Cabo Wabo Gets Set for Sammy Hagar’s 70th Birthday Celebration

This October will be a momentous one at Cabo Wabo Cantina, as The Red Rocker himself, Sammy Hagar, celebrates his 70th birthday with a series of concerts.

The “birthday bashes” are nothing new. Hagar has been hosting them at Cabo Wabo Cantina since the year benchmark Cabo San Lucas nightspot opened, and over the past few decades there have been guest appearances from a virtual who’s who of rock n’ roll:  from 60s and 70s icons like Bob Weir and Iggy Pop to newer stars such as Toby Keith, John Mayer and Adam Levine.

Hagar originally opened Cabo Wabo in 1990 with his then Van Halen bandmates (he had formerly sung for the band Montrose), famously premiering the new Land’s End bar and restaurant with a massive promotional assist from MTV. The Van Halen partnership eventually dissolved – both musically and in Cabo Wabo – even as Hagar steered the venture toward incredible success.

In 1996, Cabo Wabo spun off its own house brand of tequila. Eleven years later, Hagar sold 80% of his stake in the tequila to the Campari Group, netting a cool 80 million. In 2010, he sold his remaining shares for another 11 million dollars.

The cantina also proved popular, so much so that more locations were spun off in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. Hagar was now as much a business magnate as famous musician, adding rum and branded beach bars to an ever growing portfolio.

But Cabo Wabo Cantina started it all, and it’s where Hagar has celebrated his birthday for 26 of the past 27 years (Hurricane Odile in 2014 resulted in the shows being moved to Las Vegas).

This year is special, however. Sammy turns 70, and as with his 60th birthday a decade ago, rock royalty is expected to show up on stage to help him celebrate. No one knows who’ll make a cameo during the bashes – scheduled for October 9, 11, 13 and 14 – but Hagar’s current bandmates in The Circle are locked in:  Jason Bonham, Vic Johnson and Michael Anthony (who played with Hagar in Van Halen, and still plays with him in the supergroup Chickenfoot).

To say tickets are hard to get is in understatement; but then again, they’re always hard to get. The entry period for the traditional random drawing is over, and winners will be notified on July 21. Ticket price? $70, of course.

Mercury Insurance, sponsor of Hagar’s reality series Rock & Roll Road Trip, is also spearheading a ticket giveaway contest. To enter, visit info.mercuryinsurance.com/axs by August 31.

Those visiting Los Cabos during October, however, will also have an opportunity to see the birthday boy and friends, as some dinner show tickets are always held back and sold on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This year, expect the line around the block for dinner tickets to be longer than ever.
The cameo list certainly will be.

Photo courtesy of www.redrocker.com.

Contact Los Cabos Vacation Rentals for Accomodations ASAP.

Los Cabos Fishing Report – July 16, 2017

July 16 2017

Light crowds of tourists were feeling the real heat of the summer season now, as weather patterns have stabilized, feeling more tropical, higher humidity and lighter winds. Surf conditions were larger, as a result of two distant hurricanes, Eugene and Fernanda, which formed off Southern Mexico and headed off on northwesterly tracks. No impact on land was felt, except for larger ocean swells and high humidity. Ocean temperatures have warmed up into the 82 degree range on the Sea of Cortez side, the Pacific is still slightly cooler. Water clarity has continued to improve, green water inshore is showing improvement each day.

Live bait options consisted of caballito and mullet, some chihuil and bolito were being found and used for trolling on the offshore grounds. Inshore fishing action slowed with higher surf conditions, a scattering of roosterfish and jack crevalle. Most fleets are working the grounds from Iman to the San Luis Banks, this is where the most productive all around action was encountered.

