Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
March 7, 2010
The start of March has brought spring like weather, as temperatures have been reaching 80 degrees and skies have been mostly clear and sunny. There were winds from the north, switching around from the south, strong currents and fluctuating ocean conditions. This contributed to slower all around fish counts, the majority of the action took place either close to shore or off of bottom structure. Water temperatures varied from 72 to 76 degrees, a warmer current was found outside of the Gordo Banks and moved towards the 95 spot outside of Chileno.
Anglers found good action for sierra in the 2 to 4 pound range, slow trolling with sardinas was most productive, though these aggressive feeders were also striking on hoochies, Rapalas and casting jigs. There were some roosterfish in the same areas as well, the majority of them smaller sized fish, though several roosters up to 40 pounds were reportedly hooked into and were released. There were some dorado encountered close to shore, mostly single fish or pairs, but there was a chance at catching one or two of these acrobatic gamefish.
Sardinas were found schooling inshore from San Luis to Vinorama and were of good size, there were mackerel available most days in limited quantities.
Yellowfin tuna were reported on the outside traveling with porpoise, most of the reports for tuna came from the Cabo San Lucas area, though it was hit or miss, as was the action for striped marlin, more stripers were being found on the Pacific fishing grounds than in the direction of the Sea of Cortez.
Giant squid made a strong appearance this past week off of the San Jose del Cabo region, mainly a deal that the commercial fleet was targeting, since their bread and butter fishery of bottom species has not been very productive. Charter fleets were practicing more bottom fishing, using a combination of bait and yo-yo jigs, they reported a mix of snapper, amberjack, grouper, bonito and cabrilla, though with persistent winds and strong currents this option was not producing the numbers of fish that would be expected for this time of year.
On Friday the San Jose del Cabo panga fleet found improved action all around, with more quality bottom species biting on the various rock piles to the north of Punta Gorda, anglers using yo-yo iron jigs had catches that included grouper, cabrilla, amberjack, pargo, triggerfish, bonito and they also lucked into a late winter time bonus of wahoo, which were encountered close to shore off of Punta Gorda. One boat accounted for a total of four wahoo up to 40 pounds while trolling fresh cut squid, other boats had one or two wahoo in their mixed catch, they hit on Rapalas and yo-yo jigs as well. Strange to find wahoo schooling in local waters at this time of year, but this year has been full of surprises, so it has been hard to predict what might happen on any given day.
The next couple of months is transition period, conditions can change rapidly from day to day, anglers can have options offshore, inshore and off the bottom structure. Following daily reports to determine the best strategy for the next trip, reading the water temperature satellite charts also can provide valuable information on where breaks can be found.
The combined panga fleet launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:
1 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 3 mako shark, 7 hammerhead shark, 11 yellowfin tuna, 32 dorado, 18 wahoo, 23 cabrilla, 15 grouper, 24 amberjack, 36 pargo, 44 bonito, 8 surgeon fish, 232 sierra and 19 roosterfish.
Good fishing, Eric
