GORDO BANKS PANGAS

April 25, 2020

Wanted to give an update of what is going on in Southern Baja. As we progress through this unprecedented spring season with no tourists in sight, it is now actually starting to feel a bit like summer the last few days, daytime highs of 85 degrees, clear sunny skies with very little wind. Baja California now has over 1300 confirmed cases and 136 deaths related to the Covid-19 Pandemic, consensus is that these figures are on the low side.

Mexico, including Baja, has now entered Phase 3 of the Pandemic, which means that we are now in the midst of highest chances of this virus spreading to out of control proportions. All schools, beaches, Resorts, restaurants and other non-essential businesses are shut down. There are now strict local orders to shelter in place, stay at home. Municipal, Federal and National Guard police forces will all be teaming up efforts to help control and enforce these lock downs. As of April 25 they say anyone out on the street for unjustified reasons will be subject to a $8,000 peso fine, jail time or forced community service.

Many locals still are not taking the situation that seriously, thinking that everything is way to over cautious and that it is still okay to socialize with family and friends, etc… hard to convince them otherwise. Authorities are having a difficult time enforcing imposed emergency regulations and their priorities do not always seem justified, while they confiscate surf boards and keep everyone off the beaches there are other groups of people gathering in many other areas that show no willingness to abide to social distancing, some of this does not make any sense.

It has just been announced that sportfishing will be allowed for people just for their personal consumption, no commercial or charter activity is authorized. These rules have been loosely regulated up to this point, but supposedly will become much stricter. As of now they have extended the present lockdown until the end of May. Also the International airport Terminal II has been closed down, the limited flights now arriving will use the original domestic Terminal I. They believe by July that Terminal II will be reopened, much of this will all depend on how the spread of this virus can be brought under control and the region can begin safely allowing the flow of tourists back into the country.

Local schools are just beginning to try teaching courses through the Internet and TV, slow process that local teachers do not really have the necessary training or technical support to do. They are thinking of reopening class rooms June 1, which many believe would not be a safe idea, but all of this is still just in the process of being planned out.

All in all, considering, things are going okay, everyone is ready to have this situation pass and get back to their normal lives, stress levels are high and financial crisis is evident. Who knows what the new normal will be like, people are becoming more anxious by the week.

Stay Home, be Safe, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

April 4, 2020

We just wanted to give an update from Southern Baja. All tourism is shut down, hotels, restaurants, beaches, Marina activities etc. We have heard reports of some 20 confirmed cases of COVID 19 coronavirus, though reports are limited and actual testing even more so. Local schools are shut down until at least April 30, more likely the entire school year. Mexico is about one month behind of what the United States is dealing with as for progression of this extremely contagious virus. Many locals are not really taking the situation seriously, as for isolation, ignoring authority’s warnings of safe distancing, still gathering for social and family events.

Puerto Los Cabos Marina was officially closed to all activities, several days after the Port authority’s did the same in Cabo San Lucas, but apparently in our marina they are not strictly enforcing the no fishing aspect, locals are still fishing daily, a handful of pangeros, saying they are just fishing for food for their families, though are also making profit on the side.

As soon as our operations were shut down, just like the clock work the local fishing action  improved, very good catches now for wahoo, yellowfin tuna, some bottom action for cabrilla, amberjack and red snapper, as well as even a few dorado. Wahoo are congregated around the Iman Bank, striking on both rigged baitfish and Rapalas. The yellowfin were found also on these same grounds, mainly hitting while drift fishing with strips of squid and they were ranging in sizes up to 100 lb. The wahoo were averaging 25 to 50 lb.

So we are basically on home lock down, only making necessary trips for necessary provisions, gasoline prices have dropped some for the first time in memory, but does not really matter since we are not using much of that now. Great time to catch up on home maintenance projects, vehicles, boats, etc. More spare time than we are used to having

Stay Safe, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

March 21, 2020

Spring season is always a very pristine time in Los Cabos, offering nearly the perfect climate, sunny days in the low 80 degree range, this also is normally a busy tourist period for the entire region. Though now with this world wide Pandemic Coronavirus, countries are going into lock down in hopes that the rapid spread of this highly contagious virus can be controlled. The entire area and the sportfishing business relies on visiting anglers to provide business and that is all going to be shut down until further notice. So our weekly reports will be canceled as well, unless we have something important to report.

This past week the average ocean temperature was in the 70 to 72 degree range. With moderate north winds blowing on and off, the clarity has been sporadic, changing from day to day. Overall the fishing action was more consistent this week, the highlight being a surprising late winter time bite for wahoo, the key to success was live chihuil for bait, slow trolling these candy baits around the area of the Iman Bank, quality sized wahoo were accounted for, with fish to over 50 lb. Light pressure now, as most all foreign visitors are catching flights out of the country as fast as possible, preoccupied about becoming stranded for indefinite period of time.

The yellowfin tuna action was also fairly consistent, no huge numbers, a mix of sizes, including fish to over 100 lb. were accounted for. Most of these yellowfin were hitting the strips of squid. So despite having no charters to speak of, the local fishermen will being able to go and catch plenty of excellent food.

A mix of bottom action also developing, a few nice sized yellowtail were landed in recent days, also amberjack, leopard grouper, red snapper, bonito and others. Red crabs still in the area, but not found as often drifting to the surface where they can be scooped up. A Scattering of striped marlin were encountered on similar fishing grounds, most of these weighed under 100 lb.

There was not much inshore action even being targeted, though early in the week there were a few medium sized roosterfish landed, also a handful of sierra. Still good number of whales being sighted, this is now into the late part of their migration season, these mammals will be heading north in the coming month.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 55 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 6 striped marlin, 17 wahoo, 2 dorado, 68 yellowfin tuna, 3 yellowtail, 1 dogtooth snapper, 8 leopard grouper, 26 bonito, 74 red snapper, 8 yellow snapper, 2 sierra, 4 roosterfish and 65 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric