INSHORE PANGAS SCORE YELLOWFIN TUNA AND SKIPJACK TUN

Nov. 14-20, 2005, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita Los Cabos, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The combined San Jose del Cabo panga sportfishing fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 112 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 blue marlin, 3 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 55 dorado, 27 wahoo, 1,250 white skipjack, 580 yellowfin tuna, 12 grouper, 22 cabrilla, 4 dogtooth snapper, 15 amberjack, 8 roosterfish and 38 sierra.

San Jose del Cabo sportfishing water temperature is now on a cooling trend, averaging 77 to 80 degrees. Swells were moderate for the most part, except offshore on the days when the wind blew. This created white caps up to eight feet.

November continued to attract large crowds of anglers at San Jose del Cabo, who enjoyed clear sunny skies in the low 80s, although most of the week the north wind did blow and this limited where sportfishing fleets could effectively work.

By the weekend the wind did lay down some and gave anglers more options. San Jose del Cabo fishing charters were searching waters from the Pacific to inside the Sea of Cortez and catching striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, dorado, wahoo and other species, though fish counts were down from last week due to various factors such as the full moon, more wind, current and less bait available.

Bait was a bit harder to obtain at San Jose del Cabo, with live sardinas proving to the be the bait of choice for inshore tuna and dorado action. It was worth the extra running around to find the bait in the morning, especially since trolling with lures has not been very effective lately.

Striped marlin continued to be active on the Pacific, though the bite did slow down compared to last week when boats were releasing up to a dozen stripers per day. The main concentrations of marlin was 30 to 50 miles away from the Cabo marina, making a very long ride for anglers.

Dorado were found to be scattered and scarce.

Wahoo went on a good bite last week, but the action really only lasted for a few days. The hot spot was north of Gordo Banks, from the Iman Bank to the other side of Vinorama. A few wahoo were accounted for everyday, but that was for scores of charters, so basically at this time the odds were not high.

Yellowfin tuna and white skipjack, or skipjack tuna, dominated the inshore panga action, with two most popular spots being Santa Maria and the Iman Bank. On the days when the weather allowed and the pangas were able to reach the Iman Bank, they found less skipjack and more tuna of quality size, yellowfin up to 30 pounds, with the average ranging about 15 to 20 pounds.

There was a strong current running for the entire week. This made doing any bottom fishing tough, though there were a handful of cabrilla, grouper, dogtooth snapper and amberjack accounted for.

(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.