SPORTFISHING ACTION SLOWER FOR LA PLAYITA CHARTER PANGAS

Oct. 23, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico Fishing Report:

The combined La Playita sportfishing panga fleets at San Jose del Cabo sent out approximately 112 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for: 1 blue marlin, 7 sailfish, 6 striped marlin, 18 wahoo, 72 dorado, 560 yellowfin tuna, 280 white skipjack, 15 cabrilla and 8 amberjack.

Crowds of anglers are now arriving at San Jose del Cabo in preparation for the million-dollar Bisbee Marlin Tournament, which is scheduled for this coming week. San Jose del Cabo weather could not be more ideal, with clear sunny skies with highs in the upper 80s.

San Jose del Cabo charter fishing boats are now heading out in all different directions, trying to locate that one hot spot that with one big hook up could change their lives forever.

The water temperature is averaging from 80 to 83 degrees through most of the San Jose del Cabo fishing region and the clarity has varied in different areas, but for the most part was clean and blue from 5 miles or more offshore.

Fishing action was a bit slowed down from the previous two-week period when anglers were having no problem catching their limits of yellowfin tuna in the 7 to 20 pound range, but nevertheless fish counts remained respectable.

Currents were strong though and bait fish on the offshore fishing grounds became scattered.

Inshore there were sardinas available, but they also became a bit scarce with all of the pressure now of supplying the larger yachts with bait for the tournaments. Commercial pangueros were netting sardinas near Cabo, between Chileno and Santa Maria and they continued to be of the very small sized variety.

For the San Jose del Cabo panga fleets the most common catch was yellowfin tuna while using the small sardinas for bait. The most productive spot was from Chileno to the Hyatt Hotel. This week there was more schools of white skipjack mixed in with the yellowfin tuna.

Dorado remained scarce.

Wahoo season still has not developed into much more than an occasional fish being landed. Though most anglers felt very fortunate to land even one wahoo, there were other people who really got lucky and caught as many as three or four. Weights on the wahoo ranged from 25 to 60 pounds.

The chihuil bait fish on the Gordo Banks off San Jose del Cabo have not surfaced yet this season and in fact the action on the Banks themselves has been slim pickings at best.

Overall the billfish action was slow. A Playita panga did account for one 200-pound class blue marlin and the Bisbee Challenge tournament reported marlin to over 400 pounds. Hopefully this year's tournament success is better than the previous couple of years, but either way they expected a large turnout.

(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.