GORDO BANKS PANGAS

December 21, 2019

Anglers –

Everyone is now busy getting ready for Christmas, more tourists arriving, though there are not as many anglers as we would expect. The typically weather pattern of north winds continues, particularly early in the week, though there was decent fishing action close to shore in more protected areas. The Pacific side was calm for the most part. Ocean water temperature was averaging 77 degrees throughout the local region. There were scattered clouds and climate was a bit cooler than previous week, though on most days highs were at least up to 75 degrees, no rainfall reported.

Bait vendors were finding decent supplies of caballito, also were offering ballyhoo and slabs of squid, no sardinas found near San Jose del Cabo. Some of the panga charters were able to find some chihuil baitfish, but this was not a guarantee, needed to put in the extra effort and time for this. Most of the local charters are working the fishing grounds from Red Hill, Gordo Banks, La Fortuna and off of Punta Gorda. Most common species found were dorado, but also still decent chances at yellowfin tuna and wahoo.

Off of La Fortuna there were yellowfin tuna of various sizes found, some nicer quality fish. The problem was that there was an abundance of large aggressive sharks on these same grounds and they were ready to grab any tuna that was hooked into, a ratio of at least 80 % of hooks ups being lost, so not many charters were even fishing there anymore. There were yellowfin found on the Inner Gordo Banks, though numbers were very limited, a handful of tuna over 100 lb. were accounted for this week, though this took a lot of persistence and large amounts of squid, so that you could continue to drift, while chumming and patiently waiting for a chance at a hook up.

Wahoo were also now found on the Gordo Banks, though they have been finicky, best bet was to slow troll baitfish, either caballito or chihuil. Not many were striking on lures, some of these fish were also found further north and off of Punta Gorda. With the warmer water still hanging around we expect to have chances at wahoo into the New Year.

Dorado were providing the most success for anglers, most of these also on various baits, ranging in sizes up to 20 lb. Many anglers were able to catch their two fish limit and release others. Areas closer to shore, such as Punta Gorda and Cardon were best for the dorado, a few tuna were also found on the same grounds, if sardinas were available the chances of getting into the tuna action would be much greater, who knows when we will have sardinas locally. These baitfish do also migrate along the shorelines.

Not much going off the bottom, though we did see more red snapper this week, majority were smaller sized, but a few nicer fish in the mix. Good numbers of roosterfish were found along the beach stretches, within a mile or less of Puerto Los Cabos Marina. There fish readily hit on trolled caballito, most of them were under 15 lb., a few much larger jack crevalle were mixed in. Also a handful of sierra, but with no sardinas, hard to find a wide open bite for these fish. Also still early in the season for these colder water species. Billfish was very scattered off of San Jose del Cabo, surprisingly there were more sailfish seen than striped marlin, strange for this time of year.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 56 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 4 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 88 dorado, 15 yellowfin tuna, 16 wahoo, 4 yellow snapper, 2 barred pargo, 1 amberjack, 4 bonito, 8 sierra, 22 roosterfish, 24 huachinango, 4 jack crevalle and 45 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric