 |
Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 14, 2003
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
December 14, 2003
As the official start of winter nears, the weather in Southern Baja has been on a cooling trend, north winds have been persistent, more often than not the breeze gusted from ten to seventeen miles per hour, but there was also plenty of sunshine, high temperature ranged from 75 to 80 degrees, actually a very pleasant climate, not many places can say the same during mid-December. Offshore conditions were at times very rough, but on other days the winds laid down and anglers enjoyed comfortable seas. Even on the days when it was too sloppy to fish further from shore, anglers found that fishing closer to shore was improved over the reports of the previous week Yellowfin tuna action was particular better than it had been, and there were also fair numbers of striped marlin, dorado, sierra, bonita, skipjack and a few wahoo to keep anglers busy. Water temperatures dropped to an average of 75 to 77 degrees. Live bait consisted of mackerel, caballito and good supplies of healthy sized sardinas. Sportfishing fleets were fishing over a wide area, form the Pacific side to into the Sea of Cortez. There were reports of very rough seas this week on the Pacific, calmer seas and more consistent action was found form Gray Rock to Iman Bank.
Yellowfin tuna action broke loose on the Iman Bank, this is where anglers were fly lining sardinas for fish in the 12 to 20 pound class, despite the north winds playing havoc, on most days it was fishable and the La Playita panga fleet now concentrating on this spot.
The numbers on these large football sized tuna was anywhere from 4 to 12 per boat and sizable schools of big skipjack were mixed in. Larger tuna are starting to become active on the Gordo Banks, yellowfin ranging 40 to 90 pounds were taken in limited numbers in recent days, there was limited fishing pressure on the banks and it looks as though the nicer sized tuna will now start biting as the water temp cools. Anglers hooked the larger tuna while using chunk bait, as well as live and dead sardinas.
Dorado were scattered throughout the region, the majority of the fish were taken on bait, found in small schools of fish mostly in the 4 to 12 pound range, though of course there was a handful of big bulls also accounted for. Wahoo are definitely on the decline with the onslaught of cooling water temperatures, but nevertheless there were some of the speedsters still hanging around local waters, the area from Punta Gorda to Iman produced hook-ups on trolled rapalas and skirted lead-heads, numbers were not significant, but there is at least the possibility that anglers can hook into one or two of them, of the ‘hoo landed, most weighed from 20 to 40 pounds.
Striped marlin dominated the billfish action, though it was a hit or miss scenario and mostly on the Pacific side of Cabo. El Faro was one of the best places to hook into the stripers, soaking live bait, throwing bait to fining fish and trolling lures all produced strikes. There was one 250 pound black marlin taken from a panga out of Palmilla and a few blue marlin and sailfish hook-ups also reported.
Good Fishing, Eric
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
