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

June 10, 2011

Tropical storm season is now officially on track, before summer has even started. Some 500 miles south of Cabo San Lucas Hurricane Adrian quickly developed over warm waters and strengthening to a category four storm, the system was following a more northwesterly course, keeping it distant from land. It does not appear that Southern Baja will receive any much needed rainfall from Adrian, most likely all that will be felt, is increased humidity and larger ocean swells through the weekend.

Weather conditions for late spring were ideal, very few clouds in the sky, high temperatures close to 90 degrees, variable breezes from the Pacific were keeping things comfortable. A marine layer has been hanging over coastal stretches, spots of occasional fog. Strong ocean currents were sweeping in murky water closer to shore, though clear blue water has been found within five miles of shore. Ocean temperatures are mostly in the 78 to 80 degrees range. More flying fish spotted offshore, as well as schools of skipjack and bolito. The annual migration of schooling mullet has been late to arrive this season, but in recent days there has been an increase in activity. Anglers have hooked into roosterfish to forty pounds in recent days, though roosters in the 10 to 15 pound range have been more common. We expect to see the peak run of larger sized roosterfish to appear within the next few weeks, should be exciting. It is also the time when dogtooth snapper and amberjack follow bait schools close to shore.

Anglers can find a variety of options now, offshore looking for striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna, to trolling over the ledges for the elusive wahoo, taking a look off the rock piles for snapper, amberjack or grouper, then there is the option of slow trolling live baits over the inshore rocky outcroppings for a chance battle with a bruiser of a dogtooth. In recent days there has been a great variety of fish encountered, though none of these species, with the exception of huachinango (red snapper) were found in great number.

The grounds near La Fortuna to Iman Bank were attracting schools of red snapper (huachinango), perhaps the small jelly fish bloom in the same region has brought these fish here. At times the ocean surface would turn red as the snapper came up to feed. Anglers were landing easy limits of five fish per person, for snapper that ranged 5 to 10 pounds, they were readily striking on yo-yo style jigs throughout the water column. A handful of yellowtail to 30 pounds were also landed, there were increasing numbers now for amberjack, including quality sized specimens of fish to 60 or 80 pounds. These fish were hitting on both yo-yo jigs and drifted baits.

Last weekend we saw more dorado in the counts, fish up to 40 pounds, throughout the week, variable currents have scattered the dorado, only an occasional fish or two being found, as conditions settle we expect to see more of these fish. Same deal for wahoo, everyday there are reports of a few fish landed and others lost, wahoo to 68 pounds were weighed in this past week, many others up to fifty. Encouraging to see such quality this early in the season.

Striped marlin action, which has been off the map for almost a month now, has tapered off this past week. Further offshore once again in cleaner waters, charters reported as many as five releases, others had one or two. The stripers were hitting trolled lures and dropped back live baits, mullet, caballito or jurelito, some larger stripers to 160 pounds were landed.

Yellowfin tuna are in the area, but have been difficult to entice on a daily basis and in any quantity. Though the quality was there, as at least several yellowfin over 100 pounds were brought into the La Playita panga docking facility in recent days. These tuna were found moving with small pods of larger sized dark porpoise, on the areas north of Punta Gorda to San Luis. There had been action for anglers on schooling sized tuna up to 20 pounds off of the Chileno area, but this action came to a standstill as the water became off colored in that area.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 104 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:

5 sailfish, 29 striped marlin, 42 dorado, 20 yellowfin tuna, 46 amberjack, 9 yellowtail, 6 dogtooth snapper, 566 red snapper, 15 wahoo, 62 roosterfish, 24 jack crevalle, 16 cabrilla, 7 pompano, 28 bointo and 8 sierra.

Good fishing, Eric

June 3, 2011

Late spring season in Southern Baja is greeting tourists with pleasant weather conditions, sunny days near, 90 degrees, water temperatures averaging 76 to 80 degrees, variable breezes circulating, north to south, keeping conditions quite comfortable. Anglers were finding options from offshore to inshore and in between. Most of the sport fishing fleets are now concentrated from Santa Maria towards the Gordo Banks and north to San Luis Bank. Swells have been moderate from the south, weather changing from day to day, now it seems to be stabilizing, with less wind and on a warming trend.

