Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
March 23, 2009
Anglers –
Despite it being the popular spring break period the crowds of tourists were light this past week, apparently a combination of the depressed economy and continuous press warnings about the dangers of traveling to Mexico are keeping people away. We all want to stress that the violent crime that is being reported by the press is not occurring in the Los Cabos resort region and this area remains a very safe travel destination. With the official start of the spring season now starting the weather has been nearly ideal, sunny days with high temperatures of about 85 degrees. This is a transition period, when anglers find that water conditions are continually fluctuating, clarity, currents, temperature, bait supplies, swells and game fish migrations are unpredictable and frequently changing. The average water temperature has ranged 70 to 72 degrees, with some warmer currents being found further offshore, the main concentration of whales are now starting to migrate towards their northern feeding grounds.
As the water conditions improved over the previous week, anglers reported better all around a ction. Striped marlin catches continued to be most consistent on the Pacific fishing grounds, though in recent days there have been more schools of mackerel baitfish appearing off of the San Jose del Cabo vicinity and also increased spread out sightings of stripers, on the move and not concentrated on any particular spot, typical scenario for early spring. More dorado have also appeared in areas near where baitfish schools have been encountered, charters have reported two, three, four dorado in their overall catches, with most fish being medium sized 10 to 20 pound fish, striking more often on bait, but also hitting various trolled lures. Reports of any yellowfin tuna action have been few and far between, though more pods of porpoise are being found, most of the time not having tuna associated with them, though we expect as weather conditions do stabilize and warm up that we will see more yellowfin tuna move into local waters.
The most consistent fishing action is now being found closer to shore, this is where schools of sardinas have been congregating, attracting sierra, roosterfish, dorado and jack crevalle. The main areas where the baitfish are now being netted by the commercial fleet is now between Palmilla Point and Chileno Bay, due to higher surf and low tide conditions pangueros did have to work harder than normal in order to net sufficient supplies. Fleets are now concentrating more effort on the rock piles and pinnacles in 100 to 150 feet of water, spots off of Chileno, Palmilla, Punta Gorda, La Fortuna, Iman and San Luis have produced a wide variety of species for anglers using various baits and yo-yo jigs. Catches included bonito, amberjack, yellowtail, cabrilla, grouper, pargo, jack crevalle, giant squid and triggerfish. One incredible sized gulf grouper was landed on Wednesday from a La Playita panga while yo-yo fishing with 30 pound line off of Palmilla Point, the monster weighed in at 75 kilos, or 165 pounds. Most of the yellowtail now being landed have been in the 8 to 12 pound class, though several specimens to over 20 pounds were mixed in. Several wahoo were also hooked into on yo-yo jigs while fishing over these same rocky high spot areas, a bit unusual in the cooler water, but also a good indication that as soon as water warms a few degrees that we should see increased activity from these sought after speedsters.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos marina sent out approximately 53 charters fpr the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
1 striped marlin, 2 mako sharks, 4 hammerhead shark, 3 yellowfin tuna, 5 wahoo, 76 dorado, 45 bonito, 23 amberjack, 92 yellowtail, 14 jack crevalle, 26 roosterfish, 218 sierra, 15 cabrilla, 3 grouper, 18 triggerfish and 22 giant squid.
Good fishing, Eric
