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3 Oct 2013 - GORDO BANKS PANGAS San Jose del Cabo September 29, 2013
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Category: Mexico Cabo San Lucas
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Author Name: Eric Bricston
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GORDO BANKS PANGAS
San Jose del Cabo
September 29, 2013
Anglers –
With the fall season now officially here we have seen a substantial
increase in anglers arriving in the Los Cabos area. After the near miss of
Hurricane Manuel last week conditions have now settled down, though still
very tropical, high humidity and scattered cloud cover threatening rain
squalls at times, it is that time of year when we see local tropical
weather patterns develop in the afternoon, often raining in areas north of
the airport, while the rest the region just swelters in the muggy
conditions. Despite the day time temperatures being in the 90s the early
mornings are now cooler and some north winds are starting to make their
presence felt.
Strong ocean currents persist, predominately from the south, water
temperatures have ranged from the upper 70s on the Pacific side of Cabo San
Lucas to an average of 85/86 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez
and towards Los Frailes. The majority of the sportfishing fleets have been
concentrating efforts on the fishing grounds where the warmer water is
present. Large schools of baitfish are spread out on the offshore grounds,
plenty of food sources for attracting gamefish. Commercial bait supplies
were scrambling to find new resources, as during recent storm activity and
full moon phase the bait became scarcer. In recent days pangeros were
traveling as far as La Ribera to obtain sardinas for the fleet, selling
fresh dead bait and limited supplies of live sardinas. Squid were no longer
being found in local waters, but were plentiful off the East Cape region.
Some anglers are finding some early morning action for bolito, which are
making great trolling baits, though have not been easy to catch once the
sun rises.
The most consistent action recently has been found from La Fortuna, Iman,
San Luis and Vinorama, this is where anglers have been drift fishing with
strips of squid and either live or dead sardinas, catching good numbers of
yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 15 pound class, anglers have had better success
using sardinas in recent days, compared to the squid. These is a lot of
pressure on these grounds now, increased local crowds, as well as the East
Cape Fleets were traveling the long run to get into this same action, where
their abundant supplies of live sardinas have been enticing the tuna into a
feeding frenzy. Using lighter leaders of 25/30 lb. has resulted in greater
number of strikes.
The larger yellowfin tuna are still lurking on the Gordo Banks, though this
past week for anglers did try to hook into a cow, they did not have
success, we only heard of one yellowfin of 120 pounds being taken off the
Gordo, this was on Thursday, trolling alive bolito. There were many
sailfish and a few striped marlin, but the tuna did not want to cooperate,
with the swift current and concentrations of bait on these grounds, these
tuna have plenty to eat, hard to say what is going on, though the tuna are
not seen feeding on the surface either, perhaps hanging deeper, escaping
the currents and preferred cooler depths. We are anticipating seeing these
giants become more active soon.
Dorado have been found in good numbers, though most of them are smaller
fish and only a small percentage are topping the 15 pound mark, remember to
release as many of these juvenile fish as possible so that they can have
the chance to mature and reproduce.
Still no consistent action for wahoo, these elusive fish are in the area
though, normally they become more active as water temperature lower into
the 78/80 degree range. A handful of wahoo in the 25 to 35 lb. class were
landed, many of these were taken incidentally while drift fishing for tuna
on straight mono leader, though when anglers added wire leader then these
fish would not strike the same baits.
Rounding out the action were limited numbers of bottom structure species,
including amberjack, grouper, barred pargo, bonito and dogtooth snapper,
not many of these fish were encountered in the strong currents, though some
impressive specimens were accounted for. Also some rainbow runners being
found, these jacks congregate on the high spots and prefer the warmer water
temperatures, scrappy fighters and good eating, ranging up to 15 pounds.
The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos
Marina sent out approximately 126 charters for this past week, with anglers
accounting for a fish count of:
5 striped marlin, 18 sailfish, 8 wahoo, 9 amberjack,18 rainbow runners, 15
bonito, 3 dogtooth snapper, 8 barred pargo, 6 grouper, 715 yellowfin tuna
and 320 dorado.
Good fishing, Eric
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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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