With the warming currents, the fast action for huachinango has slowed down, though there were still some to be caught, all on yo-yo jigs, off of Iman and San Luis Banks, also a mix of Eastern Pacific bonito, up to 10 lb. These were the same grounds that quality sized yellowfin tuna were schooling, not in huge numbers, but tuna in the 30 to 80 lb. range were being hooked into on a daily basis. These yellowfin were also striking the yo-yo jigs well this past week, not something they commonly do, usually they prefer various whole or cut baits. Besides striking on yo-yo jigs, these tuna also would hit while drift fishing or slow trolling baits. Most charters were having chances at least for one or two tuna, other landed as many as three of four. Many fish were lost as well, because these yellowfin were a bit line shy, most anglers were using 40 to 50 lb. leaders in order to have better chances at hooking up, resulting in a greater percentage of lost fish as well.

As the ocean water temperature has warmed back up and as the present surf swell resides, this could be the opportunity for dogtooth snapper to finally go on the bite, so far this season we have seen very limited activity from these larger of all pargo species. We did see a couple of nice sized amberjack recently, this is the time of year when we see the largest of these ambers of the season, not uncommon to see fish up to 80 lb. or more this month.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 61 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 3 striped marlin, 16 dorado, 7 amberjack, 32 bonito, 11 yellow snapper, 3 barred pargo, 89 yellowfin tuna, 13 leopard grouper, 165 huachinango, 12 jack crevalle, 24 roosterfish and 26 triggerfish.

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

The Luxury Traveler’s Guide to Los Cabos

Why fly coach when you are able to fly first-class? Or, better yet, private?

Air travel, like just about every other life experience, is available at a wide variety of levels…from no frills to unfettered opulence.

For Los Cabos bound vacationers, accommodations have traditionally run the gamut from low-budget bungalows to luxurious beachfront resorts, the latter complete with pampering spas and private butlers. But the truly top-of-the-line luxury options nowadays aren’t found in even the poshest of five-star hotels. To really go big, you want your own private villa.

The most appealing thing about Mexico in 2017 is that between the lower cost of living and the extremely favorable exchange rate,  luxury travel is accessible and affordable to a much greater percentage of U.S. citizens than ever before. And Los Cabos, with its movie star enclaves, world-class golf and fishing, and gorgeous golden sand beaches, is the perfect place to take advantage of this sunny economic situation.

Nestled in the hillside enclave of Pedregal, easily the most prestigious and exclusive address in Cabo San Lucas, Villa La Roca is in many ways the apotheosis of gracious living, Cabo style. Breathtaking views of the half-mile Land’s End headland and the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean are available from 7 bedrooms (on three levels), not to mention the clifftop pool, where you can meditate on the majesty or your new surroundings to the gentle cascading sounds of your own private waterfall.

Villa La Roca is the ultimate stress reliever. Try a workout in the fitness facility, or ask the private chef to whip up an order of  Moules à la crème Normande, perhaps with a glass of perfectly chilled Muscadet.

Estrella del Mar (Star of the Sea) is another persuasive argument for the private villa experience. Set in Puerto Los Cabos, a luxurious development located just outside San Jose del Cabo, this seven-bedroom villa features marble floors and top-of-the-line appliances, plus swimming pool and rooftop whale watching terrace, and of course easy beach access to beautiful La Playita.

Did I mention the nearby golf course, the world’s only composite design between Jack “The Golden Bear” Nicklaus and Greg “The Great White Shark” Norman? How about the yacht-friendly marina, or the sculpture garden filled with artworks from famed Mexican surrealist Leonora Carrington?

Villa life is sweet in Los Cabos, but to truly live the ne plus ultra Land’s End lifestyle you’ll also need to charter your own luxury yacht. Snorkel or romantic sunset cruises aboard the 56’ Tokase are a good start, with Champagne to sip as you watch whales breach, dolphins frolic, and the sun explode in a fiery burst of color behind an 80-million-year-old granite arch.

After the sunset, have the captain set a course for home while you enjoy a dinner buffet of fresh locally caught seafood.  The mate will be standing by to refill your Champagne flutes, while back at the villa the staff are warming up the clifftop jacuzzi, fluffing the goose down pillows, and turning back the covers on your 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets.

Still want to fly coach and sleep in a hammock?

For more information about luxury villas, luxury yachts or the local real estate market, call us TOLL FREE @ 1-888-655-4548, or email us at Info@LosCabosVillas.com.

