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

 Gordo Banks Pangas

 San Jose del Cabo

September 4, 2010

The new month of September started off with lighter crowds, but the light number of anglers in town were greeting with great yellowfin tuna action, along with super tropical humid weather conditions. There is an area of low pressure offshore of Manzanillo that is threatening to develop into something, but is taking longer than usual to reach its next stage of development. Surf has increased to around six or seven foot, creating disturbed seas, but it was calm enough for anglers to be able to fish without discomfort. Water temperatures have averaged 80 to 84 degrees throughout the area. A mix of caballito, fresh dead and live sardinas has been available most days.

The most consistent bite for the yellowfin tuna has been on the Iman Bank. Many days anglers were limiting out while drift fishing with the dead bait and by the time the live bait was delivered by the commercial pangeros, they really did not even need it. Most of these tuna were ranging in the 15 to 30 pound class, on some days there was a menacing presence of skipjack to deal with, but other days the action was pretty exclusively for the yellowfin. A few of the larger grade of tuna were in the same area. Though the best chance of hooking into a larger fish was on the Outer Gordo Banks, though there were actually more black and blue marlin accounted for than larger sized yellowfin. Several huge yellowfin tuna strikes were lost, these fish ate larger sized live baits, such as skipjack or football sized tuna.

Juan Castro from the Santa Barbara area hooked into a black marlin while trolling a small tuna on the Outer Gordo with skipper Chame Pino on the 26 ft. Super Panga, the “Killer II”. This was their second morning out targeting larger marlin or tuna, the first day they did not have any luck, even though they did see a pair of big marlin feeding. The second day they were more fortunate, things went their way. Juan landed this black marlin in a mere 28 minutes, apparently the fish became gill wrapped and quickly expired during the ensuing battle. Back at the La Playita weigh in station the black was officially weighed in at 495 pounds. Several other black and blue marlin were also landed throughout the week, most of them weighing in the 250 to 350 pounds range, the majority of them being hooked in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks.

Dorado counts continue to be below average, though this week we actually saw more of these sought after gamefish in the fish counts than during the previous week. Larger sized dorado were reported from the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, while the majority of the dorado found in the direction of San José del Cabo and further north were juvenile sized fish of 15 pounds or less.

Off the bottom there were a mix of dogtooth snapper, cabrilla, amberjack, yellow snapper and bonito. This action was limited, though some of the ambers and dogtooth were of impressive size, with many other larger hook ups reportedly lost due to lines being cut off on the rock piles.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 49 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 5 blue marlin, 5 black marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 wahoo, 12 pargo,

7 amberjack, 9 dogtooth snapper, 8 cabrilla, 86 dorado, 534 yellowfin tuna, 33 bonito and 332 black skipjack.

Good Fishing, Eric