LA PLAYITA PANGAS FIND COOL WIND, RAIN, AND FISHING WATER

Jan. 21, 2007, Gordo Banks Pangas Sportfishing, Eric Brictson, La Playita Beach, Los Cabos, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The San Jose del Cabo sportfishing panga fleets launching over the beach at La Playita sent out about 44 charter boats for the week, for a fish count of: 22 yellowfin tuna, 28 roosterfish, 92 dorado, 18 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 14 bonito, 6 amberjack, 9 pompano, 38 pargo 12 cabrilla, 18 sierra, and 32 triggerfish.

Tourists vacationing in the Los Cabos area of Mexico this past week found that southern Baja California does have a winter season. Daytime highs often did not even reach 70 degrees, very rare for this tropical Mexican paradise. The San Jose del Cabo fishing area had mostly cloudy weather and in the later part of the week there was a steady drizzle of rain, enough to wash the dust off of the vegetation.

Southern Baja coastal winds continued to blow from the north over the Los Cabos fishing waters around to the Pacific side west of Cabo San Lucas. Off San Jose del Cabo, winds were averaging 10 to 15 m.p.h. This contributed to plummeting water temperatures in the 70 to 72 degree range and also caused cloudy, greener fishing water conditions.

Although there were reports of yellowfin tuna at the Gordo Banks, they were not numerous. Some La Playita fishing boats accounted for up to three tuna while using chunk bait or sardinas. It was tough using live sardinas for these tunas because of the pesky skipjack. The yellowfin were in the 20 to 60 pound range.

Good numbers of yellowfin tuna also came up closer to shore off of Punta Gorda. These fish proved to be very shy about biting baits, although they would readily feed on free swimming chum.

Despite wintry conditions in our San Jose del Cabo sportfishing area, anglers actually had good offshore action for this time of year in these Mexican fishing waters, with the main species caught being striped marlin, dorado and a handful of yellowfin tuna.

The striped marlin were scattered throughout the Los Cabo fishing area, anywhere from 2 to 10 miles from shore. Striped marlin were often seen riding the wind swells or tailing on the surface and they would strike on dropped back baits. Most of the striped marlin were in the 80 to 130 pound class.

The live bait supply of both sardinas and mackerel was adequate most days, though sardinas were more scattered and pangueros often did not find them until later in the morning.

Mackerel bait is now schooling off San Jose del Cabo and on most days anglers were able to jig up sufficient supplies.

With the increased bait activity on San Jose del Cabo fishing grounds there have been respectable numbers of dorado being caught, but we will see how long that lasts now that the water temperature is near the 70 degree mark. This is typically the time when these tropical fish head further south in search of more temperate conditions. Dorado were averaging 5 to 15 pounds, but a few fish up to 30 pounds were also landed.

Earlier in the week when the wind made for uncomfortable offshore conditions, San Jose del Cabo inshore anglers reports some excellent fishing action for roosterfish up to 20 pounds while trolling with mackerel along the beaches from La Laguna to La Playita.

There still was no consistent bottom or inshore fishing action being found around San Jose del Cabo this week. There was a mix of cabrilla, pargo, sierra and roosterfish found in limited numbers.