Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
October 2, 2010
The start of the fall season was greeted with clear sunny skies, after last week’s rainfall from T.S. Georgette the parched Baja landscape has rapidly turned lush green. Crowds of tourists are now light, but within a couple of weeks that will certainly change as the big money tournament events are slated to take place. The weather warmed up dramatically during the later part of this week, as the record heat wave that swept through Southern California seems to have drifted south. Light winds have kept ocean conditions very calm and with water temperatures now averaging 85 degrees or higher throughout the region, this has made for warm fishing days, be sure to bring lots of beverages in order to stay hydrated.
The La Playita panga fleets have been fishing mainly from the Gordo Banks to La Fortuna and Iman. Most common species being targeting were yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo. The bite has been up and down, as to where and when the best action was encountered on any particular day. Bait supplies continue to be the fresh dead brined sardinas, with some live sardinas now being found in closer proximity, off of the Palmilla area. Also there have been jacks, small tuna, bolito and skipjack which were caught on the fishing grounds themselves and used as trolling baits.
Yellowfin tuna continued to be found on both the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks, these fish were striking on dead sardinas that were near the high spots. The yellowfin were finicky as to when they became more aggressive, apparently they were content to feed on the natural baits sources that are on the banks at this time and not always interested in taking the sardinas. Though most charters averaged one to three fish per day while targeting this area, these tuna were ranging in sizes from 30 to upwards of 200 pounds, with even larger super cow sized fish being reportedly lost after being battled on heavy tackle for three, four or five hours. Anglers have most commonly been using main line of 60 to 80 lb. with fluorocarbon leader of 60 to 90 lb.
Palmilla became a spot where smaller football sized tuna and medium sized dorado were being found, live sardinas were now available near this area and proved to be a good options for finding plenty of action on medium sized fish, instead of going for the one or two big fish further offshore.
Wahoo were spread throughout the zone, the Gordo Banks, La Fortuna to Vinorama all produced strikes for anglers trolling Rapalas and skirted lead or jet heads, a bit sluggish in the warmer waters, but some anglers accounted for as many as three wahoo in the box per morning, with other short strikes lost. The wahoo were ranging in sizes from 20 to 45 pounds.
Dorado action was much the same, more juvenile sized fish found in the direction of the Sea of Cortez and lager sized bulls found further offshore and on the Pacific. Charters were accounting for an average of 2 to 6 dorado per boat.
Billfish tapered off a bit over the previous couple of weeks, but there still were some larger sized black and blue marlin being hooked into, in the past couple of days there were several blacks that were hooking into on the Gordo Banks while trolling with larger live baits, which more often than not was either a skipjack or cocinero (jack) in recent days.
Other catches include a mix of grouper, dogtooth snapper and amberjack, despite the calm surface, there still was a swift current on most days and this made it more difficult to concentrate on the bottom.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 61 charters for this week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 1 black marlin, 2 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 14 wahoo, 122 dorado, 154 yellowfin tuna, 18 bonito, 8 cabrilla, 2 grouper, 7 dogtooth snapper and 10 amberjack..
Good Fishing, Eric