Commercial pangeros found it difficult to net sardinas due to more persistent surf conditions, the most consistent live bait source now for anglers out of the San Jose del Cabo area have been jurelito, caballito, moonfish and mullet. Ocean currents were stirred up and murky closer to shore, but clean blue waters were encountered within several miles of shore.

The most consistent and talked about action this week was for striped marlin, they were found in season high numbers, as anglers reportedly were seeing scores of these billfish on any given charter, scattered throughout the region, but particularly abundant straight off of San Jose del Cabo and near the Gordo Banks. The stripers were found as close as one mile or two miles from shore, tailing, free jumping, feeding and just blind striking on trolled lures. Slow trolling live baits was almost a sure bet, once you located an area of fish. Dropping baits back to the fish seen was successful more often than not. Of course there were a couple of days earlier in the week where the marlin seemed more finicky, even though they were seen on the surface in groups of up to ten fish, a case of lock jaw. A few sailfish up to 90 pounds were mixed in, with the majority of the striped marlin being hooked into weighing in the 80 to 120 lb. class. Many charters, both pangas to larger sportfishers, were landing and rereleasing up to five or more marlin in a matter of hours. For anglers departing from Puerto Los Cabos Marina, you could not ask for billfish action this wide open in such close proximity.

Yellowfin tuna action tapered off this past week, main reason being that conditions were not favorable for several days, now as things settle back down we anticipate improvement on the tuna bite. Yellowfin tuna ranging from large sized footballs to cow sized specimens over 200 pounds are schooling on the same grounds. These fish congregated from San Luis to the Iman Bank, within several miles of shore. Tuna were found associated with porpoise further offshore, but for the local panga fleets, the spot for yellowfin has been from Iman to San Luis Banks. At times these schools were spotted by keen eye sight, breezing just under the surface near food sources, drifting fishing with live jurelito has been the method that most of these inshore tuna were striking on, most of fish being landed from this area were in the 20 to 50 pound range, but fish to over two hundred pounds are lurking. Local pangero Jesus Pino was out with long time Baja angler Frank Harbin in the past couple of days, they encountered rippling currents near Iman that turned out to be a school of yellowfin, quickly they had a triple header going, all on jurelitos. Two tuna were brought to gaff relatively quickly, weighing in the 40 to 50 pound class, the last hook up was the big one, this fish towed the boat around some, as it circled and ran initially on the surface before heading deep. After well over an hour of heavy pressure on stout tackle with one hundred pound spectra with 80 pound fluorocarbon top shot, they finally spotted the fish, conservatively estimated to be in the 250 pound range, a couple more big circles and this cow would be gaffed, it was just not meant to be, as on what appeared to be the last circle the line parted and the fish was gone.

Dorado are now appearing in daily fish counts, most of the fish are found scattered offshore on the same fishing rounds as are the marlin, striking equally on trolled lures or bait. Most of the dorado now found are of quality size, 15 to 40 pounds, though they just have not been numerous yet, just really filtering in with warming currents in the past couple of weeks. Wahoo activity has been limited to scattered of strikes on trolled lures, most resulting in cut skirts and lines, but a few wahoo were brought in. As the conditions become cleaner, with more baitfish moving in, we do expect to see the wahoo to become more active.

Inshore there has been spotted reports of slow to frenzied action for species such as jack crevalle, roosterfish, amberjack and even the toughest of them all, the gladiator dogtooth snapper. We expect this inshore bite for these seasonal species to peak in the coming weeks. Slow trolling with larger sized baitfish has been the best bet for this, with areas from La Laguna towards Cardon all producing mixed action.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 76 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 sailfish,85 striped marlin, 22 dorado, 29 yellowfin tuna, 15 amberjack, 5 dogtooth snapper, 36 various pargo, 5 wahoo, 46 roosterfish,75 jack crevalle, 10 cabrilla, 6 pompano, 14 shark and 8 sierra.

Good fishing, Eric