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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
February 6, 2005
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
February 6, 2005
Anglers –
The start of the new month February brought with it cooler weather, as early morning were in the lower 50s and skies were mostly cloudy with high temperatures barely reaching into the mid 70s. Despite the cooler weather there were quite a few tourists in town, most certainly coming from areas much cooler than Los Cabos. On Friday it actually rained most of the afternoon and through the evening, this was much needed moisture to this region that has been in the midst of a drought for nearly a year. An unusual swell rose up over the same Friday night and Saturday morning the La Playita panga fleet was not able to launch due to high storm surf, it was reminiscent of the summer months and almost unprecedented for the month of February. By Sunday morning conditions had settled down, though they were not back to normal, but at least a half dozen of so panga were able to be launched. Most of the week swells were not significant, but the rainsquall did create swells up to 4 to 6 feet and scattered what remaining sardinas there were along the shoreline. The live bait situation had steadily become more difficult all week for the pangas, as there were long waits for very limited supplies of sardinas, there were schools of mackerel moving into local waters and anglers were now able to fill up with them without much difficulty. Water temperatures ranged from 69 to 72 degrees and for at least the first part of the week the clarity was very good.
For the pangas launching out of La Playita the most common catches were yellowfin tuna, pargo (huachinango), dorado and skipjack. The tuna were ranging in sizes up to 20 pounds, the best spot was off of La Fortuna, some days the sea lions were so aggressive it made it nearly impossible to escape from having your fish attacked before being able to bring it to gaff, but on other days the sea lions were no factor. Pangas could score up to 10 tuna when everything went well, other times they were lucky to land a couple. Dorado catches were down with cooler water now becoming more prominent, but still were being caught everyday in limited numbers, most of them were smaller fish, under 10 pounds, but of course there were some larger specimens mixed in, with the majority of them being found close to shore where more concentrations of baitfish were.
Red crabs were starting to show up on the fishing grounds and this meant more numbers of pargo also moving in, quality sized red snapper to 10 pounds were being caught in good numbers, along with a mix of smaller amberjack to 8 pounds and a handful of yellowtail up 18 pounds. There were only a few sierra and roosterfish to be found along the beach stretches off of San Jose del Cabo, the local commercial panguero gill netters have begun working hard the past couple of weeks, setting their nets in the same areas from Punta Gorda to Palmilla Point where sportfishing fleets commonly target these fish, it is shame that a few people are allowed to profit while destroying the sport catches for all the rest.
The combined panga fleet from La Playita sent out approximately 52 charters for the week, catching a total of 220 pargo (huachinango), 35 amberjack, 8 yellowtail, 110 dorado, 165 yellowfin tuna, 4 striped marlin, 15 sierra, 20 cabrilla and 24 bonito.
Good fishing, Eric
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