 |
Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
April 6, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
Anglers -
April 6, 2003
The start of springtime has brought with it weather patterns ranging from almost summer like to days that were cool, windy and cloudy. This is now a transition period, as air temperatures start to warm and cool winds from the north begin to diminish, ocean currents run rampant, migrating gamefish move in and out of local waters searching for their favorite bait supply. Both the weather and fishing action has varied daily, there was improved offshore fishing found this last week, and once the weather does stabilize, there is promising potential for a productive season to come. Much of the better action in recent days was found 10 to 20 miles from shore, areas of water temperatures to 70 degrees or more were found outside of the Gordo Banks, with other local areas dipping down to 67 degrees. Blue water was found close to shore and the current was not as strong as it had been, still tons of red crabs in the area of the Gordo Banks. Supplies of mackerel were hard to find, but there were caballito and sardinas available. An early season southern swell developed, but it was not enough to keep the La Playita panga fleet from being able to launch.
Anglers targeting offshore species like striped marlin, yellowfin tuna and dorado reported more success on the cruisers than on pangas, this was due to the fact that the fish were found further from shore and the larger boats had more range. Though the pangas did have some respectable catches of yellowfin tuna weighing up to 50 pounds on Friday and Saturday, when the fish were found traveling with porpoise within five miles of shore. Earlier in the week the tuna were found in big numbers off of Desteladera, associated with migrating porpoise and ranging in size to over one hundred pounds. Boats reported up to 8 or 12 tuna per day, they were hitting on all types of lures, particularly cedar plugs and medium sized feathers in darker colors, and they also would readily strike on live sardinas.
Dorado counts were limited closer to shore, with only an occasional fish accounted for, but most of the boats fishing further offshore had one or two of them in the daily count, sizes raged from 15 to 30 pounds. Striped marlin action was not wide open, but there were good numbers of them being spotted, but with the lack of mackerel, the marlin were not that eager to strike on lures. Sierra were still being found close to shore, though numbers were down compared to recent weeks. There were a few days of great action for huachinango and other small snapper, this was while using small red crabs (langostillas) for bait. There were a handful of nicer bottomfish taken on yo-yo jigs, but with fish gorging on all of the red crabs in the area the whole bite near shore has been affected. Quite a few humpback whales still being spotted, other attractions included large concentrations of porpoise, a few turtles, manta rays and sea lions. Bait activity off of La Playita has slackened with the higher surf and beach fishermen did not have much to report this past week.
Good Fishing, Eric
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
