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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
January 4, 2004
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
January 4, 2004
Happy New Year’s !
Moderate crowds of anglers were traveling to Southern Baja over the Holiday Season, the partly cloudy weather was a bit wintry compared with typical Cabo climate, but never the less the high temperatures were still reaching 75 degrees and compared to most places, that seemed like paradise. Local water temperature ranged from 72 to 76 degrees, with the coolest areas found near Los Frailes. Ocean conditions were fair this past week, north winds were persistent, but they were not as strong as in weeks past and water clarity reportedly varied widely, from greenish river-like to clear and blue. There was also an extremely swift current running from the south, especially around the Gordo Bank region, this made for tough surface fishing, but the Banks also reported clearer water and increased activity of large yellowfin tuna, now only if the current will slack some and the winds remain cooperative, anglers could be in for epic action.
Supplies of live bait were plentiful, consisting of mackerel, sardinas and caballito. Schooling mackerel were now moving into the Sea of Cortez and were being jigged up off of the Presidente Hotel of San Jose del Cabo. Striped marlin are following their food source and the bite that had been wide open off of the Pacific’s El Faro area is now more spread out, the 95 spot, Chileno, Red Hill to Gordo Banks all showed signs of billfish activity, anywhere from 3 to20 miles offshore, though the numbers were not like they were a couple of weeks ago out of Cabo San Lucas.
Yellowfin tuna in the 60 to 150 pound class are now present on the Gordo Banks, but anglers are hooking few of the fish, and most of the fish that did strike came during the late morning or early afternoon. There were huge schools of skipjack to keep anglers tuned up and those pesky sea lions were still hanging around, but a few anglers did get lucky and successfully landed yellowfin to over 100 pounds. Strikes came on chunk bait and sardinas. Smaller tuna were found mixed in with schooling porpoise, but this bite was very spread out and not reliable. Yellowfin to 15 pounds were found closer to shore on live sardinas, but numbers were limited and there were more needlefish than anything else. Dorado numbers continued to decline, though most boats did have one or two of them mixed into their overall catch, most of them being under 10 pounds, with several bulls up to 30 pounds also accounted for.
Pangueros reported the action to be better closer to shore, the fish were not large, but anglers found a good mix of sierra, pargo, pompano, croaker, cabrilla and triggerfish. Fishing with live sardinas proved to be the best bet and on light tackle these smaller gamefish provided fun sport and excellent eating. In the coming months there will be more bottom fish action going on, as anglers can find exceptional challenge targeting species such as grouper, amberjack and yellowtail.
Surf anglers reported some good action for sierra, but only very early in the morning, before sunrise, then the bite would shut off. Bait fishermen reported catching croakers, pompano and other jacks. No snook catches heard of this past week.
Good fishing, Eric
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