STRIPED MARLIN LEAD LOS CABOS SPORTFISHING ACTION

July 11-17, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas,, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The combined San Jose del Cabo panga sportfishing fleet launching from La Playita sent out approximately 58 panga charters for the week with anglers accounting for an overall fish count of: 48 striped marlin, 44 dorado, 82 yellowfin tuna, 56 roosterfish, 16 sierra, 18 pompano, 28 amberjack, 15 bonito, 36 yellowtail snapper, 22 cabrilla and approximately 200 miscellaneous rockfish.

The weather is warming up daily in the San Jose del Cabo vacation fishing area, although crowds of visitors remained on the slow side. No new storms are brewing to the south at this time.

We wish we could say that San Jose del Cabo (Los Cabos) panga fishing has finally broken wide open, but that would not be the truth. Water conditions have continued to vary everyday. Early in the week it warmed to the 80 degree range. A shift in the current dropped it into the lower 70s, and this happened overnight.

The fishing action at San Jose del Cabo has been different everyday. This past week was much improved.

The main species found offshore has been striped marlin, spread throughout the region from 5 to 20 miles from shore. The fish were full of medium sized squid, which apparently have been their main food source in recent weeks. Most charters targeting marlin accounted for at least one fish landed and others caught as many as three or four marlin in one morning.

Maged Rasheed visiting from the Southern California area had perhaps one of the best fishing stories for “the big one that got away” this past week. While fishing on a super panga with skipper Tony with Gordo Banks Pangas on Thursday, July 14th, he was slow trolling with a live bolito on the San Luis Bank when they had a freight train of a strike. Line was emptying off his reel in a hurry and they had to quickly chase the fish down to keep from being spooled. When the fish surfaced and cleared the water in several spectacular jumps they realized what they were hooked into, a blue marlin in the 500 to 600 pound class. Rasheed battled the monster on his two speed reel, that only had a 60 lb. fluorocarbon leader and actually held up perfectly for nearly three hours. When the blue marlin was finally loosing energy and near the boat, the leader finally broke and the fish gained its freedom.

Dorado counts were still near record lows for this time of year at San Jose del Cabo. A couple of nice sized bulls weighing up to 40 pounds were accounted for, trolling with live bolito in the San Luis Bank.

The same bank was producing yellowfin tuna on trolled bait, most of them were in the 25 to 35 pound class, though a few larger ones were mixed in the same school. For several days midweek the San Jose del Cabo panga charter fishing fleet out of La Playita were averaging one or two of the yellowfin per boat. The numbers would have been higher but there were large schools of jack crevalle in the same spot and they were even more aggressive than were the tuna, and weighed 25 pounds plus, fighting as hard as the tuna, though not providing the sought after fresh sushi fillets.

Fishing along the San Jose del Cabo shoreline there were still some dogtooth snapper and sierra around, but the main catch was roosterfish, not as many as back in mid June, but this past week the bite for them improved and most anglers trolling live mullet along the shoreline did have their chances at hooking up with a trophy sized roosterfish, with most fish going in the 25 to 55 pounds class.

There was not much to report from San Jose del Cabo surf fishermen, although at least one nice snook was landed off the beach of La Playita on Friday and a couple of other lost hook ups were reported, so maybe this bite will develop in the coming weeks.

(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.