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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 10, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
December 10, 2006
Anglers –
Moderate crowds of tourists are traveling to Los Cabos and they are being greeted with lots of sunshine, high temperatures of 80 degrees, very enjoyable considering the reports of freezing and wet conditions across most of the United States. North winds continue to prevail, but were not as persistent as last week, in recent days the winds averaged in the 8 to 12 miles per hour range. These winds have helped cooler and dirtier currents to push in from the north and the water clarity was now green and murky on the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula, with the cleaner water now being found off the Pacific.
Sportfishing fleets searched in all directions, looking to find the best possible action for striped marlin, dorado, and yellowfin tuna, overall the numbers of fish caught was less than two weeks ago, which is not unexpected for this time of year when there is the transition from the Fall to Winter season. Live sardinas were being netted from Palmilla to Santa Maria and was still the bait of choice for the medium sized gamefish. Water temperatures are now ranging from 74 to 78 degrees, with the coolest band being located close to shore off of San Jose del Cabo. Swells were practically non-existent along the beaches and the cooler water has attracted more numbers of sierra and smaller roosterfish.
Yellowfin tuna were found in various locations from Cabo San Lucas to Santa Maria and north to the Gordo Banks area, sometimes associated with porpoise, but more often they were located in schools closer to shore while chumming sardinas to bring them to the surface, often they would bite early and then shut down by mid-morning, sea lions were particularly a nuisance off of Santa Maria to Cabeza Ballena, at times making it nearly impossible to land a fish without having it eaten. Tuna were not overly abundant and the average fish being landed weighed 10 to 40 pounds, white and black skipjack were mixed in with the yellowfin and were weighing up to 10 pounds. Over the weekend anglers scouted out the Gordo Banks which had not shown any results earlier in the week, but with water clarity showing some improvement they accounted for some larger yellowfin tuna while drift fishing with live and dead sardinas, these fish ranged from 25 to 90 pounds, some pangas landed up to four or five tuna.
Dorado action improved some, maybe because more anglers were starting to troll lures and larger baits, such as bolito or skipjack. Dorado up to 50 pounds were caught, but most of the fish were found in smaller schools and more of them were in the 10 to 25 pound class, with charters that targeted them averaging anywhere from one to three dorado per day. These fish were striking on lures and various baits at about an equal ratio.
Wahoo season never really happened this fall season, basically only a flurry of activity early in November, this past week there were reports of a few scattered fish being hooked on lures, typically closer to Cabo San Lucas, but that was only for a day or two and now with the cooling water temperatures we could find that it will be even more difficult to find any cooperative wahoo this late in the year.
Striped marlin dominated the billfish action, though it was mainly on the Pacific, from El Faro to the Golden Gate Bank. Schools of mackerel were found balled up on the surface at times and this created a feeding frenzy, it was common for charters to account for several marlin and even as many as six in one outing. A good percentage of stripers were also striking on trolled lures.
Inshore there were increased numbers of sierra and roosterfish showing up, most of them less than 5 pounds, but scrappy fighters on light tackle. Off the bottom anglers had mixed success while using bait and yo-yo jigs for cabrilla, pargo, pompano, triggerfish and grouper.
There were approximately 69 total panga charters launched this week by the combined panga fleets of La Playita. Anglers accounted for a fish count of: 7 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 64 dorado, 32 yellowfin tuna, 190 skipjack, 24 cabrilla, 5 amberjack, 16 pompano, 135 triggerfish, 82 pargo, 185 sierra and 28 roosterfish.
Good Fishing, Eric
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