Gordo Banks Pangas 

  San Jose del Cabo

September 25, 2010

The Southern Baja region had been waiting patiently for the season’s first measureable rainfall and that did finally happen earlier this week. The low pressure system that had been threatening to develop off of Manzanillo for several days, did quickly gather strength over warmer currents on Monday evening, becoming Tropical Storm Georgette, passing almost directly over Cabo San Lucas, raining on and off all day Tuesday, accompanied by wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour, before quickly following a course towards San Carlos, La Paz and then towards Loreto, then downgraded to a depression into the Sea of Cortez. Georgette dumped four or more inches of rainfall locally and made a mess of the roads, a few landslides and moderate flooding, but no major disasters were reported. The long summer is finally officially over and we are all looking forward to a great Fall Season.

Before the storm hit anglers were reporting very consistent fishing action, as well as greater variety, particularly on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks, then north towards La Fortuna and Iman Bank. Most charter fleets shut down for both Tuesday and Wednesday and were all back operating on Thursday. Water conditions changed dramatically after the storm, water temperatures plummeted into the lower 70s in some areas, particularly closer to shore, along with these cooler currents were greenish colored waters. At this time water conditions are most favorable in the vicinity of the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks, where cleaner waters of 80 to 82 degrees are being encountered.

Always after a system like this the ocean conditions become stirred up and can take a few days to rebound. Anglers did report some quality dorado action out of Cabo San Lucas, with some bulls up to 45 pounds being accounted for. In the direction of San Jose del Cabo the dorado action has been scattered, only an occasional fish being found and most of them juvenile sized. Wahoo action slowed down compared to pre storm numbers, but a few of these elusive fish were reportedly hooked in around the Inner Gordo Bank and La Fortuna areas on Thursday, so we expect as conditions improve these fish will become more active again, as they do prefer the cooling trend of fall conditions.

The yellowfin tuna action around the Iman Banks slowed almost to a standstill, with only a few small footballs being found, this situation will certainly improve as waters warm back up and stabilize. Good news was found on the Gordo Banks, where the better water conditions were more prevalent. On Thursday there were two cows reported, a 261 lb. and 206 lb. yellowfin tuna accounted for, both were hooking into on bolito. These baitfish were found closer to shore on small hoochies and then used further out on the banks. A couple of other tuna in the 130 to 140 pound range were also taken the same day, all this for a handful of boats. These were the larger grade of tuna that were being seen breezing on the banks before the rainfall hit, but were not on the bite, they had been feeding on small squid and mini sardinas, perhaps this food source moved on and now they are hungrier for the larger offerings. These cow sized tuna hit on both live and dead bolito, did not really care, it was just a matter of having the bait in the right place when they came up. An estimated 450 pound black marlin was battled for several hours on Thursday as well, from a 23 ft. super panga, before breaking the line as it was nearing the boat.

Some larger amberjack up to 75 pounds had hit the decks before the storm and a few nice dogtooth snapper as well, this action slowed due to the off colored waters and strong currents, should pick back up as currents settle back down.

Thursday was a day off for local La Playita pangeros and many of them decided to try fishing off of their own docking area and they ended up getting into some epic action. The key was to first catch the Pacific moonfish for bait and then fly line them out into the channel, main catch was for roosterfish, ranging up to 45 pounds, also two tripletail were landed, a few nice snapper, barracuda, but the most incredible fish tale was of the possible new all tackle world record snook that spit the hook after being battled by a local angler who had managed to work the fish back out of the mooring structure into open water and had the fish inching up to gaff before it spit the hook. This fish was estimated to be as large as 80 pounds and everyone who saw it jumping said that it easily was over 60 pounds, the existing record is listed at 58 pounds, this means it well only grow larger now.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 43 charters for this shortened week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 1 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 16 wahoo, 18 dorado, 89 yellowfin tuna, 14 bonito, 6 cabrilla, 2 grouper, 7 huachinango, 6 dogtooth snapper and 12 amberjack..

Good Fishing, Eric

 Gordo Banks Pangas

  San Jose del Cabo

September 18, 2010

The Eastern Pacific remains free of any tropical storms at this time, while the Atlantic basin has been extremely active, with three names storms now on the map. Hurricane Karl has made landfall on southeastern Mexico and Hurricane Igor is now taking direct aim at Bermuda. With the official end of the summer season due to arrive next week the Southern Baja landscape remains parched dry, in the midst of drought conditions, though with local ocean temperatures now averaging 85 to 87 degrees conditions would still seem very favorable for any low pressure system to develop into a major storm system. Historically there are still several weeks left on the calendar when previous storms have wrecked havoc and made landfall on the Peninsula. Remember last year when we had two back to back storms strike during the middle and third week of October when sportfishing fleets are very busy and local businesses lost out on scores of cancelations due to these systems, we are hoping that this is not going to be the newest global weather changing pattern.

Local panga fleets out of San Jose del Cabo have continued to rely on fresh dead sardinas as their principal bait source. There have been few other options for limited supplies of mullet, caballito, moonfish and squid.

