LA PLAYITA PANGAS FIND SPORADIC SPORTFISHING ACTION

Oct. 16, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas Los Cabos, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

San Jose del Cabo sportfishing fleets are operating at near capacity levels, with ideal weather conditions in the mid to upper 80s. Ocean conditions were calm at San Jose del Cabo, with no swell to speak of. Water clarity seems to be on a clearing trend and water temperatures were ranging from 81 to 86 degrees.

Live bait consisted on caballito and sardinas, with the sardinas being of the very small pinner-size variety. San Jose del Cabo sportfishing fleets were fishing throughout the area looking for the best action and the most common catch was for yellowfin tuna, with also a scattering of billfish, dorado, wahoo and various bottom species.

The hot fishing action for yellowfin tuna was being found off of Cabeza de Ballena. Anglers were using the mini-sized sardinas to catch limits of tuna in the 7 to 15 pound class, with a few larger fish mixed in. The key to success was using light line and small hooks.

Offshore there were reports of at least one yellowfin tuna over 200 pounds landed by local San Jose del Cabo anglers Daniel Fisher and Hugo Pino. In the same area there were some striped marlin and sailfish hooked into, as well as a scattered of medium sized dorado and a handful of wahoo.

Fishing from the Gordo Banks to Iman only produced sporadic action this past week, one reason being that the live bait was only available in the direction of Cabo San Lucas, too far for the pangas from San Jose to backtrack to. If you were lucky enough to jig up a larger bait fish such as a cocinero, or greenjack, you were almost assured of a big strike while drifting the bait off of the rock piles, for either a amberjack, grouper or dogtooth snapper. The problem was that the larger bait fish were not easy to come by.

Very few wahoo are being caught at this time.

The bottom fishing action was slow for the most part at San Jose del Cabo, though of the fish that were hooked into there was some very impressive quality, including 50 pound dogtooth snapper, 40 pound grouper and amberjack up to 100 pounds. It was angler Jack Simpson who was fishing with Gordo Banks Pangas skipper Tony who hooked into the monster amberjack that weighed in at exactly 100 pounds. He was using a larger whole bait drifted down around mid-water on the Iman Bank.

The combined San Jose del Cabo charter fishing panga fleets out of La Playita sent out approximately 140 boats for the week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 15 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 80 dorado, 1,400 yellowfin tuna, 12 wahoo, 16 amberjack, 14 grouper, 24 cabrilla, 28 rainbow runners and 10 dogtooth snapper.

(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.