GORDO BANKS PANGAS

January 4, 2020

Crowds of vacationers brought in the New Year while visiting Southern Baja’s Los Cabos destination. Temperatures proved to be cool by local standards, lows were in the 50s and highs in the lower 70s, though still very pleasant compared to most of North America. Skies were clouds at times early, with sunny burning through by mid-morning. Winds were variable, the period started with light breezes, though through this weekend northern winds increased, this made for rougher ocean conditions and contributed to pushing in cooler and off colored currents. We are now in the season where conditions are cooling, north winds can be predominant and patterns can be unpredictable. Ocean temperatures were now down in the 72 to 74 degree range.

Bait supplies remained similar, caballito being the main bait found in the marina, slabs of squid and ballyhoo also offered. Schools of baitfish were non consistent, very few mackerel, more sardineta at this time. No reports of sardinas being available. This cooling trend normally would attract mackerel and sardinas as well, so we see what follows.

Early this week, before cool front swept through, the all-around action was good for a mix of dorado, wahoo and some yellowfin tuna, as well as roosterfish and some billfish migrating into local waters. Things changed significantly through the week, mainly due to cold winds from the north pushing in off colored colder current. Dorado, which had been one of the more common catches, all of a sudden became very limited and scattered, same for wahoo, they had been elusive, but were showing signs of becoming more active just before the weather turned over.

Also the first part of the week saw the yellowfin action starting to rebound for some larger cow sized fish in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks, no big numbers, though a handful of large yellowfin were brought in, the largest was by a group of local anglers from a small panga, fish was brought in a night, weighing over 300 lb. Overall tuna bite had been slow early in the week, then the north blow, which helped shut down the wahoo and dorado bite. But offshore of San Jose del Cabo, anywhere from 4 to 8 miles, there were rapidly moving pods of porpoise encountered, with the yellowfin tuna moving among them. Tuna ranging 10 to 30 lb. were being landed, best techniques was drifting under the porpoise with strips of squid. Charters targeting this hit or miss event were finding one of two, up to 7 or 8 fish. Easy to talk about, but this is a fast changing opportunist deal, with windy conditions making it even harder, also increased boat pressure would put things down and charters had to chase these schools all morning to have legitimate chance.

Inshore the roosterfish action slow way down have dirty cooler water pushed in. Bottom action was limited to various, mostly smaller sized, jacks, pargos, bonito and triggerfish. The exception was that we saw a couple of amberjack and cabrilla.

Billfish faded as the week progressed, though a few sailfish were still encountered in the cooler conditions, nicer sized fish which were released. A few striped marlin found, very scattered. As conditions do eventually stabilize and we see more offshore baitfish, we anticipate the marlin bite to break open.

Many more whales now being signed, these mammals were alter to show this season, next two months will be peak season.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 96 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 3 sailfish, 9 striped marlin, 61 dorado, 56 yellowfin tuna, 14 wahoo, 8 yellow snapper, 2 barred pargo, 4 tile fish, 5 sierra, 11 roosterfish, 28 huachinango, 3 blackfin jack, 2 amberjack, 4 big eyed jack, 6 jack crevalle, 8 porgy and 38 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

December 28, 2019

Los Cabos is now bustling with tourists, many family groups now vacationing for the holiday season. Weather patterns have been cooler, with scattered cloud cover and high temperatures in the lower 70s, a bit chilly for local standards, though compared to more northern territories, very pleasant. Ocean water temperatures were in the 75 to 77 degree range and swells were minimal. Variable northern winds, but overall favorable fishing conditions.

Bait supplies out of the local port consisted of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid. There are sardineta and mackerel just starting to move onto local bait grounds as well, so far more sardineta. This is attracting striped marlin into this same area, despite not being the warm season, we are seeing some sailfish as well.

Most consistent fishing action has been for dorado, most of this action found with a mile or two from shore. Anglers were using smaller sized trolling lures and various baitfish to entice these gamefish, average size fish was in the 10 lb. class, but there were larger specimens to over 20 lb. also being found. For the last several seasons now the month of December has proved to be the best time of year for these popular game fish and with the water temperature still favorable, we expect this action to last into the New Year.

Action for yellowfin tuna was much more scattered, the bite off of La Fortuna, where the shark problem was so bad, faded off, just a few tuna up to 40 lb. were reported from those grounds and these were taken on strips of squid. A few tuna in the 15 to 40 lb. class also were hooked into off of Punta Gorda on a mix of caballito and lures, but these were very limited. Off of the Gordo Banks there was a chance at a nicer grade of yellowfin to 100 lb., though this was very hit of miss and involved large amounts of squid for chum and plenty of patience to repeatedly make drifts all day long for a chance at a hook up, mainly something the local commercial pangeros were doing. On the outside, some 20 or more miles offshore, there was porpoise activity moving in the direction off of San Jose del Cabo, on Friday there were a couple of 200 lb. class yellowfin landed off of larger sportfishers, so maybe this will develop into something.

Wahoo are in the area, but getting them to hit has not been that easy, though on any given day that could change, best bet has been on bait versus lures. Of the wahoo we saw, sizes ranged 15 to 40 lb. Though one monster 122 lb. wahoo was brought in by a spear fisherman. On Saturday.

Off of the beach stretches just to the north of the Puerto Los Cabos marina there were good numbers of juvenile sized roosterfish, some up to 15 lb., also mixed in were jack crevalle and sierra. Best bet was with the smaller sized caballito, if sardinas were available this action would bust wide open.

Off the bottom there was action for huachinango, most of these under 5 lb., also a few yellow snapper, barred pargo and of course the triggerfish were eager to bite as well.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 110 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 2 sailfish, 15 striped marlin, 265 dorado, 21 yellowfin tuna, 35 wahoo, 8 yellow snapper, 4 barred pargo, 1 glass eyed snapper, 12 sierra, 4 pompano, 85 roosterfish, 45 huachinango, 3 amberjack, 15 jack crevalle and 45 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

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