Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
June 18, 2011
This past week local weather patterns varied greatly, the period started with sweltering temperatures in upper 90s, clear skies and light winds. Then by later in the week, on Thursday, a front system moved in from the south, hazy marine layer, wind gusts to 30 mph made for uncomfortable wet conditions. This cooled water temperatures, ocean currents had been averaging 80 to 83 degrees, now it has dropped to 70 to 77 degrees, with 80 degree water found on the outside of Gordo Banks. A persistent swell, combined with the southern winds has pushed in murky cooler water. This in turn scatters baitfish and gamefish alike.
The good news is that significant numbers of quality gamefish are now schooling on local fishing grounds. Incredible how fast the weather can turn around during late spring, with summer season just starting, it is a matter of days or perhaps a week or two, but conditions will eventually stabilize and then it will be angler’s time for battle.
Striped marlin continue to be found in good numbers, but not as wide open as they had been, once again more prevalent further offshore, scattered through the area, the 950 and 1150 high spots were holding larger concentrations. Dorado were found spread out, most often just one or two fish, some nicer sized bulls to forty pounds were accounted for. This bite should come on strong as summer arrives. Wahoo were in the area, anglers were hooking into a few of these speedsters north of Punta Gorda while trolling with Rapala X Rap, of the handful of wahoo that were landed they were quality fish to 60 pounds.
Local panga fleets encountered the most productive action on the grounds from Iman to San Luis Banks. A mix of fish were found, snapper, yellowtail, amberjack, cabrilla and others, found over rocky bottom, the surface was dominated by tuna, with an occasional dorado, wahoo or marlin passing through. The main target species were these yellowfin tuna, ranging in sizes from 20 pounds on up to over 200 pounds. Early in the week there was a day when the La Playita panga fleet accounted for some 15 yellowfin tuna that weighed 100 pounds or more. The largest yellowfin tuna in recent days was a 218 pound fish that was landed off of the panga “Killer” with skipper Javier, the incredible part of that story was they landed the fish on 40 lb. line with 60 lb. leader.. Other impressive catches included a 180 pound tuna that was landed Thursday, during near gale like conditions, by angler David Goddard, from the Santa Cruz area, he was fishing on the “Killer II” with skipper Chame Pino, they landed this fish in less than an hour, fortunate that the fish hit the 100 pound outfit. The majority of these yellowfin were striking on live jurelito baitfish, slowly trolled or drifting. The tuna were at times striking rapalas and cedar plugs, most of these fish were 20 to 35 pounds, as the larger tuna seemed to prefer the live bait. One local pangero landed a 168 pound tuna that hit on a yo-yo jig over a rock pile where a few yellowtail to 30 pounds were hitting.
Larger sized schools of mullet did finally show up this past week, this has attracted more jack crevalle and roosterfish. There were good supplies of larger baitfish, but no source for the smaller sized sardinas, this is the normal situation as southern swells become persistent. Save
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 83 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 sailfish, 18 striped marlin, 24 dorado, 86 yellowfin tuna, 25 amberjack, 13 yellowtail, 7 dogtooth snapper, 28 red snapper, 9 wahoo, 85 roosterfish, 64 jack crevalle, 14 cabrilla, 8 pompano, 22 bonito and 5 sierra.
Good fishing, Eric