LOS CABOS CHARTER SPORTFISHING
BOATS ON THE CORTEZ SIDE

Aug. 29, 2004, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

As the month of August winds down Los Cabos continues to swelter under hot and humid tropical skies. This week at San Jose del Cabo there was Tropical Storm Georgette that developed off of Manzanillo and it passed within several hundred miles of the Southern tip of Baja before veering off on a westerly track. There were some reports of scattered rainfall recorded over the lower peninsula, but they were isolated and the main effect felt was that of high surf conditions over the weekend which halted panga operations for a couple of days.

Crowds of anglers were moderate as is normal for this time of year, but for the few that were going out they found the all around San Jose del Cabo fishing action to be very good for a mix of yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo, billfish, pargo, skipjack and amberjack.

The majority of the San Jose del Cabo fleets were concentrating their efforts on the Sea of Cortez side, with the areas from Chileno, Red Hill, Gordo Banks, Iman and San Luis all producing a variety of gamefish. No particular spot was all that consistent though, one day the fish would bite best on the Gordo Banks, while on the next it was Iman where the counts were higher, but the overall success rate was at least 90%, with the most numerous species caught being yellowfin tuna.

Live sardinas became scattered with the higher surf conditions, but they were still available on most mornings and proved to be the bait of choice for the tuna that were averaging 10 to 25 pounds. Larger yellowfin tuna were schooling on the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks off San Jose del Cabo, but getting them to bite was not easy, when the currents and other factors did cooperate there were a handful of quality fish to 80 pounds accounted for, large schools of skipjack and bolito were present on the banks and provided plenty of chunk bait for anglers using the chum and chunk method which accounted for most of the larger yellowfin tuna hook ups. In general the more consistent tuna action was found further north for the medium sized fish while using live sardinas for bait.

Dorado fishing was a bit more scattered than were the tuna, but when a school of mahi was encountered anglers were able to quickly load up on 3 or 4 of them, striking on lures, but even better on bait once they were located on the troll. Sizes averaged 10 to 20 pounds, but there were also some much larger bulls accounted for.

Wahoo made a surprise appearance in recent days of San Jose del Cabo fishing, striking on the standard trolled lures, the areas of Gordo Banks, La Fortuna and Iman were holding more of these elusive and sought after fish. Most anglers that trolled lures through this region accounted for at least one wahoo in their over all catch, but other San Jose del Cabo anglers reported as many as 3 wahoo per morning, sizes were not as large as the typical fall run fish, but nevertheless they did range from 20 to 35 pounds and provided some very fine eating fillets.

A mix of dog tooth snapper and amberjack rounded out our San Jose del Cabo fishing catches, with some of them reaching 40 plus pounds, striking on both live baits and chunk bait, many larger fish were lost due to cut lines in the rocks.

Off the beach there were several more snook landed off the beach of La Playita, with the best chance being on live mullet that were netted from the San Jose Estuary, also fish trap style rubber soft baits accounted for a couple of hook ups.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Jose del Cabo and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Jose del Cabo may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Jose del Cabo page.