Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
December 9, 2007
Gene -
While downtown Cabo San Lucas remained busy with visiting tourists, a large percentage of them arriving via cruise ships, twenty miles north in San Jose del Cabo things have been relatively quiet. Though holiday decorations are up and local residents are starting their annual shopping sprees. No rain this week as had been predicted, though there was quite a bit of cloud cover, high temperatures were averaging in the upper 70s. Water clarity continued to be murky and greenish closer to shore inside the Sea of Cortez, ocean temperatures ranged from the low 70s up to about 76 degrees. Larger swells did sweep in off of Cabo San Lucas, but did not get too far inside of the Gulf side of peninsula. Live sardinas were now being found from Palmilla to Chileno and were very scarce off of the La Playita and Puerto Los Cabos area.
The action for striped marlin continued on the Pacific, moving a bit closer off of Los Arcos, boats targeting the stripers were accounting for multiple fish days on a regular basis. The marlin were striking best on live mackerel, but others were striking artificial lures. A scattering of dorado mixed in throughout the region, most of these fish were ranging 10 to 20 pounds and being found in ones or twos.
For the fleets out of San Jose del Cabo the dominate action continued to be for yellowfin tuna. The hot bite off of Palmilla point became less consistent, though on some days the tuna were found there, fleets found better action on the San Luis Bank and off of Punta Gorda, this bite was exclusively on bait, so it was worth while patiently waiting and searching for the sardinas early in the morning. The average sized yellowfin were around 8 to 14 pounds, but there was also another grade of tuna mixed in that ranged up over 20 pounds. Panga anglers accounted for average daily catches of anywhere from 6 to 20 fish per boat.
There was a bonus for anglers fishing in the vicinity of La Fortuna on Wednesday and Thursday, as good numbers of yellowtail were found schooling underneath where the yellowfin tuna were found, these yellows were readily striking on yo-yo jigs and bait, weighing up to 25 pounds. There were also reports of yellowtail found off of Los Arcos, Chileno and Palmilla. Though the hot action for the jacks off of La Fortuna only lasted two days. A handful of amberjack, cabrilla and pargo rounded out the action off of the rock piles.
Surf fishermen continued to report good early morning action for sierra and jacks off the beaches where the schools of sardinas were congregating.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita sent out approximately 53 charters for the week and anglers reported a fish count of: 34 sierra, 18 cabrilla,114 pargo, 16 amberjack, 69 yellowtail, 62 dorado, 44 bonito and 645 yellowfin tuna.
Good Fishing, Eric
