MANY FISHING BOATS WORKING THE IMAN BANK AREA

Sept. 17, 2005, Bob Grimes, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico Fishing Report:

Last week in the San Jose del Cabo fishing area there was a good bite of good sized tuna at the Gordo Banks. A tuna seiner came in and took the tuna, as well as all of the other species.

For the last several days there has been a consistent bite of a number of species at Iman bank, near Las Destiladeras. Dave Grimes and Tim Gunther fished with Nico, on Jaime Arista's boat Alondra, on Friday.

Jaime's phone number is 624-151-3033, and he is very good. Eric Brictson also runs a very reliable operation, better than the cooperativa.

Dave and Tim caught a lot of tunitas, from about 8 pounds to 15 pounds, one wahoo, an amberjack, a pargo, and a rainbow runner.

There were about 70 fishing boats at this spot, some from Buena Vista area which is about 2 hours or more by panga, and others from Cabo San Lucas, about 2 hours or more in the other direction. These fishermen were not getting in a lot of fishing time. The pangas from Buena Vista were primarily using dead squid for bait. Dead squid is not nearly as good for tuna as sardines.

The La Playita sportfishing fleet had sardinas, but it took a while for the carnaderos to catch them, because of the big surf. One day two pangas were swamped while launching.

There are still very few dorado, due to the heavy illegal commercial fishing for dorado in the Sea of Cortez. It is a sign of the times for sportfishing in Baja California Sur that a consistent bite of small pelagics will draw the majority of the sportfishing boats from the three principal Los Cabos areas, East Cape, San Jose Del Cabo, and Cabo San Lucas, to the same spot at the same time, for days at a time. There is nothing to speak of inshore, due to gill netting and continued overfishing.

(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.