Fleets have been scattered in different directions, but with calmer ocean conditions being found more often in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, this is where the majority of the sportfishing charters have been concentrating their efforts. This week the fishing proved to be more productive than the previous week, when we saw a little slack in the action, also there was increased variety this week. Catches included sailfish, striped, blue and black marlin, dogtooth snapper, amberjack, grouper, wahoo, dorado and yellowfin tuna. Charters are now concentrating on the offshore banks where baitfish schools are attracting the normal variety of pelagic gamefish species. Not much action being found inshore along the beach stretches, this is the normal situation during late summer when there is increased swell and wave action which scatters baitfish. Clean blue water is now being found close in, which means the majority of charters are fishing within one to eight miles from shore.  

Panga charters out of San Jose were fishing from the Gordo Banks to Vinorama. The yellowfin tuna action was found on the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks, as well as north from La Fortuna to San Luis Bank. With there being lots of various bait sources congregated on the fishing rounds the tuna have become a bit more finicky and at times more leader shy. Anglers found that drift fishing with dead sardinas and strips of squids on fluorocarbon leaders of 40 to 60 pound most were most successful, but using the lighter lines also resulted in more difficult and higher percentage of loosing larger yellowfin that were mixed in with the same schools of tuna that were averaging 30 to 60 pounds. There were several of the larger grade of yellowfin tuna landed from La Playita based pangas this week that weighed up to 150 pounds. Most charters were accounting for anywhere from 2 to 5 tuna in their overall catch.

Dorado catches continued to consist mostly of juvenile sized fish of 5 to 10 pounds, but some offshore charters have reported finding a few larger sized bulls.

Off the bottom anglers encountered swift currents, but there were a mix of dogtooth snapper , cabrilla, grouper and some impressive sized amberjack up to 80 pounds, using the live moonfish proved to be the best bet for this action, tricky fishing though, trying to hold your bait near the rocky bottom in the swift currents, then hooking and being able to turn the fish before being cut off on the rock pile, no slack here, no time to relax, sit down or try to adjust a fighting belt.

Wahoo action surprisingly turned on the last few days, they were found spread out over all of the normal San Jose del Cabo fishing grounds, one wahoo was reportedly hooked into directly off of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina entrance. These notoriously elusive fish were striking on a variety of lures, including skirted lead/jet heads, Rapalas, feathers etc…Ranging in sizes from 15 to 45 pounds, some charters accounted for up to two or three wahoo in their daily catch, with just as many missed strikes reported.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 2 black marlin, 3 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 26 wahoo, 34 dorado, 178 yellowfin tuna, 15 bonito, 2 rainbow runner, 6 cabrilla, 4 grouper, 6 huachinango, 9 dogtooth snapper and 22 amberjack.

Good Fishing, Eric

 Gordo Banks Pangas

  San Jose del Cabo

September 11, 2010

As is typical for the month of September the crowds of visiting anglers are light. The Tropical Depression that formed last week dissipated just as quickly and never really did much besides increase ocean swells some, as well as creating higher than usual humidity. We are now in the pattern where local thundershowers have been developing daily over the hills to the north of San Jose del Cabo, but these isolated showers have yet to reach to coastal areas, though the areas near the airport are turning green, as the scorched landscape quickly soaks up the welcome moisture.

The bait situation has consisted mainly of fresh dead sardinas that the local pangeros have been netting from the East Cape region each afternoon, occasionally limited amounts of live sardinas have been obtainable, as well as a mix of caballito, moonfish or mullet. The fresh dead sardinas continued to work well for the yellowfin tuna, which have been found in sizes ranging from footballs to 100 pound specimens. The two main areas where local San Jose del Cabo fleets are now concentrated on are the La Fortuna/Iman Banks area and the Gordo Banks.

In the past couple of days the action on the Outer Gordo Banks came to a standstill and the bite switched to the Inner Bank. Larger sized yellowfin to over 100 pounds could be seen coming up and feeding on the surface, these fish proved to be somewhat finicky and anglers needed larger amounts of chummed sardinas and lighter mono leaders in order to entice them to strike. These tuna ranged from 30 pounds and up and individual pangas were accounting for an average of one to four fish per morning. This same area has continue to produce a few blue and black marlin hooks ups, though no huge marlin were landed in recent days, just a few heartbreak stories of lost hoop ups, a couple of marlin in the 200 to 250 pound class were landed. Then there was a black marlin released on Friday off of the local La Playita 32 ft. “Alejandra” cruiser that was estimated to be close to 600 pounds.

The tuna bite found north of the banks near La Fortuna and Iman varied daily as to exactly where, what time, quantity, as well as how many black skipjack were mixed in. The majority of the time the bite was better early in the day while drift fishing with sardinas, most of these yellowfin were in the 10 to 30 pound range, charters averaged up to five tuna per boat. Dorado action was found more by trolling medium sized feathers or skirted lures, though practically all of the dorado encountered were juvenile fish of ten pounds or less.

Other action included some quality sized amberjack and dogtooth snapper, though with strong currents this action was limited. Larger live baits such as caballito or moonfish were particular good for this action, with La Fortuna being the most productive spot. Only a couple of incidental wahoo were being accounted for by the combined fleet for the week, these fish become less active in the warmer waters, which have ranged to 85 degrees.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 54 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 wahoo, 18 amberjack, 14 dogtooth snapper, 7 cabrilla, 39 dorado, 198 yellowfin tuna, 21 bonito, 76 black skipjack and. 2 roosterfish and 12 jack crevalle.

Good Fishing, Eric