GORDO BANKS PANGAS

July 26, 2020

Another week of warm sunny weather, no new storms developing at this time, so far the Eastern Pacific has seen fewer storms than normal this far into the season. We were dealing with swirling winds up to 20 mph, blowing from the south, as well as the north, hard to predict. Light crowds of tourists arriving, about a 30% percentage of Resort and restaurants are open. We expect light crowds will continue until October and November when we do plan to see the usually busy period.

Water conditions were clearing up, blue water moving into the San Luis and Iman Banks regions, this should help improve the surfce gamefish action. There has been scattered action for billfish, mainly further offshore, more striped marlin, but also a few blue marlin now being hooked into.

For the first week in a long time, we saw dorado coming in to the fish counts, fish up to 20 lb., caught trolling bait, as well as on trolling lures, some charters landed three or four. Bait supplies consisted mainly of caballito, also some mullet available. We did not hear of any wahoo landed. There were a handful of yellowfin tuna being hooked into, some on the San Luis Bank, up to 50 lb., they hit on caballito and on yo-yo jigs, same grounds where snapper bite has been going on. Other schools of tuna were found 20 to 30 miles offshore traveling with moving porpoise, though that was not a normal charter option with how winds have been, not to mention high fuel costs.

Through much of the week there was good early morning red snapper action found for anglers while dropped yo-yo jigs on the San Luis Bank, some of these snapper weighed up to 14 lb., most were in the 6 to 12lb. class. This tapered off over the weekend, same time we saw cleaner water and some dorado and tuna move onto these grounds.

Trophy sized roosterfish continue to patrol the beach stretches, we saw roosterfish to over 50 lb. caught and released, it is now reaching the late part of the roosterfish season, also we are seeing much fewer schooling mullet action along the beaches. Jack crevalle was the other gamefish that were abundant close to shore, as well as a handful of dogtooth snapper and pargo colorado.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

July 19, 2020

As we progress into the summer season we continue to see light crowds of tourists arriving, this has been expecting during the reopening phase during the ongoing worldwide pandemic. Local weather in the Los Cabos area is feeling more tropical, though at this time we do not see any new storm systems developing that will cause any adverse conditions for Southern Baja, only far off to the west, which may impact the Hawaiian Islands by next weekend. Mostly clear sunny skies now, some early morning cloud cover which have dissipated quickly by mid-morning. Winds have been variable, at times from the north, but more often out of the south, swells have been moderate, but strong along the shore, always the time period to be extra cautious when venturing along the shoreline.

Anglers have been finding bait sources mainly consisting of caballito and mullet, which is kind of the normal situation during the warm summer months. Other baitfish can be found at times on the offshore fishing grounds when conditions are favorable. Ocean temperatures have been averaging in the mid-70s. With currents continuing to push in greenish water. Clean blue water has been found much further offshore, but winds were a factor and going 25 miles or more offshore has not been practical, though a few larger private boats did report finding good numbers of yellowfin tuna associated with moving porpoise. In the area of San Luis Bank there have been a handful of tuna in the 50 to 70 lb. class accounted for, these fish hit on live caballito, though with the green water this was a very hit or miss option.

The most consistent action found was for red snapper (huachinango), to 12 lb. and Mexican bonito to 10 lb, striking on yo-yo jigs best earlier in the morning. Also there were a few variety of cabrilla, amberjack, tilefish and others mixed in. Closer to shore there were a few dogtooth snapper to 30 lb. and Pargo Colorado to 15 lb. found.

Along the sandier beach stretches there continues to be great action for roosterfish up to 50 lb., as well as large schools of hog sized jack crevalle. Some charters caught and released up to twenty roosterfish, basically fishing until they ran through all of their live bait.

Off the shoreline the hard core beach anglers have landed a few halibut, snook and tripletail.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

July 12, 2020

This week we had very few tourists arriving, seems like this will be the continuing trend through the rest of the summer. There was Hurricane Cristina which formed far south and never amounted to much, low strength category 1 system which passed some 400 to 500 miles off to the west. We did feel increased humidity, also there were some isolated very limited rain showers reported and the usual increase of ocean ground swells, though we felt very little wind at all. The greatest impact was that once again the local Port’s were closed, out of San Jose del Cabo on Friday this port was closed, though conditions remained perfected calm and were not unsafe for motoring at all,

Hard to explain this to the few serious anglers that had paid for airfare, hotels, rental cars, etc.. to come visit and try to give a boost to the poor local economy, this all seems to be a political game of power that they are playing and appears to be how things will be in the future, any storm system which is within 500 miles of our area most likely we will continue to see these unjustified overly cautious closures. Local sportfishing captains have all been born and raised here and know the conditions better than anyone, no one wants to launch when conditions are actually dangerous, nothing worse than that, a lose lose deal for everyone.

Early in the week we heard of a couple blue marlin caught locally, one of them was over 400 lb., from a panga some 25 miles offshore. There were also some striped marlin found, but overall the billfish action became very spotty, best chances were far offshore where cleaner water was located. Closer to shore the ocean currents were stirred up, a lot of greenish off colored water, temperature also fluctuated. Large schools of mullet were more scattered now, so big numbers of roosterfish were harder to find. Though there were some roosters to 50 lb. reported, also quite a few 25 lb. plus jack crevalle to give anglers a challenging work out.

Off the rock piles the main catches were red snapper and bonito, an occasional cabrilla or amberjack. Live caballito and mullet was the main bait supply found in the marina area. No dorado or wahoo being reported. There were a handful of yellowfin tuna to 50 lb. accounted for from the San Luis Bank, but these fish were finicky and hard to entice. At times tuna were seen up on the surface, some fish up to 100 lb. plus, though they would disappear as soon as they had been seen. We expect that by the end of this month ocean conditions will stabilize and we will see much improved action through the rest of the summer.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric