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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
May 4, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
May 4, 2006
Anglers –
Moderate crowds of tourists were greeted with nearly ideal weather conditions this past week. There was some scattered cloud cover, but there was also plenty of sunshine, high temperatures were reaching close to 90 degrees and lows were in the upper 60s. We thought the north winds were over for the season, but through the mid part of the week they picked up once again, gusting to 15 miles per hour, while creating choppy conditions offshore inside the Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures varied from the upper 60s on the Pacific to 74 degrees off of the San Jose del Cabo area, in fact mid-week there were reports of water close to 80 degrees found outside of the Gordo Banks. The cleaner blue water was now located within several miles of shore from Cabo San Lucas to the Punta Gorda. Bait supplies consisted of mackerel and caballito out of the Cabo Marina and for the San Jose panga fleets they had a mix of sardinas and mullet. On the offshore fishing grounds there were large congregations of red crabs and squid and this seemed to contribute to making the fish not so inclined to strike on anglers artificial lures or their bait offerings. It is the time of year when conditions can change drastically from one week to the next and with the daytime temperature steadily warming the water should continue to do so as well.
The offshore action continued to be dominated by striped marlin, best areas recently have been from straight off Cabo to Red Hill, anywhere from two to 15 miles from shore. Most charters targeting marlin did account for one or two per day, and practically all of the boats were seeing fish tailing on the surface, though the fish were not all that eager to take live baits that were tossed in front of them, anglers reported doing well with rigged trolled dead baits, trolled in the their lure line up. Most of the striped marlin were weighing in the 120 to 160 pound range, with the higher a higher percentage striking on baits rather than lures. Dorado and yellowfin tuna continued to be scarce, with just a handful of them accounted for, scattered throughout the same areas where marlin were found. In recent weeks there have been commercial tuna boats seen in the area and no doubt there is even more activity further offshore that goes unseen, something needs to be done to regulate these commercial boats from fishing in the same vicinity where sportfishing boats concentrate.
The wahoo bite that had developed last week tapered way down this week, only a few of them were being accounted for, most of them striking on lures in no particular spot. Once the water temperature reaches closer to 80 degrees the wahoo should become more active.
Panga fleets for the most part concentrated closer to shore where they found more consistent action for a mix of various pargo species, sierra, pompano, cabrilla, triggerfish and other smaller fish. Most of these fish were less than 15 pounds, but they did amount to some quality fillets for the ice chests and until the offshore action improves this was a more productive option.
Surf fishermen did report a few more jack crevalle along the beaches, as well as some sierra and croaker action, we look for the beach action to pick up substantially in the coming month as more schools of mullet move in and attract the larger gamefish, particularly the roosterfish.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 4 dorado, 3 wahoo, 14 dogtooth snapper, 12 pargo colorado, 210 yellow snapper, 32 cabrilla, 145 sierra, 90 triggerfish, 14 African pompano, 4 island jacks, 8 roosterfish, 22 jack crevalle and 12 amberjack.
Good fishing, Eric
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