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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
March 12, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
March 12, 2006
Anglers –
Crowds of tourists appeared to slow down a bit this past week, maybe it was just a lull in traveling activity before the major spring break period that is just around the corner. The weather was changing day to day, as we are now in the midst of a transition phase from winter to spring. The days had been warming up into the mid 80s, but then the same Alaskan cold front that swept through the entire west coast also reached even the southern most part of the Baja Peninsula during the second half of the week and dropped temperatures by ten degrees. The winds were blowing predominately from the northeast, anywhere from 10 to 15 miles per hour. Anglers did find that the offshore ocean conditions were quite good despite the winds and the skies were mostly sunny with only scattered clouds. Fleets found the most consistent action from Chileno to Desteladera, this is where the water temperature was ranging from 70 to 72 degrees, unlike around the corner on the Pacific where the water was dipping down to a chilly 65 degrees.
Anglers found good action for striped marlin spread out in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, with the cruiser fleet having an advantage for the billfish due to the fact that for most of the week the fish were found 10 miles or more from shore, where the seas were choppy due to the north winds. There still was a lack of mackerel for bait, caballito were also limited, many boats were relying on mullet and they are not known to be the best offshore baits, though when hungry enough the striped marlin will strike them. The marlin were readily coming up to strike lures, but often these did not result in solid hook ups, this is when a dropped back bait was effective. Over the weekend the stripers were moving back closer to shore and some pangas were even able to get into the action, with several fish up to 130 pounds accounted for within five miles straight offshore of La Playita beach. The water was clear, though the cold front did drop the temperatures slightly, we expect it will be similar for the next few weeks, before the warming days finally take over and conditions become more stable.
Yellowfin tuna were still absent throughout the area and many people are asking the question of where and when the tuna will show up? We wish we knew the answer to that, though we are optimistic that tuna will soon start to move in, typically in the coming months the yellowfin are found further offshore traveling with porpoise, so we will be looking for that same pattern to unfold.
This past week did see more numbers of dorado in the fish counts, but they were still very limited, mostly just one or two here and there while further offshore in the same areas as were the marlin, sizes ranging up to 30 pounds, there were exceptions of anglers finding floating debris that were holding greater numbers of the dorado, but that was the luck of the draw. The panga fleets continued to concentrate the majority of their efforts closer to shore for a mix of Mexican bonito, sierra, pargo, amberjack, grouper, yellowtail, pompano, and other miscellaneous species. Sierra and bonito were the most numerous, with most of these fish weighing in the 2 to 7 pound range, the sierra were striking best on sardinas and the bonito on yo-yo jigs. The largest fish off the bottom were hooked up while using smaller whole live skipjack for bait, with one broomtail of 65 pounds and a 50 pound amberjack landed by angler Gary Weis from Santa Monica while fishing with Gordo Banks skipper Tony on the super panga Ginny. The few yellowtails that were landed hit on yo-yos and weighed up to 18 pounds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita sent out approximately 47 charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 12 dorado, 5 hammerhead shark, 410 sierra, 230 Mexican bonito, 120 various pargo, 14 amberjack, 8 yellowtail, 14 grouper, 18 pompano, 6 jack crevalle, and 22 triggerfish.
Good fishing, Eric
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