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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
December 31, 2006
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Happy New Year’s !
December 31, 2006
Anglers –
The southern Baja California peninsula is now busy with large crowds of tourists that are visiting for the holiday season and trying to escape the chilly weather that has been sweeping across the United States. Days were mostly sunny with highs of about 75 degrees, as usual for this time of year there was wind on and off from both the north and south. Water temperatures were ranging from 73 to 76 degrees, with the warmest areas now being found off of Cabo San Lucas and around the corner on the Pacific. Water clarity was clean and blue on the Pacific and outside of Cabo San Lucas, but further into the Sea of Cortez conditions were green and murky from the cooler currents being blown in from the north. Sportfishing fleets were not all that busy, despite the crowds, there were not that many anglers in town. Fleets searched for the most productive fishing grounds and were scattered off of the Pacific and into the Sea of Cortez. Schools of mackerel continued to attract big numbers of striped marlin on the Pacific side of Cabo and the baitfish schools are now starting to move off of San Jose del Cabo as well. Sardinas were the most common bait being used for medium sized gamefish and were available on most mornings, though supplies were not as plentiful as they had been during the past week.
The most common species found on the Pacific were striped marlin, concentrated from
El Faro to Golden Gate Bank. The areas from the Gordo Banks to Iman saw yellowfin tuna and dorado dominating the action, some days it seemed the tuna were more active while on others it was the dorado that provided more action. Windy conditions limited where fleets could comfortably fish on certain days. Anglers had best success by slow trolling or drift fishing with bait. The dorado were averaging 8 to 20 pounds, but there were some larger fish mixed in, some panga charters landed as many as 5 or 6 which is very respectable for this time of year. Though the average catch was more like one or two dorado, with approximately the same number of tuna. The average size of the yellowfin tuna being landed was 15 to 50 pounds.
Other action included a mix of bottomfish and inshore species, though none of these were very numerous. It is now the time of year where larger schools of sierra should be arriving along local beaches. With the offshore fishing remaining fairly productive and relatively close to shore more anglers are targeting these species rather than going after inshore or bottomfish that have not been prevalent.
The La Playita panga fleets sent out approximately 76 charters during the past week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 90 yellowfin tuna, 98 dorado, 92 sierra, 62 pargo, 12 cabrilla and 8 amberjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
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