Click on Los Cabos Vacation Rentals

 

Los Cabos Fishing Report 0 July 9, 2017

July 9, 2017 

We did see larger crowds of tourists arriving for the July 4 th holiday week. The weather remained very comfortable, though we are now seeing progressively warmer days, we saw daytime high temperatures range from 85 to 95 degrees. Mostly clear sunny skies, scattered tropical clouds, increased humidity, though no new tropical storms at this time and the crazy southern winds have let up some, so ocean conditions were more favorable. Water temperatures were back up to 78 degrees late in the week, though clarity was still greenish within five miles of shore, but with each passing day it is cleaning up some, a slow process.

Live bait supplies remained plentiful for caballito and mullet, very limited amounts of sardinas were also found. The mullet had become more scattered in the cooler water, but now have moved back into the Puerto Los Cabos channel area in large schools, where jack crevalle and roosterfish have also been seen feeding, we heard of at least one 25 lb. class snook that was also landed from the beach by a local angler.

Local charters have found the most consistent action from Iman to San Luis Banks. This is where there was quality action for huachinango (red snapper) being landed daily, while drift fishing over the high spots and working yo-yo style jigs, same areas produced a handful of amberjack, leopard grouper and Eastern Pacific bonito, the good eating variety. Yellowfin tuna of 30 lb.to 70 lb. are lurking on these same grounds, but not many are being landed, an average of a few a day for the combined fleet, most of these were taken on baits such as live caballito. Later in the week charters also reported finding yellowfin tuna in the 5 to 15 lb. class scattered on the outer perimeter of these same banks, striking on smaller sized hoochie skirted lures. As the water conditions continue to improve we expect the all-around action to break wide open.

There were reports of schooling dogtooth snapper seen, not wanting to bite, as well as larger sized amberjack, this is now the time when both of these prized gamefish can become most active close to shore, look for this to happen possible in the coming week, just a matter of water cleaning up slightly and warming up another couple of degrees.

Roosterfish and jack crevalle have become more active again, most of the roosters we saw were in the 15 to 20 lb. range, surely there are some much larger fish patrolling the shorelines.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 74 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 7 dorado, 9 amberjack, 55 bonito, 22 yellow snapper, 5 barred pargo, 82 yellowfin tuna, 15 leopard grouper, 1 yellowtail, 280 huachinango, 35 jack crevalle, 13 roosterfish and 34 triggerfish.

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

The History of Golf in Los Cabos

Life in Los Cabos didn’t always include world-class golf courses with picturesque ocean, desert and mountain views, and pampering comfort food stations set at discreet intervals. Once upon a time, there wasn’t any golf at all.

The first course was built only 30 years ago: that was the San Jose del Cabo Municipal Golf Course, a nine-hole layout designed by Mario Shedjanan that opened at Punta Sur in 1987. The muni course would later be renamed after the nearby Mayan Palace resort, and today is managed by Mexican hospitality brand Vidanta.

The first true golden age of golf in Los Cabos began in the 1990s, when legendary 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus followed up his breathtaking courses at Palmilla (the Mountain and Arroyo Courses opened in 1992; the Ocean Course in 1999) with an absolute masterpiece at Cabo del Sol. Nicklaus claimed at the time that The Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol was “the best golf property I’ve ever seen,” and it continues to be ranked among the 100 best courses in the world by GOLF Magazine.

Roy Dye and his son Matt designed Campo de Carlos (later renamed the Cabo San Lucas Country Club) in 1994, but it was Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s Cabo Real that really put the area on the map in 1996, when whales were spotted breaching just offshore during a televised Senior Slam event.

By the time Nicklaus returned to open El Dorado in 1999, the die had been cast. Tom Fazio’s Querencia followed in 2000, and is now rated one of the world’s 100 best by Golf Digest; and British Open champion Tom Weiskopf added an impressive Desert Course to go along with Nicklaus’ landmark Ocean Course at Cabo del Sol in 2001.

