GORDO BANKS PANGAS
February 8, 2020
Good number of tourists are arriving now to our Los Cabos destination, many of these visitors are anticipating enjoying warm weather. Though the winter season is now upon us, with this continued cold trend, we felt low temperatures a chilly as 48 degrees and day time highs barely reached 70 degrees through much of the week, scattered cloud cover, though by the weekend the pattern shifted and we had slightly warmer conditions. North winds were brisk through most of the week, finally diminishing over the weekend. Ocean water temperature were in the 67 to 71 degree range and off colored currents were plaguing the area from off of San Jose del Cabo towards Los Frailes. Limited numbers of serious anglers now in town, as they are following reports and realize this is not normally peak season for much besides northern winds and peak whale migration. Even though last February we did see much more consistent action, was a season when we did not have such consistent winds and was not as cold overall. So much is depending on weather conditions this time of year, we do expect to see some warmer more stable conditions in the coming weeks.
There continues to be bait schools concentrated off of San Jose, mainly sardineta and chihuil at this time, not many mackerel, also some limited numbers of caballito, as well as ballyhoo and slabs of squid. No sardinas reported, would be nice to have the option of live sardinas, but these baitfish have been scarce in our local region in recent months, hoping they move within range soon. Lots of baitfish are also reported on offshore grounds, gamefish have more than enough natural food source. The all-around action was slow this past week, cold conditions and off colored water being a main factor.
Anglers worked hard for a handful of fish, still a chance at finding a dorado or two, but the surface action became very scattered, best bet was while slow trolling bait. Many charters were also trying more of the options off of the bottom, though there was limited action found, a mix of pargo, snapper, cabrilla, bonito, triggerfish, etc., no big fish, all good eating, but just no numbers at all, fortunate to land a mix of a half dozen fish.
Yellowfin tuna were seen breezing the surface on the Outer Gordo Banks, but were not interested in biting, on Saturday there was one 80 lb. class tuna accounted for while drift fishing with squid.
Billfish action was better towards Cabo San Lucas, but still scattered and hit of miss, reports were decent on the 1150 spot for striped marlin. Also more mako sharks appearing in the cooler water. As water conditions settles we expect more offshore porpoise with tuna action will develop, it is the normal time of year for this.
Inshore action reported some roosterfish, sierra and shallow rock species. Though this was not a guarantee, but we saw a couple of sierra near ten pounds, roosterfish were not so active in the cold water, but fish 5 to 15 lb. were reported.
We are optimistic for a turnaround in coming days and weeks, been a tough stretch the past couple of weeks, so will be time for things to rebound some.
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: 4 striped marlin, 16 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 12 sierra, 12 roosterfish, 11 cabrilla, 4 bonito, 22 red snapper, 10 yellow snapper, 4 glass eyed snapper, 6 spotted rose snapper, 7 Pacific tile fish, 2 mako shark, 4 porgy and 26 triggerfish.
Good Fishing, Eric