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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
October 23, 2005
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
October 23, 2005
Anglers –
Crowds of anglers are now arriving in Los Cabos in preparation for the million-dollar Bisbee Marlin Tournament, which is scheduled for this coming week. The weather could not be more ideal, clear sunny skies with highs in the upper 80s. With the local landscape now glowing green from recent rains it definitely gives the feeling of being in paradise. With the fall season now upon us we are also starting to have the predominant northeasterly winds pick up, but not yet to the point where fleets were limited where they could fish. Charter boats are now heading out in all different directions, trying to locate that one hot spot that with one big hook up could change their lives forever. Water temperature is averaging from 80 to 83 degrees through most of the region and the clarity has varied in different areas, but for the most part was clean and blue from 5 miles or more offshore.
The action was a bit slowed down from the previous two-week period when anglers were having no problem catching their limits of yellowfin tuna in the 7 to 20 pound range, but nevertheless fish counts remained respectable. Currents were strong though and baitfish on the offshore fishing grounds became scattered. Inshore there were sardinas available, but they also became a bit scarce with all of the pressure now of supplying the larger yachts with bait for the tournaments. Commercial pangueros were netting sardinas near Cabo, between Chileno and Santa Maria and they continued to be of the very small sized variety.
For the San Jose panga fleets the most common catch was yellowfin tuna while using the small sardinas for bait. Fish were found throughout the area, but the most productive spot was from Chileno to the Hyatt Hotel. This week there was more schools of white skipjack mixed in with the yellowfin tuna, though dorado remained scarce, with only scattered fish of 5 to 30 pounds being found in the same areas as were the tuna. Most of the fish were now in the 6 to 15 pound class and the average catches per boat was from 5 to 12 fish.
Wahoo season still has not developed into much more than an occasional fish being landed, though this past week there were actually more numbers of wahoo taken. The majority of the ‘hoo landed were hooked while trolling small skipjack or bolito that were caught while fishing for the football sized tuna and then were rigging on trap hook set ups and trolled slowly. Though most anglers felt very fortunate to land even one wahoo, there were other people who really got lucky and caught as many as three or four. Weights on the wahoo ranged from 25 to 60 pounds. Several other wahoo were reportedly taken while trolling higher speed lures, though overall they did not seem that interested in the artificial lures at this time. The chihuil baitfish on the Gordo Banks have not surfaced yet this season and in fact the action on the Banks themselves has been slim pickings at best.
Overall the billfish action was slow, the panags were hooking a handful of sailfish and striped marlin in the same spots where they found the tuna and dorado. The Playita panga did account for one 200-pound class blue marlin and the Bisbee Challenge tournament reported marlin to over 400 pounds. Hopefully this year’s tournament success is better than the previous couple of years, but either way they expected a large turnout.
The combined La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 112 charters for the week with anglers accounted for: 1 blue marlin, 7 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 18 wahoo, 72 dorado, 560 yellowfin tuna, 280 white skipjack, 15 cabrilla and 8 amberjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
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