LA PLAYITA BIG WEATHER AND CHARTER PANGA REPORT

Sept. 2, 2006, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

I did finally get out of the house to go and inspect both La Playita and the San Jose del Cabo arroyo. It is amazing that we have power and telephone, although our water lines are out.

The arroyo of San Jose del Cabo is impassable and still rising, but the flooding has not taken the utility poles out yet.

We are still getting rain this morning, but by this afternoon it should be starting to clear. Surprisingly, the beach did not get hit too hard and the jetties held up just fine. We never really had too large of swells, very lucky for Puerto Los Cabos and of course the rest of us.

We did see around ten large palm trees downed and several big signs knocked over. It looks like we will not be able to go into town for at least several days. It will be a miracle if our power lines hold up.

The Mexican National Guard evacuated some 15,000 residents into shelters because of the danger of them staying in their low lying houses.

On Thursday boat owners in La Playita were very busy hauling their pangas off the beach to high ground. Puerto Los Cabos was taking precautions with heavy machinery, moving everything far away from the jetties.

Residents were busy on Thursday making final preparations, traffic was chaotic, grocery and hardware stores were packed, gasoline stations had long lines and most of them had run out of fuel by early afternoon.

Rain started late Thursday evening.

The reports are that the East Cape and La Paz were hit much harder than the Los Cabos area.

In fishing earlier this week, the combined panga fleets sent out approximately 28 charters for the shortened week with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 395 yellowfin tuna, 32 dorado, 65 skipjack, 4 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 34 bonito, and 24 pargo.

San Jose del Cabo obviously had a shortened fishing week, but the wide-open bite for yellowfin tuna continued right until it was time to evacuate all of the boats off the beach. The action continued to be from La Fortuna to the Iman Bank and fleets from all directions were making the long run. Charters continued to catch anywhere from 12 to 20 tuna per trip.

Now we will have to see what effect John has on this bite that has been so good for over the past month and who knows what will happen to the schools of bait fish along the shoreline.

(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.