Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
July 19, 2010
Mild weather patterns that we have felt for the first part of July are now heating up more towards what is expected for this time of year. A tropical depression has developed towards the south and is creating more tropical humid conditions. This system is not expected to form into much, just a chance of thunder showers over the next couple of days, which would be a relief to the parched landscape. Winds continue out of the south, but in the direction of the Sea of Cortes the ocean conditions were calm and water temperatures are once averaging 80 degrees or even more in some areas. Crowds of tourists are lighter than normal and it appears that this summer is on track to be slower than last year.
Anglers found the live bait situation to be limited, particularly out of Cabo San Lucas, fleets were sending boats and even vehicles with large tanks to San Jose del Cabo to obtain caballito and mullet. The only live sardinas seen were from commercial pangeros launching out of Los Barilles and these were basically limited supplies for their personal use. Giant squid were still being found out of the East Cape and limited amounts of them are being brought south to be sold whole, mainly to the commercial panga fleets out of San Jose del Cabo. Schools of bolito have yet to become established on the local fishing grounds, only occasional encounters of scattered fish. Smaller sized yellowfin tuna are appearing and this certainly will attract more numbers of black and blue marlin in the coming weeks.
This is the time of year that a wide variety of offshore gamefish appear on any given day, never really know what you might encounter. This past week the main attraction for charters launching out of San Jose del Cabo was the yellowfin tuna bite that developed outside the San Luis Bank. The key to this action was having the right bait, which was giant squid, not always easy to obtain, some anglers were purchasing the bait at local super markets and others were lucky to find other sources on the docks. Chumming cut pieces and drift fishing with strips was the technique, water clarity was very clear and blue and the yellowfin tuna were a bit line shy, best action was found on lighter leaders of 50 pound, some anglers were able to get bit on 80 pound fluorocarbon. Many tuna in the 60 to 100 pound class were accounted for, so it did not make sense to put out tackle lighter than fifty pound. Largest tuna in recent days weighed in at La Playita was a 141 pounder. Charters that targeted these tuna were accounted for an average of one to four per boat, smaller football sized tuna were also in the same areas, striking on small Rapalas and hoochies, but there were not many tuna of in between size range, either the footballs or the 60 to 100 pound fish.
The few anglers that did try their luck off the bottom reported improved success for snapper, amberjack, bonito and a few cabrilla, most of this action was while working yo-yo style jigs, which can be even more work in the warmer weather, usually something that is done early in the morning while weather is cooler.
Dorado action was scattered, with more numbers of these fish being found out of Cabo San Lucas, fish ranged in sizes to over 30 pounds, though the majority were more in the 5 to 15 pound range, striking on a variety of lures and baits. Wahoo were not as active this past week, but a few fish in the 20 to 40 pound class were hooked into north of Punta Gorda.
Inshore action slowed down, perhaps because schools of baitfish such as mullet are not as prevalent now. There were a handful of nice dogtooth snapper and amberjack up to 40 pounds accounted for, as well as some quality sized roosterfish weighed to fifty pounds. Surf fishermen reported little action as well, nothing much going on off the San Jose Del Cabo Estuary this past week, this is where some good snook action had been reported.
The local panga fleets launching out of La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 55 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of, 5 striped marlin, 2 sailfish, 1 black marlin, 2 blue marlin, 118 yellowfin tuna, 29 dorado, 9 wahoo, 21 huachinago (red snapper), 9 dogtooth snapper, 12 cabrilla, 33 amberjack, 28 roosterfish, 48 bonito and 14 jack crevalle.
Good fishing, Eric
