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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
November 5, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
November 5, 2006
Anglers –
Anglers were arriving in Los Cabos by the hundreds and excitement was in the air with anticipation of the mega dollar Western Outdoor News Jackpot Tuna Tournament
The weather was close to perfect, paradise like, clear sunny skies with high temperatures in the upper 80s. Ocean water temperatures ranged from 82 to 84 degrees, only slight swells, there was some wind further offshore to deal with, but overall conditions would have to be considered to be ideal. Live bait consisted of sardinas, caballito and some mullet. The fishing action was good enough to satisfy most anglers, though more variety would be a bonus, as the main catch recently has been yellowfin tuna, as the water temperatures drops we do expect more species to become active. Fleets were now spreading out more than in previous weeks, action has ranged from the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez, anywhere within one mile of shore to as far out as fifty miles.
San Jose panga fleets were concentrating their efforts around the Gordo Banks, close to shore off of La Playita to Punta Gorda and north to the Iman Bank. The incredible bite for yellowfin tuna that has gone on for over three weeks now and has been within paddling distance of the beach, straight out front of La Playita, is now finally starting to taper off, though good numbers of tuna are still being seen, they are just more shy and not so eager to bite. Catches this week on these inshore tuna varied from 3 or 4 fish per boat up to a dozen and average sizes were in the 15 to 25 pound range.
Further offshore the cruiser fleet was finding some larger yellowfin tuna traveling with porpoise, but so far this bite was hit or miss, though at times did produce several quality-sized tuna. The Outer Gordo Bank was perhaps the most consistent area to produce larger yellowfin tuna this past week, though the numbers of fish landed was not huge, there were some world class specimens accounted for. On Monday, Oct. 30 th, angler Mike Mahoney from Emeryville, Ca. was trolling with a live skipjack from the panga “Killer” with Gordo Banks Pangas skipper Chame Pino when he hooked into a monster sized fish that they battled for close to two hours on 80 pound tackle before finally bringing to gaff. Back at the beach the big yellowfin was officially weighed in at 310 pounds. At least a couple of dozen other tuna were also taken from the Gordo Banks this week that ranged form 75 to 210 pounds.
Dorado counts were down for how they normally would be at this time of year, but a couple of very nice sized bulls were reported from the Pacific, one of 55 pounds and another of 70 pounds. The dorado on the Sea of Cortez side were smaller sized, anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds and not very numerous.
Wahoo continued to be scarce, but have shown signs of coming to life. On Saturday, a panga fishing the Iman Bank had a quadruple hook up while trolling lures, though they only landed two of the fish, which were in the 35 to 40 pound range, this was a very encouraging sign that maybe these prized gamefish will start become more active.
Other catches included a fluke 40-pound class roosterfish caught while bottomfishing in 200 feet of water and a mix of smaller pargo species. Off the beach there were a couple of nice sized snook landed off of the San Jose Estuary area, including one 40-pounder, sierra are biting early in the morning in the same area.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita beach sent out approximately 208 charters for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 12 wahoo, 92 dorado, 835 yellowfin tuna, 110 white skipjack, 6 dogtooth snapper, 8 amberjack, 5 grouper, 16 cabrilla, 25 sierra, 2 roosterfish and 15 rainbow runners.
Good fishing, Eric
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