San Jose del Cabo Fish Report June 12 - 18

[Gordo Banks]

June 18, 2006

Anglers –



Moderate crowds of tourists visiting Los Cabos were enjoying ideal weather conditions, with the summer season set to start next week, the mild weather in recent days was a welcome gift from nature. After enduring days in the upper 90s the weather made a dramatic turn on Thursday when an unusually strong front from the southwest swept over the Southern Baja, this pushed in cooler Pacific water all the way to Los Frailes and in turn lowered air temperatures substantially. The winds gusted violently through Friday, before finally settling down over the weekend, but in the mean time the water temperatures, which had been as high as 83 degrees on the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula, plummeted to 67 degrees. You can imagine what this fifteen-degree drop in only two days did to the all around fish counts. Along with the cold water came dirty green currents and this combination virtually shut down any action that had been so promising during the first part of the week. We do expect the water conditions to quickly improve now that the weather patterns are once again on a warming trend.



The water had been warming to a point where most of the striped marlin had become sluggish and were on the verge of starting their northerly migration for the summer and a few of the larger blue and black marlin were reportedly hooking into to. Plenty of bolito on the offshore fishing grounds, this is always a favorable sign, though there still has been a lack of any consistent yellowfin tuna throughout the area, only spotty reports of football sized tuna here and there. On Saturday there were reports of larger tuna over one hundred pounds being found in the East Cape area near Punta Pescadero, hopefully these fish will migrate towards the south. Some striped marlin were still biting, but not as they had been, striking on lures and baits, in fact several were reportedly hooked up on very small hoochie skirts.



Up until the big blow from the south the dorado action was the talk of the town, as larger dorado had made a strong appearance in the daily fish counts for the first time this season. Trolling with live bolito was particularly productive and San Luis Bank was one of the best spots. Charters were averaging anywhere from three or four and on up to ten dorado per trip, many fish were running in the 20 to 40 pound class, with several bulls up to fifty pounds accounted for. With the influx of cold water this hot bite vanished over night and now we will have to patiently wait for conditions to return to how they had been, it could take a couple days or a couple of weeks, but it will be worth waiting for.



Other action included fair counts of Mexican bonito that were striking on trolled jigs and yo-yos over the various rock piles north of Punta Gorda, these fish were weighing 3 to 6 pounds and provided fillets that were very similar to that of smaller yellowfin tuna. Dogtooth snapper patrolled the shoreline and could be seen in sizable schools at times. These brutes proved to be a challenge to hook and land even for the most experienced of anglers, and a handful of them were brought in that tipped the scales up to fifty pounds. Best technique was to slow troll live mullet on very stout tackle with heavier mono leaders and hold on with everything you got once you set the hook.



Some roosterfish were also found along beaches, trolling with mullet was also the best bet for these fish. Fish to fifty pounds were caught and released, though the peak run of these fish have yet to appear. Surf fishermen have reported limited success on roosters, though at least several fish in the 30 to 40 pound were reported by anglers that were snagging mullet and casting them out to where the roosters were feeding, La Laguna and Boca de Tule were a couple of the spots that did produce.



The La Playita panga fleet sent out approximately 76 panga charters for the week and anglers accounted for a fish count of: 11 striped marlin, 5 hammerhead sharks, 220 dorado, 14 yellowfin tuna, 15 roosterfish, 12 jack crevalle, 11 amberjack, 7 pompano, 12 sierra, 22 dogtooth snapper, 110 yellowtail snapper, 18 cabrilla, 185 Mexican bonito and 1 wahoo.



Good Fishing, Eric