San Jose del Cabo Fishing Reports and Sportfishing Vacation Information for Los Cabos, Mexico

San Jose del Cabo fishing articles, maps, reports, peak seasons, and vacation travel
information for the top sportfishing locations of San Jose del Cabo (Los Cabos), Mexico.

The San Jose del Cabo fishing area, also called "Los Cabos," has an interesting sportfishing personality that is "split" in several ways.

The day-to-day fishing area for charter boats out of San Jose del Cabo is centered just 20 miles east of the extreme tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, and it offers an unusual combination of very close, excellent, heavy duty reef structure fishing, and at the same time, very close, excellent offshore fishing.

Here at Los Cabos, you may choose to fish aboard the increasingly rare, traditional beach launched Mexican "panga," or outboard powered skiff with its "panguero" captain, or from any sized charter fishing boat or luxury yacht that your pocketbook can accommodate.

And here at San Jose del Cabo, the fishing is "split" with virtually perfect balance between the purely Pacific waters that begin just west of Cabo San Lucas only 20 miles to the west, and Mexico's Sea of Cortez which begins roughly at Punta los Frailes about 25 miles northeast.

Located about 5 and 7 miles offshore and slightly east of San Jose del Cabo are two famous high spots known as the "Inner Gordo Banks" and "Outer Gordo Banks" that offer some of Mexico's best fishing action for both pelagic migrators and resident reef species.

Rising up suddenly from ocean depths over a mile deep, these twin seamounts are world famous for their production of migrating offshore "glamor" sport fish such as striped marlin, huge blue marlin and black marlin pushing close to the 1,000-pound class, sailfish, yellowfin tuna, and dorado (also called mahi-mahi or dolphinfish).

Less famous, but just as important to sportfishing here, is the Gordo Banks' reliable action for amberjack, various snappers or "pargos" in Spanish, true red snapper or "huachinango" in Spanish, groupers, and an unusually wide variety of other resident fish species.

Since sport fishing was "discovered" at San Jose del Cabo in the 1950s, it has also been known by outsiders that the Gordo Banks are one of the best places in Mexico to witness the spectacular "rising of the red crabs," usually centered on the month of May, when pelagic red crabs, also called "tuna crabs" or "langostillas" in Spanish, rise to the surface of the sea by the billions, sometimes in almost solid mats, and are swarmed by every type of game fish imaginable, even including offshore roosterfish at times.

Generally, charter fishing boats at Los Cabos concentrate their efforts at these Gordo Banks (also called "Gorda Banks"), and also along productive inshore reefs such as the Iman and La Fortuna areas. They may also choose to fish the more purely Pacific influences to the west off Cabo San Lucas, or they may go the other way and run northeast up the coast to fish the rich waters of the Sea of Cortez.

Winter winds coming down from the north can make fishing both the Pacific side and the Sea of Cortez East Cape area difficult, but at these times even pangas can usually keep fishing close to San Jose del Cabo because of the "wind shadow" effect provided by the high mountains at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.