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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
January 26, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
January 26, 2003
Southern Baja was the place to be for vacationers looking for warm wintertime sunshine, they were greeted with clear and pristine conditions and 80-degree temperatures. Swells were practically nonexistent, the water temperature ranged from 72 to 75 degrees, though deep blue water was hard to find, the clearness was not bad at all. Very little wind recently, which was great news for anglers and the overall fishing action was good enough to kept most visitors happy. Crowds of tourists were still below normal, though increased numbers of anglers did show up for the last week of the month. Supplies of mackerel, caballito and sardinas were sufficient, although the full moon did have the pangueros searching a bit extra for the sardinas.
Striped marlin action has continued to be hot on the Pacific, with recent reports on billfish moving closer to Cabo, they were within 5 to 8 miles of shore, off of Cabo San Lucas, El FaroViejo, as well as all the way to the Golden Gate Bank. The stripers have now started to hit the lures more frequently, tailing fish were also spotted and would take live mackerel, though during the recent full moon they did prove to be somewhat finicky. Counts per boat were now again on the increase, with many boats flying multiple marlin flags each day.
Dorado activity had slowed down at the start of the week, but over the weekend the numbers improved, especially off of San Jose and around the Gordo Banks. Pangas were averaging 2 to 4 dorado per morning, with the sizes ranging up to 25 pounds. The fish were caught on trolled lures, live bait and chunk bait. Many dorado were hooked by anglers that were chunk fishing for tuna on the Inner Gordo Bank, these fish had just moved back onto the Banks, because for the past week very few dorado were found there and the majority of the ones that were taken were hooked close to shore.
Football sized yellowfin tuna were being found further offshore traveling with migrating porpoise, most of this action was 10 to 20 miles out and it was a hit or miss deal. The larger yellowfin that have been schooling on the Gordo Banks are still there, but the bite has been tough and required plenty of patience. Everyday a handful of tuna are being hooked and landed by the local La Playita panga fleet, weights are ranging from 25 pounds to over 100 pounds, and average tuna weighed in was about 70 to 80 pounds. Anglers landing one of them felt lucky, some pangueros reported having several opportunities each morning. Each day the tuna seemed to have a certain time frame where they would go on the bite for an hour or so, more often than not it was latter in the morning when they became more active. The best bet for hooking into one of these tuna was while chunk bait fishing, though on some days they did decide to strike on sardinas.
Other action included a mix of shallow water bottom species including cabrilla, pargo and triggerfish. Only a few amberjack, but soon they should start to appear in the reports more often.
Along the shoreline the local gill netters seem to of slowed down their operations this past week, I am sure this is just a temporary break due to them preferring to wait until the more favorable tides and moon phases to return. Anyway sport anglers were still finding good numbers of sierra closer to the rocky shorelines, though most of them have been smaller sized, 2 or 3 pounds being the average, fun fishing on light tackle.
Good Fishing, Eric
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