GORDO BANKS PANGAS BOATS FIND SCATTERED,
SLOW FISHING FOR ALL SPECIES

June 26, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico Report:

The La Playita sportfishing fleets sent out approximately 64 panga charters for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 7 dorado, 5 hammerhead sharks, 18 yellowfin tuna, 14 dogtooth snapper, 18 pargo colorado, 65 yellowtail snapper, 22 cabrilla, 24 pompano, 16 amberjack, 26 roosterfish, 20 sierra, and 48 jack crevalle.

The weather in the San Jose del Cabo (Los Cabos) fishing vacation area is steadily warming, in the low 90s, and the humidity is rising. This week Tropical Strom Beatriz developed off the Mexican coast south of Manzanillo and did not affect the San Jose del Cabo sportfishing area except for creating more humid conditions and pushing in larger ocean swells for a couple of days. The wind blew steadily from the south and once again a cooler Pacific current worked its way into the lower Sea of Cortez. Water temperatures went from 75 to 70 degrees overnight, and bait fish scattered. This had the sportfishing fleets scrambling and boats off La Playita were forced to cancel operations on Friday.

Anglers at San Jose del Cabo found the fishing to be very spread out. Striped marlin counts dropped way down. Dorado were almost nonexistent, though wahoo action picked up off of the Cabo San Lucas area.

The most consistent offshore action was for yellowfin tuna, though there was no sure bet on finding them, anywhere from 10 to 20 miles offshore, where the water was clean and blue and up to 75 degrees. Sizes ranged from small footballs to fish over 200 pounds. Although only a handful of the larger fish were landed, many others were lost after long battles.

Along the shoreline and shallow rock piles San Jose del Cabo anglers reported sporadic numbers of sierra, pargo, roosterfish, pompano, cabrilla, amberjack and jack crevalle. Trolling and drifting with mullet or sardinas was the best technique, though the bite was not consistent and the lack of the smaller sardina bait fish provided limited opportunities.

Roosterfish activity dropped way off with the influx of the cooler inshore water.

Off the beaches anglers reported a mix of species, including roosterfish, jack crevalle, pargo, halibut and at least one 15-pound snook was landed off the La Playita beach.

(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.