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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
April 20, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
April 20, 2003
Easter week is a very big event here in Mexico, as local families all flock to the beaches for their annual camping adventures. This year tradition held strong and practically the whole town shut down as people vacationed Thursday through Sunday. The weather was ideal, not too hot or cold, partly cloudy days that reached into the low 80s. Surf conditions were minimal, there were only slight afternoon breezes and water temperatures were on a warming trend, averaging 72 to 74 degrees. Crowds of tourists were below normal levels, in fact it was not easy for anglers to even find charter skippers that were whiling to work over this Holiday weekend. For some strange reason the fishing never seems to be that good during Easter week, it might be that the fish go on vacation along with the local population. This past week also coincided with the backside of the full moon, this generally is not the most favorable time. Bait became an issue as well, though on most days there were limited supplies of sardinas and mackerel available.
The majority of the sportfishing fleets found that the most consistent action was offshore, though it was not necessary to travel long distances, striped marlin, sailfish, dorado and wahoo were all caught within several miles of shore. The average number of fish per boat was only one, two or three, but the quality on the fish landed was good. Marlin and sailfish averaged in the 80 to 150 pound range, dorado sizes were up to 40 pounds and the few wahoo that were landed weighed 30 to 60 pounds. Many marlin were seen tailing or jumping on the surface, but it was another story getting them to take the bait, they would hit live mackerel when their mood was right and many were hooked on lures as well. Dorado were spread out, with most of the catches being solitary, trolling both live bait and lures had equal success. Wahoo continue to show throughout the region, following the warmer currents, most of the jig strikes are coming from the open blue water, in the same areas where billfish and dorado are being found. Last year at this same time the 'hoo also were just started to appear and during late part of April and early May they provided world class action on their favored fishing grounds.
Not much to report in the way of bottomfish or for species along the shoreline, just a few sierra, pargo and jack crevalle. Yellowfin tuna action became scarce as well, with most of the tuna accounted for coming further offshore and associated with porpoise. More often than not it was monster-sized skipjack that were being hooked up on the lures targeting tuna. The inshore gillnetting problem is now more prevalent than ever, with local pangueros concentrating their nets along the beaches from Palmilla to Punta Gorda, they favor working during the full moon period at night, as this is when the fish are more active. These nets are trapping anything that swims through them and are leaving these stretches of beaches barren of all of the popular gamefish sought after by sport fishermen. It is a sad situation that the authorities do not take action to adopt new laws that will protect the future fishery so valuable to the local economy.
Good Fishing, Eric
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