 |
Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 7, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
December 7, 2003
It is the time of year when many people have just finished traveling over Thanksgiving weekend and with the new month of December there comes much preparation for the coming Christmas Holiday. For this reason there is typically a slack time in tourism during this period. Charter operators reported low numbers of anglers in town now and despite the extremely pleasant weather just not many people were traveling at this time. For the most part it has been sunny everyday, highs in the 80-degree range and lows now dipping to 60 degrees, not too bad considering major snow flurries are now falling through much of the United States. Local water temperatures actually are slightly warmer than usual, averaging from 77 to 80 degrees. North winds continued to be a nuisance, though this week they were not as persistent and over the weekend it was actually calm. Oceans currents did pick up and this seemed to have clouded the water slightly, it is not as blue as it had been, though it was not bad either. Overall catches remained steady, most common daily species were dorado, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, striped marlin, skipjack, sierra and pargo. Supplies of live bait included mackerel, caballito and sardinas, with there be increased numbers of sardinas moving inshore off the beaches.
Charter fleets found good action for tuna and striped marlin off the Pacific fishing
grounds, some boats reported up to three striped marlin in one day, stripers were being hooked on various methods of trolling lures and bait, particularly soaking live mackerel down deep, not all boats were successful for billfish and as the water temperatures cool down this bite should become more consistent. Yellowfin tuna were also hit or miss, they were found from 25 miles offshore migrating with porpoise, to as close as one mile from shore. Tuna were hooked on bait and lures, but anglers with live bait seemed to have an advantage, most fish were ranging in the 12 to 30 pound class, but there were reports of tuna to over 100 pounds. Pangueros reported seeing larger yellowfin in the area of the Gordo Banks, but only a couple of hook-ups were reported. For some reason they just are not biting, of course there is a full moon now and that never seems to help a tuna bite much, also if you recall it was not until January and February of last season when the larger tuna on the Gordo Banks did start hitting on chunk bait.
Dorado seemed to be more concentrated on the Sea of Cortez side, than on the Pacific, boats reported an average of two fish each day, though some accounted for more and some less, hitting trolled feathers as well as various baits, average size was 10 to 20 pounds. Wahoo were becoming more elusive with each passing week, but are being taken in limited numbers each day and should continue to hang around until the water dips another few degrees. The Inner Gordo Banks and areas from Cardon to Iman Bank produced ‘hoo up to 50 pounds this past week, with the preferred “candy bait” chihuil now becoming very difficult and time consuming to catch, more anglers are starting to troll the old stand by skirted lead heads, rapalas and marauders. The majority of the wahoo strikes occurred earlier in the morning and some lucky anglers had as many as three wahoo in one morning.
This past week saw much more activity along the shoreline, with the increase of sardinas, there have been large schools of sierra moving in, these fish are very fast and scrappy on
light tackle, providing a fun option when the offshore conditions turn sour. Of course with all of the sierra now in, the local commercial pangueros have already begun gill-netting operations at night and it will take heavy pressure from sportfishing interests to hopefully put an end to this destructive form of fishing.
Surf fishermen are now getting into great early morning and late evening sierra action and one 25-pound snook was caught off of the San Jose Estuary.
Good Fishing, Eric
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
