Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
March 13, 2011
Anglers –
The weather is starting to warm and the spring season is set to officially start within couple of weeks. Ocean conditions have been a bit unpredictable, the week began with winds swirling from all directions, the water temperature fluctuated from 68 to 70 degrees through most of the area, though cooler waters were encountered towards Los Frailes and on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.
Friday morning there was a devastating 8.9 earthquake that rocked Japan and spawned a massive tsunami that swept across the Pacific, warnings prompting interests along coastal areas to prepare for impact. The first tidal surges in the Los Cabos area were felt about 11:15 a.m., particularly noticeable in the marinas, where the water first flowed outward before turning around and rushing back in, this cycle was repeated at about ten minute intervals for several hours. Incredible to witness such force of Mother Nature, Our area was spared of any heavy damage, though the news from Japan is absolute devastation.
This past week anglers found that the most productive angling opportunities were close to shore for species such as sierra, roosterfish, bonito and a mix of shallow water structure fish like pargo, cabrilla, yellowtail and amberjack. Most numerous of all were the sierra, striking best on sardinas, average size for these fish was in the 2 to 4 pound range, though several specimens to over ten pounds were accounted for. The bottom species were limited, strong current continued and fish gorged on red crabs. Supplies of sardinas were limited and most prevalent along the beaches north of Punta Gorda.
Conditions can change quickly during this time period. There were reports coming from off of San Jose del Cabo of mackerel schools attracting striped marlin, this has just developed in recent days, so we will hope this develops into some consistent offshore action which for the most part has been slack this winter.
Yellowfin tuna proved elusive this past week, the Iman Bank and the Inner Gordo Bank did produce a few tuna in the 20 to 30 pound class, though the fish were very shy, even though they could be seen in good numbers breezing the surface, just not easy to entice into striking and then if you did get lucky enough to hook up you had to be even luckier to land the tuna before a hungry sea lion had the chance to get a hold of it.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 64 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 14 dorado, 13 yellowfin tuna, 58 bonito, 302 sierra, 82 roosterfish, 16 yellowtail, 89 pargo, 3 grouper, 16 cabrilla, 1 wahoo, 4 hammerhead shark and 8 amberjack.
Good Fishing, Eric
