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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
April 18, 2004
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Anglers -
April 18, 2004
Crowds of tourists continued to be below normal levels, many people are complaining of the skyrocketing prices of airfares, and with hotel occupancy rates at less than 50% we hope that something can be done soon to attract and encourage more visitors. The weather continues to be unpredictable during this transition time, this week there was another cooling trend that keep high temperatures in the 70s and there was much scattered cloud cover. The dominant wind was from south, pushing in Pacific cool air and keeping water temperatures from stabilizing. The majority of the sportfishing fleets have been fishing the waters from Cabo San Lucas to the Gordo Banks, with the most consistent action found off of Chileno to Red Hill, anywhere from 8 to 20 miles offshore. Local water temperatures have ranged from 66 to 71 degrees, with the warmest areas found north of Los Frailes, where the water has warmed up to 75 degrees.
Yellowfin tuna proved to be the most numerous of offshore species, most of the time they were further from shore and with the choppy ocean conditions this made it difficult for smaller boats to comfortably fish these areas. Tuna were found mostly associated with porpoise, but at times they were schooling on their own. Fish averaged 8 to 15 pounds, but an occasional yellowfin to 40 and 50 pounds were mixed in. Trolling with cedar plugs, feathers and skirted squid skirts all produced strikes. There were lots of squid apparently in local waters now, as the fish that were filleted out were plugged with them. Over the weekend the warmer water moved closer to shore and the San Jose panga fleets were able to easily reach the tuna action, which was concentrated about 8 miles off of Red Hill. Boats had average daily catches of 5 to 15 tuna, with plenty of skipjack also in the same region. Dorado were scarce and spread out, most of the time being found further offshore, of the dorado landed they were good sized, included bulls of 40 to 60 pounds. Early in the week there were a couple of albacore reportedly landed outside of Cabo San Lucas and the odd floating kelp patty that for the lucky few who encountered them were holding schools of big dorado.
Inshore the main action was for sierra, where the hot spot was Palmilla Point, trolling with live sardinas produced the most wide open action, though at times there was trouble with several rogue sea lions that were taking more than their share of hooked fish. Jack crevalle averaging 15 to 20 pounds were also patrolling the local shoreline and an increasing amount of smaller sized roosterfish continued to move into the region. Shore fishermen off the beach of La Playita reported an occasional jack crevalle feeding frenzy that produced fast and wild action for anglers that happened to be at the right place at the right time, thousands of baitfish could be seen actually beaching themselves in order to escape the jaws of the feeding jacks.
Bottomfish slowed down in recent days, but there were limited numbers of amberjack, yellowtail, pargo and cabrilla being landed by the anglers who dedicated their efforts to working the yo-yo jigs off of the various rock piles.
Good Fishing, Eric
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