LOS CABOS YELLOWFIN TUNA CAUGHT AT 307 POUNDS

July 23, 2006, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, San Jose del Cabo sport fishing, Baja, Mexico:

Tropical storm Emilia is now gaining strength just offshore of Manzanillo, Mexico, and its projected path has it moving on a northwestern track offshore of Todo Santos near San Jose del Cabo. This storm system is likely to bring the first significant rainfall of the summer to the Los Cabos sportfishing region. The Los Cabos sportfishing fleets will have to monitor this storm closely.

The combined San Jose de Cabo panga fleet from La Playita sent out approximately 112 sportfishing charters for the week and anglers accounted for a very respectable fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 10 striped marlin, 14 sailfish, 1 wahoo, 1008 yellowfin tuna, 240 skipjack, 210 dorado, 95 various snapper species and 8 cabrilla.

The Puerto Los Cabos marina engineers have been putting in overtime trying to reinforce the jetty with additional rocks before the next storm strikes, will be interested to watch and see what affect Emilia has.

San Jose del Cabo weather has been ideal. The ocean was relatively calm, with exception of a couple days of moderate chop due to north wind. Ocean temperatures have averaged 80 to 85 degrees. There are lots of bait fish throughout the area.

The long awaited wide-open bite for yellowfin tuna finally happened at Los Cabos. The hot spot was the Iman Bank. Scores of cruisers and pangas were fishing the area everyday. Fly lining with live sardinas while chumming the fish into a surface feeding frenzy was the way to go.

Anglers using 25 to 40 pound tackle had best success, though the fish were also biting lines up to 80 pound. The majority of the tuna caught were in the 15 to 30 pound range, with quite a few skipjack also mixed in.

Most charters were landing an average of 8 to 12 tuna per morning, with a dorado or two mixed in. There were some sailfish and striped marlin also found on the Iman Bank.

Once in a while anglers would hook into fish that they could not even slow down on the lighter tackle. One of these monsters was landed by a group fishing from their own super panga with local La Playita panguero Hector Arripez. Jeff, Shane, Casey and Jimmy Becic from San Diego fought the monster tuna that hit a trolled bolito for over 6 hours on 100-pound tackle with a 200-pound leader. The fish was officially weighed in at 306 pounds.

Other catches of note this week was a 400 pound class black marlin that anglers John and Nick Rizopoulos from Texas battled from the panga Killer with skipper Chame Pino. They hooked the marlin near the Inner Gordo Bank and released it unharmed.

Besides the steady action for yellowfin tuna, there was not a whole lot of other variety to speak of, a few dorado here and there and a chance at a snapper, which were also taken on fly lined sardinas, including a 35 pound dogtooth specimen landed by Gary Purvis on Saturday.

(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.