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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
July 16, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
July 16, 2006
Anglers –
As the summertime progresses the tropical storm season is also becoming more active. This past week two Hurricanes developed off the coast of mainland Mexico, named Bud and Carlotta. They passed within 400 to 600 miles of Cabo San Lucas before heading off on a westerly track. The weather became more humid with cloudy skies and a few isolated thundershowers, but the main affect was on the ocean, where swells increased up to eight feet and combined with southern wind, created very choppy seas for a couple of days. With the construction of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina now in its final stages, this was the first real test of a true southern swell striking directly, the swell caused some minor damage to northern jetty, near the front where rocks were washed away due to the heavy surf, there also was high surf that came unscathed right through the middle entrance and shut down panga operations off of La Playita on Friday, July 7. Maybe this will be warning to the port contractors that they should pick up their pace on the jetty work before a hurricane strikes directly and causes them a major setback to their scheduled opening of marina operations this fall. We have been fortunate for the past two years that no big storms have hit our area directly and doubt we can count on making that three.
The water temperatures did drop down into the upper 70s along inshore, but on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks to San Luis it remained in the lower 80s. Clarity was stirred up due to the swell activity and baitfish were a bit more scattered, but action for yellowfin tuna actually improved and there were fair counts of dorado as well. Early in the week there was a 400-pound class black marlin landed by skipper Modesto from a La Playita panga. Gordo Banks showed more signs of life over the weekend, as yellowfin tuna in the 12 to 20 pound range were found feeding on the surface and would readily strike on sardinas and even fly anglers were doing well on the tuna and dorado. Tuna were more numerous than were the dorado, but some very respectable dorado weighing up to 45 pounds were accounted for.
The areas from La Fortuna to Iman Bank were holding larger tuna, as anglers trolling with sardinas or bolito were hooking into fish that ranged in the 50 to 100 pound class. The tuna were striking on lighter lines and leaders best, so this also meant more lost fish, but for the more experienced anglers there was a good chance at landing several nice tuna during a morning charter. One commercial panguero from La Playita reported great action on medium sized tuna later in the day, when he ended up with 27 yellowfin for the outing.
In recent days the main action has been for tuna and dorado, with some billfish mixed in, not much to report off the bottom or along the shoreline. Now that the weather has settled down this should give the baitfish a chance to congregate closer to the shoreline and in turn attract more gamefish along the beaches.
During the first part of the week surf fishermen reported the first significant bite for snook, while fishing with sardinas and mullet near the southern rock jetty in front of the San Jose Estuary there were at least six snook reportedly landed from this one small area that all weighed in the 25 to 45 pound range.
The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita sent out approximately 56 panga charters for the week with anglers accounting for an overall fish count of: 1 black marlin, 4 sailfish, 8 striped marlin, 52 yellowfin tuna, 44 dorado, 38 bonito and 84 combined pargo species.
Good Fishing, Eric
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