TUNA, DORADO, AND WAHOO LEAD LOS CABOS PANGA ACTION

Sept. 26, 2004, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Here in San Jose del Cabo, Los Cabos, we have been extremely fortunate throughout the summer and now into the start of fall. There were a couple of near misses by recent storms Howard and Javier. Though the tropical storm season still has another month left, it is not common to have storms develop so late in the season.

Crowds of tourists are increasing now at San Jose del Cabo and this is a good sign that the coming months will be busy as usual. After a long hot and humid summer San Jose del Cabo weather is now changing. Finally there is a cooling trend. Days are still reaching into the low 90s, but early mornings now have a slight chill, down to 75 degrees. There has been scattered clouds, but plenty of sunshine, very little wind and minimal ocean swells. This has made for very comfortable San Jose del Cabo fishing conditions.

San Jose del Cabo sportfishing fleets reported excellent counts of yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo, along with a variety of other game fish.

Water conditions have cleared after being churned up from passing storms and is now very blue within several miles of shore, with San Jose del Cabo fishing water temperatures averaging 80 to 82 degrees throughout the area.

Panga fleets out of San Jose de Cabo continue to find the most consistent action in the areas from La Fortuna, Iman to San Luis, with the most common daily catches being yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo.

Live sardinas have become scattered the past couple of weeks, though on most days they were available. San Jose del Cabo's offshore fishing grounds have held schools of bolito and skipjack, which anglers were also able to use for whole and cut baits.

San Jose del Cabo's tuna bite was best with the smaller live baits. Fish were averaging 15 to 30 pounds, with some larger ones mixed in. Some days the yellowfin did not come up and feed until late morning, but when they did decide to come up, a frenzy would break wide open.

San Jose del Cabo dorado were more numerous this past week. They were found in similar spots as the tuna and occasionally on floating debris. Average catches were 4 to 6 per panga, with most of the fish weighing 10 to 20 pounds, one bull topped out the scale at 53 pounds.

Wahoo have really made a strong early season showing at San Jose del Cabo and this could be a sign of a banner fall season to come. Anglers trolling a wide variety of lures and using yo-yo iron accounted for an average of two to four 'hoo in their combined catch. They averaged 20 to 35 pounds, though a few 50 pound wahoo were accounted for. The wahoo were not only biting early, but on and off throughout the morning, with many free-swimming fish seen passing under the boats.

Other bonus catches for San Jose del Cabo fishing included a handful of trophy size dogtooth snapper, grouper, cabrilla and amberjack. These fish were hitting mainly on larger whole baits fished over the rock piles and heavy equipment was necessary to have a chance at keeping them from cutting lines off in the rocks. The average size fish being landed was 20 to 60 pounds.

There were several larger marlin reportedly hooked up while trolling small tuna for bait on the Gordo Banks off San Jose del Cabo. One estimated 450-pound blue marlin was brought in Friday to the beach of La Playita.

San Jose del Cabo surf anglers fishing with live mullet in front of the San Jose Estuary reported slow action, only one snook of about 25 pounds.

(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.