Gordo Banks Pangas

 San Jose del Cabo

September 4, 2010

The new month of September started off with lighter crowds, but the light number of anglers in town were greeting with great yellowfin tuna action, along with super tropical humid weather conditions. There is an area of low pressure offshore of Manzanillo that is threatening to develop into something, but is taking longer than usual to reach its next stage of development. Surf has increased to around six or seven foot, creating disturbed seas, but it was calm enough for anglers to be able to fish without discomfort. Water temperatures have averaged 80 to 84 degrees throughout the area. A mix of caballito, fresh dead and live sardinas has been available most days.

The most consistent bite for the yellowfin tuna has been on the Iman Bank. Many days anglers were limiting out while drift fishing with the dead bait and by the time the live bait was delivered by the commercial pangeros, they really did not even need it. Most of these tuna were ranging in the 15 to 30 pound class, on some days there was a menacing presence of skipjack to deal with, but other days the action was pretty exclusively for the yellowfin. A few of the larger grade of tuna were in the same area. Though the best chance of hooking into a larger fish was on the Outer Gordo Banks, though there were actually more black and blue marlin accounted for than larger sized yellowfin. Several huge yellowfin tuna strikes were lost, these fish ate larger sized live baits, such as skipjack or football sized tuna.

Juan Castro from the Santa Barbara area hooked into a black marlin while trolling a small tuna on the Outer Gordo with skipper Chame Pino on the 26 ft. Super Panga, the “Killer II”. This was their second morning out targeting larger marlin or tuna, the first day they did not have any luck, even though they did see a pair of big marlin feeding. The second day they were more fortunate, things went their way. Juan landed this black marlin in a mere 28 minutes, apparently the fish became gill wrapped and quickly expired during the ensuing battle. Back at the La Playita weigh in station the black was officially weighed in at 495 pounds. Several other black and blue marlin were also landed throughout the week, most of them weighing in the 250 to 350 pounds range, the majority of them being hooked in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks.

Dorado counts continue to be below average, though this week we actually saw more of these sought after gamefish in the fish counts than during the previous week. Larger sized dorado were reported from the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, while the majority of the dorado found in the direction of San José del Cabo and further north were juvenile sized fish of 15 pounds or less.

Off the bottom there were a mix of dogtooth snapper, cabrilla, amberjack, yellow snapper and bonito. This action was limited, though some of the ambers and dogtooth were of impressive size, with many other larger hook ups reportedly lost due to lines being cut off on the rock piles.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 49 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 5 blue marlin, 5 black marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 wahoo, 12 pargo,

7 amberjack, 9 dogtooth snapper, 8 cabrilla, 86 dorado, 534 yellowfin tuna, 33 bonito and 332 black skipjack.

Good Fishing, Eric

Gordo Banks Pangas

San Jose del Cabo

August 29, 2010

With the month of August now winding down we can say that all around it definitely turned out to be busier and more productive that did July. Crowds have lightened this last week as families are returning to their school routines. The mild summer conditions gave way to more normal like serious heat and humidity this past week. At this time Hurricane Frank has been downgraded to a tropical depression, turning back toward the Southern Baja Peninsula as it dissipates, though there still a chance of some isolated thundershowers and the swell that had picked up is now diminishing. There is a new low pressure area near Acapulco, so we will be monitoring this system in the coming days.

Water conditions were mostly calm with variable ground swells of four to eight feet, water temperature ranged up close to 85 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Local pangeros are driving to La Ribera in the afternoon to net sardinas off the beach in order to supply the La Playita fleets with fresh dead sardinas, which have been the ticket for catching the yellowfin tuna, as the tuna continued to dominate the action.

Fleets were fishing from the Gordo Banks to Iman. Drifting with the fresh dead bait has been the most productive method. The largest concentrations of tuna were found on the Iman Bank, these fish averaged 20 to 35 pounds. The fish on the Gordo Banks were not as numerous, but were weighing 30 to 100 or more pounds. Most charters were averaging anywhere from 4 to 10 yellowfin per morning. Also quite a few bonito and skipjack mixed in. Dorado were found spread out throughout the area, striking on trolled lures and bait once the smaller sized school were located, most of the dorado were 15 pounds or less, but there were a few exceptions of larger bulls being accounted for. Wahoo were encountered on occasion while trolling lures over the structure near La Fortuna to Iman, weights ranged to 40 pounds.

