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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
July 9, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
July 9, 2006
Anglers -
The way this summer has started, it makes a person believe that global warming is for real and is now upon us. The heat and humidity throughout the Baja peninsula continue to be a major topic of discussion. The skies have been clear, little breeze and temperatures reaching the 100-degree mark. No ocean swell to speak of and at this time there are no tropical storms on the horizon, though with water temperatures now averaging 82 to 84 degrees conditions are ripe to change at any given moment. The majority of the sportfishing fleets have been fishing in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, from Chileno to Desteladera and the most common catches included a variety of billfish, dorado, yellowfin tuna, snapper, roosterfish and bonito. Live bait supplies included mullet, caballito and sardinas and many anglers are also catching bolito on the fishing grounds and using them for slow trolling baits.
Though the numbers of fish being caught was not spectacular and was actually not up to Cabo standards, the quality of some of the catches was definitely very impressive to say the least. On July 4 th Kevin Murphy with his young son were visiting from the Chicago, Ill. area and went fishing on the ocean for the first time ever, they ended up having an experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives. They chartered a 22 ft. panga from Gordo Banks Pangas fleet out of La Playita which was guided by Chame Pino, after releasing a smaller striped marlin earlier in the morning they were trolling a 12 inch sized petrolero lure on their way back in, near San Luis and Iman Banks when they had a huge blue marlin come into their lure spread and inhale the lure, the Shimano reel filled with 80 pound line was screaming and they had to quickly chase the fish down in order to keep the line tight as the fish made several spectacular greyhound leaps. After one hour and forty five minutes they had brought this fish along side the boat and with the help from a couple of other local pangueros they managed to gaff and haul the marlin into the panga, it practically filled the entire boat from stern to bow. Back at the beach is where the work really started, as hanging this monster up for photos and to be officially weighed was no easy task, especially because the fish was so long that the bill had to be double back towards the tail so that it could be properly weighed without hitting the ground. Anyway when it was all done the fish ended up weighing in at a whopping 706 pounds!
Other fish accounted for included striped marlin, sailfish, dorado and some medium sized yellowfin tuna. Good action was found near Cabo San Lucas for smaller tuna while trolling feathers and lots of tuna were also reported from the area inshore near Punta Gorda, those after a few of these fish were taken early they would disappear and not come back up, apparently there were lots of red crabs and small squid down deep and the tuna had no reason to come back up with so much food down deep. Dorado were scattered, but some boats would get lucky and land a couple nice fish hear and there, weights were to over 30 pounds, though it was only about every few boats that reported having any dorado action at all. The striped marlin were seen in good numbers, but at times they proved sluggish in the warming waters and were not all that eager to take lures or baits.
Along the shoreline there was a mix of dogtooth snapper, roosterfish, amberjack and several other smaller varieties of pargo. This action was not wide open but was an extra option for people who wanted to try their luck closer to shore.
On July 7th there was another impressive catch landed while fishing from a La Playita panga, this was a 288 pound yellowfin tuna that hit on a dead bolito and took four hours to land by Mike Rosenthal from San Jose del Cabo while with skipper Lalo Guluarte. Several other big tuna were hooked from the same area of San Luis this week, but most of them were lost after very extended battles lasting as long as six hours on heavy tackle. It is a good idea to use 80-pound gear with heavier leaders now while trolling the larger baits in this region.
The combined La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 72 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 blue marlin, 12 sailfish, 18 striped marlin, 38 dorado, 145 bonito, 58 yellowfin tuna, 21 roosterfish, 14 amberjack, 8 dogtooth snapper, 28 huachinango, 88 barred and yellow pargo (snapper).
Good Fishing, Eric
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