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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
November 12, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
November 12, 2006
Anglers –
Crowds of anglers continue to travel to the Los Cabos area and sportfishing fleets are operating at near capacity levels. The weather is absolutely ideal now, highs in the mid 80s, lows in the upper 60s, very little wind and calm ocean conditions. With the exception of Thursday when a moderate swell kicked up from the distant Tropical Depression Roy, the rest of the week saw little swell movement. Ocean water temperatures gradually dropped a couple of degrees, now ranging from 80 to 82 degrees.
The majority of charters were catching fish and overall there was an impressive variety of gamefish accounted for, most common were yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, skipjack and billfish. Live bait has consisted of caballito and sardinas and on the fishing grounds there were schools of small trolling sized chihuil, bolito and skipjack that were proving to be
reliable options for anglers targeting larger fish.
The Gordo Banks were producing consistent catches of yellowfin tuna ranging from 30 to over 100 pounds and with a few over 200 pounds also accounted for. Bad news is that commercial purse seiner activity has been noticed on the horizon and everyone is hoping that they remain the legal distance offshore and do not clean out these fishing grounds that have finally come to life after a long dry spell. The yellowfin on the banks were striking on sardinas best, with dead bait being better than live, fished in a chum line, as one would do with chunk bait. The average yellowfin in recent days being landed from the Gordo Banks has been in the 60 to 100 pound range, the numbers has not been huge, but the majority of the anglers targeting these larger grade of tuna in recent days have returned with one or two of them in the fish box. The bite for the medium sized yellowfin that are averaging 15 to 25 pounds and have been concentrated within one mile of shore from Red Hill to Punta Gorda has become less productive, there still has been lots of fish seen feeding and coming up on the chummed sardinas, the fish have been more line shy and harder to entice. Maybe the latest full moon may have effected the way the fish are feeding, this was an exceptionally bright moon, most likely the fish were feeding more at night, making them less active in the morning and then they seemed to go back on the bite later in the morning, at least this was the noticeable pattern towards the later part of the week.
Dorado were scattered throughout the same areas where fleets were finding yellowfin tuna, but not in any significant numbers, though some boats did land up to five of them, ranging in sizes up to 25 pounds, live bait was best, though of course a few were striking on medium sized trolled lures as well. Normal catches of dorado were more like one fish for every couple of boats. Wahoo numbers were even less, though early in the week anglers did find some good action on these speedsters near Iman Bank, which means they are in the area. Trolling with Yo-Zuris, Rapalas, Marauders and skirted lead heads all produced, once the schools were located, resulting in many multiple strikes. Sizes of the wahoo landed ranged from 25 to 55 pounds. The rest of the week produced very wahoo, but the backside of the full moon is never the preferred time for wahoo, so we are anticipating more consistent action in the coming weeks.
Billfish action for striped marlin was breaking wide open in areas on the Pacific, as the migration of stripers is now returning in full force from their northerly trek. Marlin were also found into the Sea of Cortez around the 95 and 1150 spots, not as many as in the cooler Pacific waters, though sizes were larger, including stripers up to 180 pounds. San Jose panga fleets reported quite a few sailfish mixed in with the inshore yellowfin tuna action, sails were weighing in the 50 to 100 pound class and were striking on live sardinas.
Other catches included roosterfish, pargo, pompano, rainbow runner, amberjack, sailfish, sierra and triggerfish. Though none of these species were numerous, with the exception of triggerfish.
For the week the combined panga fleets out of La Playita sent out approximately 223 charters, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 22 sailfish (released), 5 roosterfish, 145 dorado, 495 yellowfin tuna, 18 wahoo, 25 pargo, 6 amberjack, 14 sierra, 8 pompano, 22 rainbow runner, 105 white skipjack and 140 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
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