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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
July 23, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
July 23, 2006
Anglers –
As we get later into the summer season the trend of developing tropical storms continue, at this time we have Tropical Strom Emilia gaining strength just offshore of Manzanillo and its projective path has it moving on a northwestern track, tracking offshore of Todo Santos. This storm system is likely to bring the first significant rainfall of the summer to the Los Cabos region, much needed, though always a disappointment to tourists who have traveled from so far away to enjoy the warm sunshine and great angling opportunities. Sportfishing fleets will have to monitor this storm closely, as along with the rain, most certainly there will be high storm surf.
This week the weather has been ideal, very warm and humid as can be expected during July, but the ocean was relatively calm, with exception of a couple days of moderate chop due to north wind. Ocean temperatures have averaged 80 to 85 degrees and there has been lots of baitfish found throughout the area, with good supplies of sardinas now found off the beach of La Playita, between the new marina jetties. Puerto Los Cabos engineers have been putting in overtime trying to reinforce the jetty with additional rocks before the next storm strikes, will be interested to watch and see what affect Emilia has.
There was good news for anglers this week, the long awaited wide open bite for yellowfin tuna did finally happen, the hot spot was the Iman Bank and fleets from as far as the East Cape were making the long run south to get in on the action. Scores of cruisers and pangas were fishing the area everyday, lots of pressure, but that did not seem to matter to the yellowfin. Fly lining with live sardinas while chumming the fish into a surface feeding frenzy was the way to go. Anglers using 25 to 40 pound tackle had best success, though the fish were also biting lines up to 80 pound. The majority of the tuna caught were in the 15 to 30 pound range, with quite a few skipjack also mixed in the same area. Once in a while some monster tuna would move through and anglers would hook into fish that they could not even slow down on the lighter tackle. One of these monsters was landed by a group of anglers fishing from there own super panga with local La Playita panguero Hector Arripez. Jeff, Shane, Casey and Jimmy Becic from San Diego fought the monster yellowfin tuna that hit on a trolled bolito for over 6 hours on 100-pound tackle with a 200-pound leader before finally bringing in to gaff. The fish was officially weighed in at 306 pounds. Most charters were landing an average of 8 to 12 tuna per morning, with a dorado or two mixed in. There were some sailfish and striped marlin also found on the Iman Bank.
Other catches of note this week was a 400 pound class black marlin that anglers John and Nick Rizopoulos from Texas battled from the panga “Killer” with skipper Chame Pino. They hooked the marlin near the Inner Gordo Bank while trolling with a live skipjack and landed the fish within a couple of hours and then released it unharmed. John and Nick also had quite a battle on another day with an estimated 200 to 300 pound yellowfin tuna that was hooked on 40-pound gear and after over four hours of intense battle they really never had made much headway on wearing the fish down before it broke the leader.
Besides the steady action for yellowfin tuna, there was not a whole lot of other variety to speak of, a few dorado here and there and a chance at a snapper, which were also taken on fly lined sardinas, including a 35 pound dogtooth specimen landed by Gary Purvis on Saturday.
The combined panga fleet from La Playita sent out approximately 112 charters for the week and anglers accounted for a very respectable fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 10 striped marlin, 14 sailfish, 1 wahoo, 1008 yellowfin tuna, 240 skipjack, 210 dorado, 95 various snapper species and 8 cabrilla.
Good fishing, Eric
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