Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
October 19, 2008
Anglers –
With no new tropical storms on the horizon and very pleasant fall weather conditions now prevalent, all is shaping up for a great season for the crowds of anglers now arriving in Los Cabos with high expectations of enjoying a memorable vacation. Ocean conditions were stirred up by the passing of Hurricane Norbert, water temperature cooled down to an average of 80 to 82 degrees, but now that the weather has become more stable the conditions are improving with each passing day and everyone is optimistic for having excellent fishing action in the coming weeks.
Fleets have been fishing in all directions, from the Pacific banks, to inside the Sea of Cortez and straight out in front of Cabo San Lucas. The main concentration of striped marlin has been from the Golden Gate to the Finger Banks, slowly migrating closer to Cabo San Lucas off of El Faro. Large schools of mackerel are attracting the billfish and many charters are scoring double digits on catch and release striped marlin, though the action did tapper off as the moon reached the full moon phase. A scattering of black and blue marlin were landed, several of them weighing over 500 pounds, so this is good news for the hundreds of anglers now preparing to enter the upcoming annual mega buck tournaments.
After losing several days of work to stormy ocean conditions last week, the local panga fleets launching out of La Playita, from the Puerto Los Cabos Marina, are now back in full operation. Off colored and cooler water conditions are improving with each passing day and fleets are concentrating their efforts from the Gordo Banks, to La Fortuna and Iman Banks, where they have found a mix of yellowfin tuna, dorado, pargo and even a few wahoo have started to become active. Giant squid remained in the area, concentrated about one to two miles from shore, between La Salinas and La Laguna, just south of Punta Gorda. Charters have been jigging up these four to five foot long squid for use as chum and strip bait, also purchasing the readily available sardinas, this is what the majority of the action is now coming on, either slow trolling bait, or drift fishing over the structure where the schools of gamefish are congregated. Most of the tuna being landed are in the 15 pound class, though there is a chance of a 20 to 50 pound fish mixed in. Numbers are not as high as they were before the latest storm, but most boats are accounting for at least several yellowfin and a few dorado in their overall catch, we expect as conditions improve and the moon darkens, that all around action will improve. The dorado are being found in the same areas as the tuna and are small to medium sized fish of 5 to 15 pounds, with a few exception of larger bulls being accounted for.
Anglers that have their arsenal of specialized wahoo trolling lures are finding an occasional fish, but still no significant bite to report, only a couple here and there, the few wahoo that have been brought in are on the smaller side, averaging 15 to 30 pounds.
Bottom action included a mix of barred pargo, huachinango, dogtooth snapper, cabrilla and triggerfish, no big numbers, but some quality eating fish, strong current running, which has not made it easy to fish the rock piles. The commercial panga fleet had a couple of days where they brought in good numbers of yellowtail up to 30 pounds, this was from the Inner Gordo Bank area.
Some of the more knowledgeable local beach fishermen reported a few quality sized black snook being landed from near the marina jetties, most of this action was at night on bait, this is usually the end of the snook season, as these fish prefer the warmer water temperatures.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 46 charters for the shortened week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of: 16 wahoo, 5 dogtooth snapper, 12 huachinango, 11 barred pargo, 9 cabrilla,8 sierra, 22 triggerfish, 155 dorado and 166 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
