PANGA FLEETS FIND DORADO, TUNA, AND WAHOO OFFSHORE

Oct. 31, 2004, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico Report:

Cabo San Lucas weather is absolutely ideal now, scattered cloud cover, though there has been plenty of sunshine, temperatures ranging from 86 degrees to a low of about 67 degrees.

Ocean swells are moderate, enough for the surfers to have a little fun, but also not too much to interfere with San Jose del Cabo offshore fishing activities. It appears that this well be a very busy fall season for all of the enterprises in this Southern Baja resort.

San Jose del Cabo saw very few effects from the north wind, with the exception of Tuesday, Oct. 26th, when the wind howled out of the north at about 30 mph and kept all but the most hard core and perhaps crazy anglers off the water that day. The very next day conditions were flat glass.

Water temperatures have remained in the low 80s and the clarity has been very clean and blue throughout the region. Live bait has become a bit scattered, with sardinas being the most popular and abundant choice of bait lately. San Jose del Cabo pangueros have been scrambling to locate the small bait fish each morning, searching areas form Vinorama to Cabo San Lucas and on most mornings they have been able to find sufficient supplies.

San Jose del Cabo panga fleets have had excellent combined catches of yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and miscellaneous species. They have found action in several main spots, with the Iman bank and Chileno being perhaps the most consistent places. The most common catches have been tuna and dorado, with yellowfin tuna being number one on the catch list. Drift fishing with sardinas on light tackle has been the best bet. Average size of the tuna was ranging 10 to 20 pounds and boats were landed anywhere from 5 to 12 each morning. There were some larger tuna on the Gordo Banks, but this was not a consistent bite, though on some days anglers were accounting for 1 to 3 yellowfin up to 60 pounds while chumming and using chunk bait with fluorocarbon leaders.

Dorado were found mixed in the same areas as were the tuna, though the larger fish seem to be south towards Cabo, this is where anglers found quality action on dorado ranging 15 to 25 pounds, with the best action again being on the live bait.

Wahoo were active up until Friday when the bite virtually came to a standstill, perhaps the full moon having a negative effect, though with the water conditions ideal, we do expect that the bite will pick back up any day. Early in the week anglers targeting wahoo were landing from 1 to 3 fish per day in the 30 to 45 pound class, they had strikes on both bait (chihuil & sardina) and lures, but more came off of the trolled lures than anything else, with the new Yo-Zuri Hydro Magnum, in either purple or orange, being the number one lure lately.

San Jose del Cabo surf fishing action continued to show promising signs of improvement. Off the beach of La Playita there has been good early morning action for anglers casting chrome lures, jack crevalle to 10 pounds, sierra to 5 pounds and roosterfish to 8 pounds made up most of the catch, though there were also a couple of large snook accounted for.

(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.