with the sizes ranging from 2 to 6 pounds, great light tackle action, especially for children. With the sierra run now in full swing the local pangueros off of La Playita have started to set their gill nets, there were reports of pangas taking over 1000 pounds of fish in one set. Not only are they catching sierra, but also roosterfish, pompano, croaker, turtles etc., anything that happens to swim through this inshore area. Nets are now being set by several pangas from Punta Palmilla to Punta Gorda, numbers will likely increase in the coming weeks. These people supposedly have legal permits, who knows why they are permitted to rape the local waters with the nets and none of the local authorities seem to even care what is going on. Something has to be done to stop this form of fishing, as they did last year at the East Cape, everyday that passes there is being major damage done to the local inshore fishery. This is a very sad situation that the Mexican government does not take immediate action.
There were some larger yellowfin to 100 pounds caught out on Pacific, but this was a hit or miss deal, football sized tuna were found closer to shore near Santa Maria, but the action was sporadic and with the recent full moon the bite basically came to a standstill. Dorado were still roaming local waters, no large schools, mostly single fish in the 15 to 25 pound range, striking on both lures and bait. As the sun warmed the ocean surface, this is when the dorado became more active, they could be seen chasing bait fish close to shore and the frigate birds were circling above ready to feed on any left over scraps.
Good Fishing, Eric
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