Davis Love III’s The Dunes Course for the 1,500 acre Diamante development was yet another triumph, and was the highest rated Los Cabos course to date (the seaside links is currently ranked 38th in the world by GOLF Magazine). Not content to rest on its laurels, Diamante brought in 14-time major champion Tiger Woods to design the parkland style El Cardonal (2014) and the 12-hole Oasis Short Course (2016).

Nicklaus, the godfather of Los Cabos golf, added to his rich local legacy with Club Campestre (2007), Puerto Los Cabos (the only composite design from Nicklaus and Australian champion Greg Norman opened in 2008), and the spectacular cliffside Quivira (voted best new international course for 2015 by GOLF Magazine); and Tom Fazio has proven his stunning Querencia course was no fluke, adding a magnificent loop at Chileno Bay in 2016.

That’s 15 gorgeous courses and counting, with more in the pipeline:  including a full 18-hole course from Greg Norman at Rancho San Lucas, which is scheduled to open early next year; and a Twin Dolphin course from Masters champion Fred Couples that’s also slated for 2018.

Photo courtesy of Quivira Golf Club.

Los Cabos Golf Courses

Fishing Report July 2, 2017

July 2, 2017

Through another month, we now begin the first of the three true summer months. Up until now we have felt relatively mild heat, a bit cooler than normal throughout June. These conditions feel great for local residents, as we know that soon enough we will endurance much warmer and humid times. Last week Hurricane Dora formed and passed as a category one storm about 250 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, locally there were some limited isolated rain squalls, did not amount to much at all though, as this system quickly weakened as it passed over cooler Pacific waters.

We did feel some south winds, but much less and lighter than the previous week. Though the ocean conditions remains turned over, as slack currents are delaying the time it takes for conditions to rebound. Water temperature is back up into the 74 degree range in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and Los Frailes, out to about 10 to 15 miles the water is green, slowly clearing, offshore the water is cleaner and up into the upper 70 degree range. Though better fishing action is still be found closer inshore near the Iman to San Luis Banks, charters that scouted grounds further offshore did not reports much, some scattered yellowfin tuna early in the week for charters out of Cabo San Lucas, but that action dissipated later in the week. Not much being reported for billfish action, some striped marlin being seen, but very few actual hook ups.

Bait supplies remained steady for caballito and mullet, not much else now, even bolito on the fishing grounds vanished, as conditions eventually recover we do expect the offshore grounds to attract the baitfish schools and more gamefish following. In the meantime fleets found that the most productive action was off the bottom, mainly on yo-yo type jigs for red snapper and a few amberjack. The snapper, or huachinango were found mainly on the San Luis bank, best bite was early in the day and these excellent eating fish averaged 4 to 10 lb. We saw a few amberjack off these same grounds, weight from 10 to 30 lb.

Only a few small sized dorado reported in recent days and a couple of reported missed wahoo strikes. There were some quality sized yellowfin tuna hooked into on the grounds from Iman to San Luis, anglers drift fishing or slow trolling various baits had opportunities when putting in enough time, there was one yellowfin close to 100 lb. landed mid-week, other days we would see a few tuna in the 40 to 70 lb. class for all charters combined. A few smaller football sized tuna were also hooked into on yo-yo jigs or trolled hoochies, but numbers were light. Though with this grade of yellowfin schooling in the green water, over the bottom structure we do expect for the bite to become much more consistent as the clarity of the water improves. Crazy now how the action is still better closer to shore where the water clarity is greener, rather than further offshore in the blue water. The deal is that there is more baitfish close to shore than further out, the fish do need to follow their food supply.

For the charters that did try inshore areas for roosterfish, they did find some activity, though these fish were more scattered due to off-colored, cooler conditions, as well as the swells increasing earlier in the week due to the passing of Hurricane Dora..

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 68 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:  4 dorado, 8 amberjack, 28 bonito, 18 yellow snapper, 7 barred pargo, 29  yellowfin tuna, 9 leopard grouper, 1 dogtooth snapper, 1 broomtail grouper, 235 huachinango, 10 jack crevalle, 12 roosterfish, 3 sierra and 28 triggerfish.

