GORDO BANKS PANGAS

September 13, 2020

We are seeing light numbers of tourists now, for the few that are here they have been enjoying calm weather patterns for the past week now, scattered tropical cloud cover, high humidity and light afternoon breezes. The early mornings are just starting to feel fall like, slightly cooler, but still not much needed besides shorts and t-shirts now. There is a Tropical Storm Karina lurking about 250 miles off to the west of Todo Santos, we are not feeling much from this at all, besides humidity, perhaps some isolated rain showers, but limited. Forecast looks favorable for another week, this is now the sixth anniversary of the devastating Hurricane Odile, which caused catastrophic damage to the Los Cabos region. Weather can develop rapidly this time of year, so we will be monitoring reports closely.

Ocean is now averaging 80 to 84 degrees, cleaner blue water found within a couple miles of shore. Some scattered schools of sardinas are now congregating around the marina jetties, as well as some caballito, though in recent days the more consistent action was found while using sardina, as well as strips of squid, which are also available through local bait vendors. There were reports of chihuil being chummed up on the high spots, also some skipjack and bolito being used for larger trolled baits.

The hot wahoo bite from the week before has now fading out, perhaps wahoo are sluggish in the warmer currents, as they can become, also back side of full moon and put them off, though surely they are still in the area and certain conditions could trigger activity again. Yellowfin tuna are now the main gamefish species being found. Some scattered dorado as well, found while trolling lures and drift fishing baits.

The schooling yellowfin have been found near San Luis, Iman Banks, north to Vinorama and in recent days the tuna became more active on the Inner Gordo Bank. The most successful methods being used were drift fishing with sardinas, dead or live, as well as using strips of squid. The caballito baits have not been as enticing this past week, yellowfin now preferring sardina or squid. Average size tuna was in the 40 to 70 lb. class, charters were landing one, two three and four of these tuna per morning, using 40 to 60 lb. line mainly, the fish a bit finicky at times, fluorocarbon leaders of 50 to 60 lb. being used, strong fish, sometimes taking an hour to land.

A few marlin sightings, hook ups as well, but did not hear of any large marlin being landed. Not much off the bottom besides red snapper, a couple of amberjack and dogtooth snapper. Always a chance at a big grouper this time of year, but not many anglers are specifically targeting those at this time.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

September 6, 2020

We are now into the first week of the most tropical and unpredictable month of the year, always watching forecast closely and seeing light crowds of tourists arriving, never is this the busiest time of the season, though this year things are predictably even slower. This week the weather patterns were more stable though the entire week, giving ocean conditions a chance to recover and the water clarity became much cleaner, blue water found within a few miles of shore. Ocean temperature was now in the 80 to 84 degree range. This is also the most humid time of the year, with recent rainfall and hillside landscape has transformed to lush green, season to have insect repellant handy.

The majority of local charters have now been concentrating efforts on the grounds from the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama, as these are normally the most productive areas during the summer months. The whole summer season was slow to get on track, lots of dirty currents moving cooler water through, more south wind than normal, but finally this past week weather patterns stabilized and the fishing action improved significantly. Anglers were using caballito and rigged ballyhoo for baits, also a few scattered schools of sardinas are being located near marina jetty. On the fishing grounds themselves there have been some small skipjack and bolito caught and are being used for trolling.

We are now monitoring Tropical Storm Julio, which meteorologists are having a hard time figuring out exactly what it is going to do. Consensus is it will weaken as it passes a couple of hundred miles off on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas, though we are expecting scattered rain showers.

The yellowfin tuna bite was more productive around the San Luis Bank, striking mainly on caballito and average size was in the 40 to 70 lb. range, many boats accounted for several of these tuna. Highlight for the week for the season’s first super cow, a 366 ft. yellowfin tuna which was brought in on Friday from a 23 ft. super panga operated by Jesus Banaga of La Playita. They hooked this fish while trolling a medium sized skipjack near the Inner Gordo Banks and it took them 2 1/2 hours to land.

The wahoo went on a great bite this week, striking readily on trolled Rapalas throughout the zone from La Fortuna to Vinorama. Many charters were landing 3 to 5 wahoo, while losing other strikes as well, average sizes ranged from 15 to 35 lb. Nice to see these wahoo, it has been a while since we have seen them in numbers like this. Fast, aggressive and very fun gamefish to catch, as well as being highly sought after and prized for eating.

Dorado were found scattered throughout, no huge numbers, but found while trolling in small schools, sizes ranged to 20 lb., majority were 5 to 12 lb. Not a lot of billfish action, an occasional sailfish reported on the same tuna and wahoo grounds, also a couple of larger blue or black marlin hook ups which were lost, a few striped marlin hanging around in the warm waters as well. We will look to see more of the big marlin to show up the next two months, big tournament season coming soon.

Not much reported off the bottom, as more anglers are now trying for the wahoo and tuna. Nor did we hear anything going on close to shore, again no anglers really trying this, as they were offshore on the banks for other species.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

August 30, 2020

Tropical weather patterns continue, as do light crowds of visiting tourists. As the region was still drying out from the soaking rain left by Hurricane Genevieve, we were carefully following forecast of a pair of newly formed Tropical Storms, Hernan and Iselle. While Iselle was lurking in an area off to the west of Todo Santos, never impacting land at all, there was Hernan which originally formed off of Manzanillo and was forecast to pass just to the west of the Southern Peninsula, though early Friday this system completely reversed course and headed into the Sea of Cortez in the direction of La Paz, at the same time this storm quickly weakened and besides some isolated light to moderate rainfall it never amounted to much at all. Though there were precautionary Port closures on Wednesday & Thursday. Ocean swells did increase Thursday to about 8 feet, but wind was light and overall caused no damage at all.

Early in the week the ocean conditions were slowly rebounding, cleaner water was found further offshore. Average water temperature was in the 78 to 82 degree range. By mid-week the conditions closer to shore were looking much better and anglers reported some great action for popular gamefish species such as yellowfin tuna, dorado and wahoo. Caballito were once again available from the marina area, after becoming scarce early in the week.

Most consistent action was found around the San Luis Bank, using both lures and baits. The tuna hit on caballito and were in the 40 to 70 lb. class. There had been some much larger yellowfin tuna found associated with porpoise, but this was some 30 to 40 miles offshore and was not a normal option for local charters. Though with cleaner currents now pushing closer to shore, we expect the cow sized tuna to start to congregate on local high spots, it is that time of year.

More dorado were also now encountered inshore, mixed sizes, ranging to 20 lb. though there were more numbers of smaller sized fish. With the cleaner water we also saw the wahoo become more active on the same grounds north of Punta Gorda, several charters accounted for a couple of these speedsters, with other strikes also being missed, sized ranged from 25 to 40 lb.

Billfish action was limited with the changing conditions, though there were sailfish, striped, blue & black marlin all hooked into, with the larger billfish being lost. We expect the coming weeks will produce some of the seasons larger marlin, a lot will also depend on what weather might develop. Historically the month of September can be the most unpredictable of all.

Bottom action was limited this past week, as was inshore action, though there were a few nice sized roosterfish reported, which is very late in the season for these.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric