Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
May 4, 2008
Anglers -
Tourism continues to be at below normal levels due to the poor economy in the U.S. The area endured a heat wave this past weekend, just as residents throughout Southern California felt. Ocean conditions were mostly calm with cleaner water moving closer to shore, water temperatures ranged up to to 76 degrees, continuing to steadily warm as the summer season approaches.
Anglers are finding a variety of species, from yellowfin tuna, dorado and striped marlin offshore, to sierra, yellowtail, roosterfish and pargo closer to shore. Sardinas remained abundant around the Puerto Los Cabos Marina jetties. Mackerel were scarce, there were some smaller sized skipjack that could be caught on the fishing grounds for use as bait for striped marlin. Most charters were accounting for one to two dorado per outing, sizes ranged up to 25 pounds, fish were striking a variety of lures as well as trolled baits. The bite for small sized yellowtail continued to be strong off the main beach hotel resort area off of San Jose del Cabo, mixed in were Mexican bonito. The Inner Gordo Banks area was producing a handful of 30 pound class yellowtail for anglers working yo-yo iron jigs, a few huachinango (red snapper) were taken by this same manner. Over the weekend anglers reported seeing yellowfin tuna in the 200 pound range feeding and breezing on the surface of the Banks, but these fish could not be enticed into taking any offerings, even though they would feed on chummed sardinas. One grouper of 130 pounds was landed on 30 pound tackle off of Palmilla Point, the story was that a small sized yellowtail hit on a trolled rapala and once hooked headed to deeper water, where the grouper ambushed the fish and became hooked on the same set up, lucky to land such a specimen on such light tackle.
Last week we talked about the Mexican Navy patrol continuing to seemingly pick on the local La Playita panga fleets, inspecting the same pangas over and over again for their proper paper work, fishing permits, safety equipment etc... Not exactly the best method to help promote the already slack tourist industry. Over the weekend a true crime was witnessed in the areas just offshore of Santa Maria to Chileno, this is the region where the yellowfin tuna had finally moved in and were producing limit style fishing action for the local sportfishing fleets, not overly large fish, but very fun and tasty, averaging 10 to 20 pounds. A commercial fleet consisting of one dozen full sized purseiners moved within two to five miles from shore, proceeding to set their nets and capture hundreds of tons of these juvenile sized yellowfin that could of have provided continued action for the sportfishing fleets for months to come. But, they have all but been decimating now, only a few straggler tuna are now being caught. What a shame that the government still has not put an end to this type of corruption, it makes you wonder if the Navy armada was paid off with some mordida to look the other way, but how could they expect to get away such a crime in front of such a large city where they were operating in such easy view of everyone? Even if these commercial vessels did have legal permits to fish in these waters, you would think that they would have intelligence and courtesy not to do so blatantly in plain sight of so many people. The same Navy patrol boat captain who has been in charge of harassing the local panga fleets was asked why these purseiners were allowed to come so close to shore and set their gear, his answer was simply that they are paying good money so they deserve these fish. Great, that really makes the sportfishing community feel good, we definitely know where their priorities are. All we can do is let the public know what has happened and hope that somehow we can put the pressure on the authorities to do their jobs. In a real world this rogue Navy Captain should be detained and all of the puseiners involved should face punishment, including confiscation of their vessels. Doubtful anything will even come of this, it did appear on National T.V. and in the local papers, so perhaps fleet commanders will feel some pressure.
The local panga fleet launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 41 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a catch of: 2 mako shark, 17 striped marlin, 36 dorado, 124 yellowtail, 118 Mexican bonito, 166 yellowfin tuna, 18 roosterfish, 122 sierra, 28 combined pargo species and 12 cabrilla.
Good Fishing, Eric