GORDO BANKS PANGAS

August 2, 2020

Much of the same patterns this past week. Light crowds of tourists arriving, greeted by warm summer conditions, no new tropical storms that we see developing at this time. Windy conditions were dominant through the entire month of July, though this week winds finally settled down late in the week and through the weekend, giving a chance for water clarity to improve and ocean temperatures were once again on a warming trend, ranging from the mid to upper 70s.

Bait supplies mainly consisted of caballito, with some mullet still found as well, no sardinas were reported yet and usually we do not see them until closer to October. The majority of local sport fishing charters were fishing the grounds from the Gordo Banks and north to Vinorama. Finding a mix of inshore, bottom and offshore action. Most consistent action was found working the shallow rock piles and areas such as San Luis and Vinorama Banks, more often in depths of 100 to 180 ft., using yo-yo jigs and bait. Various cabrilla, grouper, snapper, pargo and amberjack were hooked into, though these fish had to be worked for, no easy big numbers at this time. No wahoo or dorado action was reported

We did hear of a few yellowfin tuna being hooked into near the San Luis Bank, on yo-yo jigs and bait, these tuna were in the 40 to 50 lb. class. We hope with conditions now stabilizing that this tuna action will become steadier, the month of August is normally one of the best times of the year to find good numbers of quality sized yellowfin tuna. Other private charters were going much further offshore in search of warmer clean blue water and migrating porpoise which in turn can be associated with schooling yellowfin, so far this action was very hit or miss, especially with how the wind had been and the distance which was needed to possibly find action. Normally this month is when we find the tuna closer to shore on the high spots, just taking a little longer to develop this summer with the way ocean conditions have been.

Along the shoreline anglers are still finding jack crevalle and some very nice sized roosterfish, we are now in the late time of the season for these fish, but since we have not seen a lot of huge storm surf activity this could last for another couple of weeks.

We did not have many anglers that wanted to go looking for billfish, it is kind of in between seasons now, as the striped marlin move out, following cooler currents towards the north and then we see the black and blue marlin show up, which is now the time frame when they usually become more prevalent on local grounds. We did see a handful of striped marlin landed this past week, most of these were in the 100 to 140 lb. range.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

July 26, 2020

Another week of warm sunny weather, no new storms developing at this time, so far the Eastern Pacific has seen fewer storms than normal this far into the season. We were dealing with swirling winds up to 20 mph, blowing from the south, as well as the north, hard to predict. Light crowds of tourists arriving, about a 30% percentage of Resort and restaurants are open. We expect light crowds will continue until October and November when we do plan to see the usually busy period.

Water conditions were clearing up, blue water moving into the San Luis and Iman Banks regions, this should help improve the surfce gamefish action. There has been scattered action for billfish, mainly further offshore, more striped marlin, but also a few blue marlin now being hooked into.

For the first week in a long time, we saw dorado coming in to the fish counts, fish up to 20 lb., caught trolling bait, as well as on trolling lures, some charters landed three or four. Bait supplies consisted mainly of caballito, also some mullet available. We did not hear of any wahoo landed. There were a handful of yellowfin tuna being hooked into, some on the San Luis Bank, up to 50 lb., they hit on caballito and on yo-yo jigs, same grounds where snapper bite has been going on. Other schools of tuna were found 20 to 30 miles offshore traveling with moving porpoise, though that was not a normal charter option with how winds have been, not to mention high fuel costs.

Through much of the week there was good early morning red snapper action found for anglers while dropped yo-yo jigs on the San Luis Bank, some of these snapper weighed up to 14 lb., most were in the 6 to 12lb. class. This tapered off over the weekend, same time we saw cleaner water and some dorado and tuna move onto these grounds.

Trophy sized roosterfish continue to patrol the beach stretches, we saw roosterfish to over 50 lb. caught and released, it is now reaching the late part of the roosterfish season, also we are seeing much fewer schooling mullet action along the beaches. Jack crevalle was the other gamefish that were abundant close to shore, as well as a handful of dogtooth snapper and pargo colorado.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

July 19, 2020

As we progress into the summer season we continue to see light crowds of tourists arriving, this has been expecting during the reopening phase during the ongoing worldwide pandemic. Local weather in the Los Cabos area is feeling more tropical, though at this time we do not see any new storm systems developing that will cause any adverse conditions for Southern Baja, only far off to the west, which may impact the Hawaiian Islands by next weekend. Mostly clear sunny skies now, some early morning cloud cover which have dissipated quickly by mid-morning. Winds have been variable, at times from the north, but more often out of the south, swells have been moderate, but strong along the shore, always the time period to be extra cautious when venturing along the shoreline.

Anglers have been finding bait sources mainly consisting of caballito and mullet, which is kind of the normal situation during the warm summer months. Other baitfish can be found at times on the offshore fishing grounds when conditions are favorable. Ocean temperatures have been averaging in the mid-70s. With currents continuing to push in greenish water. Clean blue water has been found much further offshore, but winds were a factor and going 25 miles or more offshore has not been practical, though a few larger private boats did report finding good numbers of yellowfin tuna associated with moving porpoise. In the area of San Luis Bank there have been a handful of tuna in the 50 to 70 lb. class accounted for, these fish hit on live caballito, though with the green water this was a very hit or miss option.

The most consistent action found was for red snapper (huachinango), to 12 lb. and Mexican bonito to 10 lb, striking on yo-yo jigs best earlier in the morning. Also there were a few variety of cabrilla, amberjack, tilefish and others mixed in. Closer to shore there were a few dogtooth snapper to 30 lb. and Pargo Colorado to 15 lb. found.

Along the sandier beach stretches there continues to be great action for roosterfish up to 50 lb., as well as large schools of hog sized jack crevalle. Some charters caught and released up to twenty roosterfish, basically fishing until they ran through all of their live bait.

Off the shoreline the hard core beach anglers have landed a few halibut, snook and tripletail.

Light crowds, good fishing, Eric