Most anglers were concentrating on the tuna action, as this was the surest bet of filling up the fish box and coolers. A few nice sized dogtooth snapper were landed off of the same spots where the tuna were schooling, also a handful of amberjack and cabrila.

The billfish action produced a mix of striped, blue and black marlin, sailfish have been surprisingly scarce this summer. Black marlin up to 450 pounds were landed from the La Playita panga fleet in recent days, also at least one blue marlin of 400 pounds was accounted for. Most of these larger marlin were hooked into while trolling larger baitfish in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks, several were hooked into on trolled lures as well. Something about the full moon always seem to make the black and blue marlin more active, they like the larger tidal swing that produces more upwelling on the high spots, this seems to make the whole food chain more lively.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 4 black marlin, 5 hammerhead, 54 dorado, 404 yellowfin tuna, 4 wahoo, 12 cabrilla, 10 amberjack, 6 dogtooth snapper, 11 huachinango and 42 bonito.

Good Fishing, Eric

Gordo Banks Pangas Fish Report

Date: August 22nd, 2010

Moderate crowds continue to travel to the Los Cabos area to enjoy a late summer vacation before school sessions start back up for the fall semester. The lack of consistent local fishing out of Southern California has also sent more numbers of serious anglers further south in order to find their fix. This past week there was more cloud cover and very unpredictable conditions, some scattered thunder showers as well. Presently there is a tropical depression that has developed near Manzanillo, this system is forecast to gain little strength before encountering unfavorable conditions over cooler water. The region does need more rainfall, but hopes are that it does not all arrive at once with hurricane force winds. The all around climate has actually been very peasant considered that we are in the second half of August.

Ocean swells were minimal, seas were calmer in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, occasional squalls did create choppy conditions, blue water was found within one mile from shore and water temperatures averaged 77 to 83 degrees. Supplies of live sardinas were scarce this past week, but fresh dead sardinas were still readily available and were working very well for the yellowfin tuna bite.

Anglers found very good action for yellowfin tuna from the Gordo Banks, La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis. The majority of the tuna were being hooked while drift fishing with dead sardinas. Average sized yellowfin were ranging 20 to 40 pounds, but there were grades of fish in the 50 to 100 pound as well, most charters accounted for 5 to10 tuna in their daily catch. On Wednesday morning there was the season’s second super cow yellowfin tuna landed off of the Gordo Banks from a 22 ft. panga. Local La Playita skipper Jose Gonzalez and angler Josh Evans, from Oakland, Ca. were trolling a live Pacific Moonfish rigged on 200 pound leader attached to 80 pound main line when the cow hit, the ensuing battle lasted three hours to bring the monster

to gaff and the fish officially weighed in at a whopping 342 lb.

Dorado numbers continue to be less that would be expected for summer time, but most charters are catching one or more in their combined catch, mainly juvenile sized fish of 15 pounds or less. Trolling medium sized lures was probably the best method for finding the scattered smaller sized schools of do dos. A handful of wahoo were also caught this same way, weighing up to 45 pounds.

Other action included a few striped marlin, sailfish and one black marlin of 300 plus pounds was caught earlier this week from a panga on the Gordo Banks. A few dogtooth snapper up to 50 pounds were accounted for off of the bottom structure, as well as some amberjack, cabrilla and huachinango that were accounted for off the same rock piles. Of course there were the ever present Mexican bonito lurking in the middle of the water column.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 63 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 black marlin, 3 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 68 dorado, 274 yellowfin tuna, 7 dogtooth snapper, 12 cabrilla, 18 huachinango, 13 amberjack, 6 roosterfish and 34 bonito.

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson 
Owner/Operator
800 4081199
Los Cabos 1421147
ericgordobanks@yahoo.com
www.gordobanks.com