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

Los Cabos Open Tennis Tournament Returns This Summer

There are only two professional tennis tournaments played each year in Mexico. 

The first is the Mexican Open, a staple of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Tour since 1993, and a rite of spring in Acapulco since 2001. The second is the Los Cabos Open, an ATP mens singles and doubles competition that premiered in 2016 at a newly constructed tennis complex just outside Cabo San Lucas.

The Los Cabos Open returns for its sophomore edition July 31 – August 5, bringing back some of the world’s best players to compete for nearly $800,000 in prize money, and offering plenty of off-the-court festivities, from high-end food and drink concessions to invitation-only special events (last year’s media cruise showcased top players volleying on a luxury yacht based tennis court in front of Land’s End).

The primary forces behind the first Los Cabos Open were banking and financial services giant Mifel, and Cinemex, the largest movie theater chain in Mexico. Both return as primary sponsors in 2017, and will help to grow the impressive facilities that have sprung up around the event.

The tournament host is again Delmar International School, a private bilingual educational institution, where last year six separate courts – including a 3,500 seat stadium and a 1,000 seat grandstand – were specially built, as was an enormous exhibit area and food concession center featuring spectacular Land’s End views. Attendees will not only enjoy brilliant tennis, but be able to sample movie quality Cinemex popcorn, savor fresh local seafood, and sip world-class wines from Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe. Players and special guests, meanwhile, will be lodged at the nearby Sheraton Grand Los Cabos Hacienda del Mar Resort.

Last year, mammoth-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic beat major champion Feliciano Lopez in the singles final. Lopez, a dashing Spaniard with major championship credentials (he won the French Open doubles in 2016 with countryman Marc Lopez), was the media darling of the first event, fawned over by the Spanish speaking Los Cabos press corps. He returns in 2017, as do six other players ranked in the top 100 internationally. Thomas Berdych, a former Wimbledon finalist currently ranked 14th worldwide, joins Lopez as the marquee attraction.

Tickets for this year’s event are available by the day or week at www.abiertoloscabos.com, or at select box office locations like Koral Concierge in San Jose del Cabo. For stylish accommodations during tournament week, peruse the private villa options at www.loscabosvillas.com.

Photo courtesy of Abierto Los Cabos.

 

Los Cabos Fishing Report – June 26, 2017

June 25, 2017

The official start to summer season began this week, though at this time the climate feels cooler that you would normally expect at this time. With high temperatures averaging in the mid to upper 80s. The conditions for this entire past week was dominated by persistent swirling southern winds, gusting to 30 mph at times. These relentless winds have turned over the ocean conditions entirely, the week before we saw ocean temperatures reaching up to 80 degrees in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and further north, presently water temperatures in this same region are now in the 69 to 70 degree range, all the way to Punta Colorado and some fifteen miles or more offshore.

So sportfishing fleets have been searching hard, with only so many options available. The conditions on land actually felt pleasant, agreeable temperature, though until these winds patterns settle down, we will be plagued by cooler water conditions from the Pacific, as well as currents being greenish for the first few miles out, eventually things will rebound, but for now it is a waiting game and mainly fishing closer to shore for what fish species might be cooperative. Bait supplies consisted of mullet and caballito, surf conditions increased some and this made in more challenging for the bait netters to find mullet, caballito were being netted inside the marina channel where it was calmer.

With ocean water temperatures progressively cooler all week, and moving farther offshore the all-around action became more limited. Earlier in the week there were fair numbers of roosterfish found trolling baits along the shoreline, some roosters to 50 lb. were reported, also jack crevalle and a handful of sierra. A few dogtooth snapper to 20 lb. were landed, as well as various structure species, island jack, pompano, yellow snapper, huachinango, leopard grouper, broomtail grouper, amberjack, bonito and triggerfish. No huge numbers, but decent variety and all quality eating fish. As the week went on the bite fell off, cooler water shut down the roosterfish and choppy conditions made it tough to even try and fish the bottom structure.

