GORDO BANKS PANGAS

March 14, 2020

We are now feeling the effects directly related to worldwide panic due to the coronavirus health situation. Very few tourists are now traveling, many cancellations and not many new reservations being made for the spring season. This will surely all pass, but in the meantime many businesses will be struggling to survive.

Weather patterns have warmed back up, feels like any cold weather we endured, is all past us and we will be on a warming trend from now through summer. Ocean water temperature is still ranging 70 to 72 degree, currents and clarity fluctuating from day to day. Winds were on and off through the week, settling down over the weekend. The most consistent fishing action has come from the area north of Punta Gorda, Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman Bank.

Caballito are now much scarcer inside the marina area where these baitfish have been schooling throughout the winter, no sardinas at all to report, mainly slabs of squid, also some ballyhoo. Anglers were saving black skipjack for use as chunk bait as well.

The highlight for anglers has been trying to land a couple of yellowfin tuna, most of these tuna being hooked on strips of squid, sizes ranged up to 70 lb. Finicky fish, in recent days the lighter 40 lb. leaders worked best. No huge numbers of these tuna, some charters landed three or four yellowfin. There was also some very hungry seas lions taking more than their fair share of hooked up fish.

Very few dorado or wahoo even being reported, extremely fortunate to find even one of these gamefish. A few more striped marlin were moving into local waters, not every day though, some days a flurry of marlin action and others no fish found, mostly smaller sized stripers, not many over 100 lb.

On and off through the week there were red crabs found floating on the surface, especially around the Gordo Banks. Main catch when using these for bait were smaller sized tijareta snapper, also some huachinango found as well. No yellowtail reported, though there was an occasional amberjack hooked into over the high spots. Also a few nice leopard grouper in the mix, found off these same rocky areas, hitting on yo-yo jigs and various baits.

Not a whole lot of inshore trolling going on, lack of live bait the main reason, the roosterfish have wanted the live caballito, which are not very numerous recently.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 62 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 9 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 1 dorado, 72 yellowfin tuna, 5 amberjack, 13 leopard grouper, 22 bonito, 150 red snapper, 18 yellow snapper, 8 spotted rose snapper, 4 sierra, 6 roosterfish, 8 Pacific tilefish, 6 porgy, 5 hogfish and 70 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

March 7, 2020

The first week of the new month saw lighter crowds of tourists arriving, as fears of traveling due to corona virus outbreak has spread alarm. We have not hear of any cases locally but our closer monitoring the situation. Mild weather, more than usual cloud cover, no rain though, variable winds predominately from the north, but also switching unpredictably, settling down later in the week. Water clarity a bit up and down due to conditions, also ocean temperatures cooled into the 68 to 70 degree range.

Bait supplies were working harder to find available caballito, also offering squid and ballyhoo. Charter fleets have concentrated efforts from Palmilla Point to Cardon, La Fortuna and Iman area. Still opportunities now for yellowfin tuna, best chances were near La Fortuna while drift fishing with squid or using live caballito. On last Sunday there was a 114 lb. yellowfin tuna accounted for, as well as other fish over 70 lb., though average yellowfin being landed was more like 20 to 30 lb. On and off bite, depending on water temperature, currents, boat pressure etc… No other areas were producing hot action, so the majority of all the daily charters were congregating on the same grounds, creating a pressure situation. Anglers were doing well to land a couple of these tuna.

Off of the various rocking high spots we were seeing increased numbers of leopard grouper, amberjack and various snapper. Though this action varied with consistency from day to day. Anglers were using yo-yo jigs, as well as available bait. We also saw one golden phase leopard grouper, a rare species. Amberjack averaged 10 to 20 lb. though a couple we saw were over 50 lb. Only very sporadic red crab activity reported, currents need to be just right for these crabs to drift to the surface where they can be scooped up with nets for use as bait. There were more triggerfish than any other bottom species,

Every day we are seeing a few dorado, most of them found mid-morning and near shore, averaging about 10 lb. We also saw at least a few wahoo accounted for the week.

Near shore only limited action for roosterfish while trolling live bait, on most days the roosterfish were more active early in the morning. A few sierra and jack crevalle were mixed in.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 3 wahoo, 24 dorado, 44 yellowfin tuna, 12 yellowtail, 16 amberjack, 8 sierra, 1 dog tooth snapper, 14 roosterfish, 10 flag cabrilla, 16 leopard grouper, 1 golden cabrilla, 12 bonito, 38 red snapper, 18 yellow snapper, 2 white skipjack, 8 spotted rose snapper, 4 mohara, 4 porgy, 4 hogfish, 2 pompano, 6 barred pargo and 38 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

February 29, 2020

The month of February has held up its reputation of being very inconsistent and with this being the Leap Year, things even seemed to be increasingly unpredictable. Last week we had the unseasonable warming trend push through, now again this week we felt cooler temperatures and more north wind though much of the week, finally settling down over the weekend. All of these back and forth changes, with ocean water clarity and temperature constantly fluctuating has a direct impact on fishing action as well.

Throughout the region we are now seeing ocean temperature in the 70 to 72 degree range. North winds were strong through the first part of the week, stirring up water clarity and cooling off surface temperatures, though later in the week the winds shifted, often making a full swing, turning from out of the south by mid-afternoon. Still unstable conditions from day to day, through this coming month we normally see these wind patterns tamper off and feel a general warming trend. Bait options remained similar, caballito being netted inside the marina area, also ballyhoo and slabs of squid were other options. Offshore there was now limited opportunities for jigging up sardineta, as that option faded out.

The week started out with north winds, making the grounds in that direction unreachable, fleets staying closer to port, actually finding a good bite off of Palmilla Point. Schooling yellowtail was the highlight, small fish in the 2 to 5 lb. class, scrappy fighters though, striking on trolled Rapalas and yo-yo jigs. An occasional amberjack was found, as well as various pargo and cabrilla. This bite seemed to be over within a few days, fish apparently moving on. At least this was a favorable sign that we saw numbers of yellowtail on local grounds, hopefully this was a prelim to larger sized jacks to follow.

Despite cooler conditions there were some dorado still being found every day, more active mid morning and closer to shore, where natural baitfish were congregated. The dorado we did see were mostly in the 5 to 12 lb. class. No wahoo were reported in recent days, Some yellowfin tuna still on the grounds from Gordo Banks to Vinorama, though action is spotty, drift fishing with squid proved to be the best chance, this bite could definitely pick up quickly if weather cooperates.

Bottom action was producing a variety of smaller sized snapper, pargo, triggerfish, bonito, etc… We did not see too many bottomfish over 10 lb. A couple of decent amberjack were the highlight, as well as a handful of leopard grouper.

Not much locally for billfish either, an occasional striped marlin encountered, but no concentrations or particular hot spot at this time, still early in the season for the annual striped marlin run off of the San Jose del Cabo zone.

Inshore there was slow roosterfish action, juvenile sized and not much activity, an occasional sierra, lack of sardinas has limited the inshore bite this year.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 62 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 26 dorado, 29 yellowfin tuna, 60 yellowtail, 14 amberjack, 16 sierra, 6 roosterfish, 12 flag cabrilla, 15 leopard grouper, 9 bonito, 38 red snapper, 14 yellow snapper, 19 spotted rose snapper, 2 mohara,1 sheepshead and 38 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric