SOME LOS CABOS BOATS SCORE
MULTIPLE MARLIN RELEASES

June 12, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo, Baja, Mexico fishing Report:

Lighter than usual crowds are visiting the San Jose del Cabo (Los Cabos) fishing vacation area. They have been greeted with very pleasant weather, still a bit cool in the early mornings, with the days reaching into the mid 80s, plenty of sunshine, but at times with a breeze from the north making it chilly to sit in the shade.

The combined La Playita sportfishing panga fleet sent out approximately 74 charters for the week and had an overall fish count of: 11 striped marlin, 22 yellowfin tuna, 8 dorado, 115 roosterfish, 45 amberjack, 130 jack crevalle, 90 cabrilla, 220 yellowtail snapper, 80 huachinango, 35 dogtooth snapper, 65 bonita, 70 sierra, 32 African pompano, and 110 triggerfish.

Overall offshore fishing at San Jose del Cabo has not been consistent, though it is the time of year when things can change very quickly. The water temperature has varied greatly, from as low as 60 degrees on the Pacific side of the peninsula to as high as 76 degrees towards the East Cape region. Swells have been minimal in the San Jose del Cabo sportfishing area and no are storms brewing to the south. Live bait supplies have been sufficient with sardinas, mullet and caballito.

Striped marlin were found in significant numbers from the Gordo Banks to north of Vinorama, and many San Jose del Cabo charter fishing boats reported catching several striped marlin per day, though at other times the fish seemed to have lock jaw. The billfish were found fairly close to shore anywhere from 2 to 10 miles off San Jose del Cabo.

Dorado action was virtually nonexistent. Surely once more schools of bolito and flying fish appear at San Jose del Cabo the dorado will not be far behind.

Yellowfin tuna continued to be very scarce for fishing charters out of San Jose del Cabo. For the anglers lucky enough to encounter the yellowfin they had hookups using sardinas, mullet and lures.

Roosterfish dominated the action along the shoreline. The bite was not wide open, but was the best it has been so far this year and anglers trolling with live mullet close to San Jose del Cabo beaches had good odds of hooking into a trophy-sized rooster. There were several fish landed in recent days that topped the 50-pound mark and innumerable stories of monster sized fish that were lost. Early in the week off of Cardon the La Playita sportfishing panga fleet landed some quality sized amberjack in shallow water while trolling the surface with live mullet. Fish to 73 pounds were caught, and anglers reported seeing schools of amberjack to over 100 pounds.

There are still some big dogtooth snapper to be caught, though it has been the same old story of more of them being hooked and lost than actually landed. Another factor was a group of spear fishermen targeting the same small area off of Zacaton where the recent hot spot has been. This seems to have helped scatter the main school. Other inshore action included pompano, pargo, jack crevalle and sierra.

Local surf fisherman off San Jose del Cabo reported lots of action from roosterfish in the late afternoon. In the evenings they have caught nice sized pargo on bait and there were also several halibut accounted for, all big ones, including one of 24 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.