Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
August 16, 2010
As we reach the middle of August the weather conditions are feeling increasingly tropical, more cloud cover, at times there were threatening rain showers, which to this date have yet to develop. Increased crowds this past week, perhaps the family rush before school starts back up and also maybe due to the more favorable fish reports for the past couple of weeks. Days are quite warm as would be expected at this time, but actually there has been some relief due to breezes off of the Pacific Ocean and cloud cover. Conditions have been relatively calm in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, moderate swells with water temperatures averaging 76 to 82 degrees. The next five weeks are historically the period when the greatest numbers of hurricanes have formed and made land fall on the Southern Baja Peninsula, we will be watching the weather forecasts closely during this time.
Local San Jose fleets have been concentrating mostly on the fishing grounds from the Gordo Banks, La Fortuna, to Iman and the San Luis Banks. Large concentrations of baitfish were seen schooling on the surface of these local fishing grounds. Sardinas have been the main bait source, bags of fresh dead bait as well as limited quantities of live sardinas which were delivered mid morning to the fishing grounds have been available. There also has been a mix of mullet, caballito and moonfish available.
This last week there were more big marlin hooked into around the Gordo Banks area than all of last summer combined. Two black marlin of 500 pounds were accounted for by the local panga fleets, as well as a couple of other fish that ranging in the 300 to 400 pound class. Another black marlin weighing an estimated 600 pounds was brought into the panga docking weigh fillet area at 11:00 p.m. on Monday by the local Daniel Fisher team aboard Cabo 35 ft. Sportfisher named the "Fisherman" same boat that won last year's WON Tuna Jackpot with the 383 lb. yellowfin. All of these big marlin were hooked into while trolling larger live baitfish, such as yellowfin tuna or various skipjack species.
Other highlights and significant catches this past week included a 155 pound yellowfin tuna that was subdued by Dave Marcias of Yorba Linda, Ca. while fishing on the 32 ft. Alejandra, this tuna hit on a smaller sized Mexican flag patterned feather near the San Luis Bank. There was an even a larger tuna landed, a super cow of 319 pounds was weighed in on Monday by local La Playita pangero Efrin Arripez. This is the first yellowfin over 300 pounds this season that we know about taken off of the Gordo Banks. It hit near the Outer Bank while Efrin's group were drift fishing on the 22 ft. panga "Faty" with two dead sardinas pinned on the same hook with straight 60 pound mono, no leader.
Yellowfin tuna were the main stay of the daily catches. Most charters were avenging 4 to 10 fish per day, size ranged from 10 to 300 plus pounds. Average size tuna was 20 to 40 pounds. Fishing were hitting best on either the fresh dead or live sardinas. The area near La Fortuna to Iman produced the biggest numbers of fish. Dorado were being caught at perhaps a 1 to 5 ratio compared to tuna, sizes ranged up to 30 pounds.
Only a handful of wahoo were reported this past week, these fish can become a bit sluggish in the warmer waters. A few quality sized dogtooth snapper are being landed each day by the combined panga fleets, these fish are now being found on the offshore structure while drift fishing with whole or cut baits. Some amberjack and cabrilla rounded out the bottom action, with yo-yo jigs accounting for most of this action, strong currents continues to make this type of fishing more difficult.
The combined panga fleets launching from the La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos area sent out approximately 89 charters for the week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
1 sailfish, 5 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin, 4 black marlin, 5 wahoo, 11 cabrilla, 15 huachinango (red snapper), 8 roosterfish, 88 dorado, 378 yellowfin tuna, 13 amberjack, 8 jack crevalle, 34 skipjack, 26 bonito and 16 dogtooth snapper.
Good Fishing, Eric
