February 15, 2020

We are seeing light crowds of anglers now, many have been following weather and fishing reports patiently waiting for things to warm up and improve the all-around action. For the past month or so we have seen persistent winds, predominately blowing out of the north, dropping ocean water temperatures in to the 68 to 70 degree range. Greenish currents have been swirling throughout the region, especially closer to shore. This week we had a season low temperature of 47 degree midweek, daytime highs have been reaching 75 degrees, scattering cloud cover most days.

Bait vendors are offering a mix of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid. The schools of baitfish offshore of San Jose del Cabo have dispersed and fishing action is more spread out now. Still no signs of sardinas, there were reports of these schooling baitfish seen further north, but with the winds it just has not worked out trying to search for this resource.

Most local charters are fishing areas from off of Red Hill and north to Iman Bank, also all along the inshore beach stretches. The first half of the week was particularly slow, anglers fortunate to find a couple of mostly smaller sized fish. Then later in the week the water clarity improved north of Punta Gorda and on the Iman Bank some yellowfin tuna were finally hooked into, these fish ranged from football sized up to 50 lb. Striking on strips of squid, later over the weekend these tuna were preferring to strike on slow trolled live caballito, of course choppy conditions did not make things easy. For the most part anglers did well to land one, two or three of these yellowfin. If weather does settle this coming week as forecasts are saying, we could get into some quality action.

Dorado were still in the area, scattered fish in smaller schools, more of these found closer to shore, than far offshore, sizes up to 15 lb. Water temperatures now on the cool side for these migrating gamefish. Some anglers were in the right spot and caught a few nice dorado just like that, other anglers never even had any opportunities.

Bottom action was limited with the north winds, a mix of various snapper, pargo, bonito, triggerfish and cabrilla, most of these were smaller sized, but all good eating. Inshore was slow as well, a handful of sierra, a few specimens close to ten pounds, also some scattered roosterfish action on fish to 15 lb.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 49 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 1 striped marlin, 41 dorado, 22 yellowfin tuna, 9 sierra, 13 roosterfish, 9 cabrilla, 5 bonito, 16 red snapper, 8 spotted rose snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 7 porgy, 1 island jack, 1 amberjack and 22 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

February 8, 2020

Good number of tourists are arriving now to our Los Cabos destination, many of these visitors are anticipating enjoying warm weather. Though the winter season is now upon us, with this continued cold trend, we felt low temperatures a chilly as 48 degrees and day time highs barely reached 70 degrees through much of the week, scattered cloud cover, though by the weekend the pattern shifted and we had slightly warmer conditions. North winds were brisk through most of the week, finally diminishing over the weekend. Ocean water temperature were in the 67 to 71 degree range and off colored currents were plaguing the area from off of San Jose del Cabo towards Los Frailes. Limited numbers of serious anglers now in town, as they are following reports and realize this is not normally peak season for much besides northern winds and peak whale migration. Even though last February we did see much more consistent action, was a season when we did not have such consistent winds and was not as cold overall. So much is depending on weather conditions this time of year, we do expect to see some warmer more stable conditions in the coming weeks.

There continues to be bait schools concentrated off of San Jose, mainly sardineta and chihuil at this time, not many mackerel, also some limited numbers of caballito, as well as ballyhoo and slabs of squid. No sardinas reported, would be nice to have the option of live sardinas, but these baitfish have been scarce in our local region in recent months, hoping they move within range soon. Lots of baitfish are also reported on offshore grounds, gamefish have more than enough natural food source. The all-around action was slow this past week, cold conditions and off colored water being a main factor.

Anglers worked hard for a handful of fish, still a chance at finding a dorado or two, but the surface action became very scattered, best bet was while slow trolling bait. Many charters were also trying more of the options off of the bottom, though there was limited action found, a mix of pargo, snapper, cabrilla, bonito, triggerfish, etc., no big fish, all good eating, but just no numbers at all, fortunate to land a mix of a half dozen fish.

Yellowfin tuna were seen breezing the surface on the Outer Gordo Banks, but were not interested in biting, on Saturday there was one 80 lb. class tuna accounted for while drift fishing with squid.

Billfish action was better towards Cabo San Lucas, but still scattered and hit of miss, reports were decent on the 1150 spot for striped marlin. Also more mako sharks appearing in the cooler water. As water conditions settles we expect more offshore porpoise with tuna action will develop, it is the normal time of year for this.

Inshore action reported some roosterfish, sierra and shallow rock species. Though this was not a guarantee, but we saw a couple of sierra near ten pounds, roosterfish were not so active in the cold water, but fish 5 to 15 lb. were reported.

We are optimistic for a turnaround in coming days and weeks, been a tough stretch the past couple of weeks, so will be time for things to rebound some.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 55 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 16 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 12 sierra, 12 roosterfish, 11 cabrilla, 4 bonito, 22 red snapper, 10 yellow snapper, 4 glass eyed snapper, 6 spotted rose snapper, 7 Pacific tile fish, 2 mako shark, 4 porgy and 26 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric

February 1, 2020

This past week we felt an overall cooling trend, scattered cloud cover, variable winds, strong at times, predominately out of the north, high temperatures reaching into the lower 70s. We are in the midst of winter season now, so these cooler conditions are not unusual, we expect similar weather through the month of February, which is always known to be full of unpredictable patterns. Local resorts are now seeing large crowds of tourists, though not a high percentage of them are serious anglers. This is a common scenario, as this time frame is not the peak season for most of the highly sought after game fish.

The all-around fishing action slowed this past week, with cooler and gusty ocean conditions being the major factor. Best action out of San Jose del Cabo seemed to be straight out front, from Palmilla to the Hotel Zone and north towards Punta Gorda. The grounds to the north, where fleets do regular concentrate their efforts, have been turned over with greener cooler currents, better looking water and more schooling baitfish are presently right off of the Marina entrance. Ocean is now in the 70 to 71 degree range through most of the region, the coolest currents are near Los Frailes and are pushing further south every week.

Off of San Jose del Cabo there continued to be sizable schools of mackerel and sardineta reported, also more black skipjack moving in on these same grounds. Bait vendors have limited supplies of caballito, ballyhoo and slabs of squid.

The yellowfin tuna action stalled out through the week, also dorado became scarcer with each passing day. Early in the week a few wahoo were reported, also more dorado, but as week progressed with not so ideal conditions, ocean temperatures cooled and surface action slowed way down. Billfish was very slow as well, some days the striped marlin would be more active, but the very next day they could not be found, again more consistent early in the week.

Not much going close to shore, a handful of sierra, a few roosterfish, though the cooler off colored current slowed that action way down. There had been mid-morning frigate bird activity followed, with feeding dorado found close to shore, but that action faded, we hope that as weather settles and we see a slight warming trend, that action will improve.

Currents were swift, but there was a mix of bottom fish being found, not large fish, but a few quality leopard grouper to 15 lb., yellow snapper, with other pargo and cabrilla species.

The weather patterns in the coming weeks will be a factor as for how the fishing action shapes up.

The combined sportfishing fleet launching out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out an estimated 58 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 10 striped marlin, 29 dorado, 1 yellowfin tuna, 6 wahoo, 32 sierra, 8 roosterfish, 13 cabrilla, 9 bonito, 32 red snapper, 12 yellow snapper, 4 barred pargo, 1 halibut, 1 yellowtail, 2 amberjack and 26 triggerfish.

Good Fishing, Eric