GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
October 27, 2013
Anglers –
Los Cabos is bustling now with visiting anglers and vacationers from
various countries, peak fall season is now happening, with high stake
tournaments being the main events. Weather conditions are now ideal, as
Tropical Storm Raymond remained far to the south, heading on westward path.
Southern Baja felt no effects from this system, besides moderately
increased swell activity. Days have been clear and sunny, high temperatures
in the mid 80s, with lows dropping into the upper 60s, there is a chill in
the air early morning, so remember to dress accordingly.
Sportfishing fleets are now very busy and charters have been searching the
fishing grounds in all directions to find best possible opportunities.
Anglers encountered breezy conditions at times, normal fall patterns, with
wind off the land early, then later switching out of the north after the
sun comes up, but overall the ocean conditions were favorable, water
temperatures averaging 85 degrees from the Golden Gate Bank on the Pacific,
all the way to Los Frailes in the Sea of Cortez.
Bait suppliers are working overtime in order to find available bait sources
for the scores of charter boats. Sardinas were now found schooling near
Cabo San Lucas, limited amounts for the demand required from such large
numbers of charters. There have been caballito, other small jacks and
ballyhoo available, squid were not found in local waters, but some super
market do stock slabs of the giant squid, this can be an option for anglers
wishing to drift fish for tuna.
Wahoo went on the first real active bite of the season this past week,
actually was very good over last weekend and through early this week and
then tapered off towards the end of the week, that can be the story when
targeting the elusive wahoo. The best spot recently was the San Luis Bank,
anglers reported early morning strikes on trolled lures and then later as
the sun rose in the sky, slow trolling with the larger baits was more
productive, lots of boat pressure, creating a noisy commotion, which can
cause these wahoo to be more finicky. Many charters were reporting landing
two of three wahoo, with other missed strikes, sizes averaged from 25 to 45
lb. Rapala diving plugs in purple were one of the more productive lures for
the week.
Dorado have been found on all of the same fishing grounds, on some days
more than on others, catches could vary from maybe one dorado to over a
half dozen, depending where the schools were found. Trolling with lures and
various baitfish were working well for locating dorado, average sizes
ranged from 5 to 15 lb.
Good numbers of football sized yellowfin tuna could be caught if live
sardinas were obtained, even if the baits were super small, the fish were
still hitting on them, particularly on the Gordo Banks and north to the
Iman Bank. Though without the sardinas it was hard to get the smaller tuna
to bite, a handful were taken on yo-yo style jigs and strip squid was
working at times as well, but the sardinas are what these yellowfin really
prefer. The cow sized yellowfin tuna are still lurking around the Gordo
Banks, no big numbers of these tuna are being hooking into, but everyday
there have been at least a couple of big hook ups, one local boat brought
in 237 lb and 270 lb. cows on consecutive days, so it seems this action for
the cows is heating up just in time for the upcoming WON Tuna Jackpot.
Billfish have been scattered recently, but as is normal during the fall
season, on any given day there is always a chance at hooking into either a
sailfish, a striped marlin or a much larger black or blue marlin. All of
these species can be encountered on the same general fishing grounds.
With increased surface action opportunities, there was not much bottom
action going on, though for anglers that did target bottom species, there
was limited success found, a mix of snapper, bonito, cabrilla and pargo,
though no consistent bite and breezy conditions created faster drifts,
which made this form of fishing more difficult.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 176 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of: 3 blue marlin, 12 striped marlin, 15
sailfish, 36 wahoo, 1 pompano, 5 dogtooth snapper, 16 bonito, 38 pargo, 12
cabrilla, 92 dorado, 2 roosterfish and 185 yellowfin tuna.
Good fishing, Eric
--
GORDO BANKS PANGAS
Eric Brictson / Operator
619 488-1859
Los Cabos (624) 142-1147
e-mail:gordobanks@yahoo.com
WWW.GORDOBANKS.COM
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