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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
January 22, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
January 22, 2006
Anglers –
When tourists travel to Los Cabos during the winter months they often assume that the weather is going to be very warm and summer like, the fact is that here in Southern Baja there are also distinct season and even though there is no snow or ice on the ground it can become very chilly at times during the heart of the winter. This past week vacationers felt how cold it can get in Cabo, as early morning temperatures dropped into the mid to upper 40s and with the wind blowing from the north the chill factor even made it feel colder. Most of the week there was wind blowing from the north, ranging from 10 to 30 miles per hour, in fact on Tuesday and Wednesday most sportfishing fleets canceled charters simply because it was too cold and windy, this was especially true for fleets out of San Jose del Cabo, where the north wind had more impact. Water temperatures also plummeted down to 65 degrees in areas, the warmest band of water was now located straight out from Cabo San Lucas, where it was up to 70 or 72 degrees. Due to the winds, ocean conditions became stirred up, with a greenish current pushing its way onto the fishing grounds north of Punta Gorda. Live bait supplies were adequate on most days, for both sardinas and mackerel and on local fishing grounds there were also red crabs surfacing, being used to catch red snapper.
The action for yellowfin tuna, striped marlin and dorado became very slow, almost to a standstill, as the cold front swept through the area and most charters were working closer to shore targeting sierra and snapper. On Monday there was a surprise on the Inner Gordo Bank for a handful of panga anglers, as the red crabs swarmed on the surface and were netted as use for bait for catching huachinango (red snapper) which were also coming up top chasing their favorite food. The fish ranging up to 10 pounds, very fun on light tackle, the few panags that got into this hot action accounted for 10 to 30 snapper per boat. This was the hot action for the week, it spread out more to the rock piles to the north, such as Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman, though the north wind also made it very tough to even get to the better fishing grounds, often the boats were fishing closer inshore for even smaller snapper that were averaging less than one kilo, plate sized fish, which the local restaurants prefer, but usually are not the type of fish that anglers travel such distances to target. The problem was that with such rapidly changing water conditions the fish have scattered and there were only limited options available at this time.
There were not many other species taken off the bottom, with the exception of a few fire- cracker sized yellowtail, amberjack, pompano and cabrilla. Along the shoreline there were only a few sierra found, with the shipwreck off of La Salina producing several nicer sized sierra up to 6 pounds, but other than that there was not much to talk about close to shore, a few big roosterfish were seen feeding, but they disappeared just as fast.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 48 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 8 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 11 yellowtail, 8 amberjack, 12 pompano, 13 cabrilla, 260 red snapper (huachinango), 32 croaker and 22 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
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