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Fishing Report for San Jose del Cabo, Baja
Capt. Eric Brictson
February 10, 2008
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
February 10, 2008
Anglers -
This past weekend vacationers were greeted by pristine weather conditions, very little wind, clear sunny skies with high temperatures near 80 degrees. Though the first part of the new week brought back the northern winds, for several days gusts ranged from 15 to 20 miles per hour and during the same time this contributed to pushing in cooler ocean currents. Local water temperatures were now averaging 65 to 69 degrees and there was a strong current running as well. Despite these comparatively chilly water conditions the migration of humpback and gray whales was thriving and now at its peak.
Anglers found that the live bait situation varied each day, some days there were sardinas being found from the Chileno region and on other days there were only the larger mackerel baits available. As the water temperatures dropped the offshore fishing action also slowed down accordingly. Many striped marlin are being seen from Cabo San Lucas to the Gordo Banks, but at times they were not easy to entice into biting the bait or lures, though one or two stripers were striking here and there, most of them taking the cast mackerel and weights ranged from 100 to 160 pounds. Dorado counts dropped way of as well. With the giant squid being in the area there were a few sightings of swordfish, none of them were hooked up and landed that we have heard about yet. The schools of mackerel that are congregated off of San Jose del Cabo attracted more sharks, as both hammerhead and mako were caught on a regular basis in recent days, they were in the 40 to 100 pound class.
Not too many anglers in town now, many tourists were looking for information and seemed to believe since business was slow that they could find bargain rates, difficult situation for fleet operators, as their overhead just continues to increase practically daily. La Playita panga charters did a mix of searching for striped marlin offshore, jigging for Mexican bonito off of the rock piles and trolling close to shore for sierra and roosterfish. The bonito were found schooling above bottom rock structure from Vinorama to the Gordo Banks, once located they could be loaded up on in a hurry, these aggressive fighters hit on artificials, very seldom on bait, also have sharp teeth and can cut through medium strength monofilament with ease. A handful of amberjack, pargo, yellowtail and cabrilla were accounted for on baits and yo-yo jigs, but the factor of the strong current made it difficult to successfully fish the bottom. The fish landed were full of red crabs, but these crustaceans were not often found drifting to the surface so that they could be netted and used for bait.
Inshore action was perhaps the most consistent of any of the other options. Vinorama saw large schools of sierra move in, for anglers that had live sardinas they encountered some frenzied action, the fish were also striking on cast and retrieved lures, hoochies and rapalas. The sandy beach stretch of La Laguna, just to the south of Punta Gorda, was holding big numbers of juvenile roosterfish of 4 to 12 pounds and anglers found wide open action while slow trolling with live baits. The majority of anglers were practicing the sport of catch and release, though to our surprise and dismay it was discouraging to witness scores of these gamefish being gaffed, clubbed and thrown into the fish boxes, no need to mention names, the people know who they are and should be ashamed, more of the local skippers and crew members are responsible of this crime and should come to their senses and realize these fish and worth much more alive than they are dead, it could not be that they are so ignorant or hungry that they need to kill these fish.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 41 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 5 mako sharks, 11 hammerhead shark, 14 striped marlin, 7 dorado, 14 huachinango, 13 amberjack, 3 yellowtail, 15 cabrilla, 315 Mexican bonito, 195 sierra and 205 roosterfish.
Good fishing, Eric
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