A few yellowfin tuna to fifty pounds were landed, these from the grounds from Iman to San Luis Banks, on yo-yo jigs or various baitfish. Also limited number of dorado earlier in the week before water temperature cooled so much. A few wahoo strikes were reported as well, so these pelagic gamefish are still in the area and as conditions recover the action will surely turn back around. These weather patterns are becoming even more unpredictable and can be discouraging, but will recover soon enough, just can be very unfortunate for anglers that arrived during this time frame.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 60 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 2 striped marlin, 5 dorado, 13 amberjack, 9 island jack, 4 pompano, 44 bonito, 9 yellowfin tuna, 30 yellow snapper, 6 barred pargo, 12 leopard grouper, 3 dogtooth snapper, 1 broomtail, 32 huachinango, 12 jack crevalle, 22 roosterfish, 1 parrot fish, 8 sierra and 35 triggerfish.

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

Wine Culture Flourishes in Los Cabos

When Ralph Amey published his benchmark guide Wines of Baja California in 2003, there were fewer than two dozen wineries in Valle de Guadalupe and the smaller grape growing valleys located between Ensenada and Tecate. Thirty-five years before that, the grand total was four.

Today, there are well over 120 wineries, and publications as august as Vogue and The New York Times have compared the region to Northern California’s Napa Valley.

What does this Baja California wine boom – in both quantity and quality – mean for visitors to Los Cabos, some 700 miles further south in Baja California Sur?

Cape cities Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo may set the peninsular standard when it comes to hotels and resorts, but when it comes to hospitality bedfellows like food and wine, they often follow the trends set in northern Baja communities like Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada.

The Baja Med movement which developed in the early 2000s – pioneered by Tijuana chefs like Miguel Ángel Guerrero and Javier Plascencia – exercised (and continues to exercise) a profound influence on the Los Cabos dining scene, most notably in the emphasis on local and organic produce, farm-to-table restaurants, and creative international fusions. The success of the peninsula’s wine industry, which is responsible for upwards of 90% of all Mexican table wines, has also affected hospitality trends in Los Cabos.

Although a few hardy souls are attempting to harvest grapes and bottle wine between Los Cabos and La Paz, hotter temperatures and a lack of the peculiarly saline water that gives the Valle de Guadalupe its distinctive terroir ensure the wines of El Sur will never rival those being made near La Frontera.

No, the real inroads made by Valle de Guadalupe producers in Los Cabos are their prominent billing in five-star cartas de vino, spots previously reserved for high-profile wines from France, Italy, Argentina, Chile and the U.S.  These Baja based wines are also being heavily promoted to visitors who once thought little of pairing their dinners with a lime-wedged bottle of Corona, or a salt-rimmed margarita.

Tadd Chapman’s Don Sanchez in San José del Cabo is not just one of the city’s finest restaurants, it’s a legitimate wine destination, with an onsite sommelier and a carry-out shop featuring over 300 labels. Solomon’s Landing offers monthly wine pairing dinners on the Cabo San Lucas marina boardwalk during high tourist season, and the Los Cabos Winery offers tasting flights near the town square.

Resorts too are jumping on the bandwagon. The Resort at Pedregal’s annual The Art of Taste Festival brings chefs as well as sommeliers from around México and beyond, and Grand Fiesta Americana boasts a wine themed spa, SOMMA WineSPA, with treatments and therapies built around wine varietals such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Vinotherapy, anyone?

Photo of a Valle de Guadalupe vineyard courtesy of Cbojorquez75 and Wikimedia Commons.

Los Cabos Fishing Report – June 18, 2017

June 18, 2017

It is starting to feel more like summer with each passing week, though the climate is still very comfortable, high temperature near 90 degrees. Some scattered tropical clouds now appearing, there was a Tropical Storm Calvin last week off of the southern Mexican coast, did bring heavy rainfall to isolated areas, but here in Los Cabos we were not impacted at all from this system. Ocean swells have been light to moderate, water temperature are reaching 78 to 80 degrees in the direction of San Jose del Cabo and to the north, this is also where the clarity of the ocean has been the clearest, attracting more pelagic gamefish.

Just coming off the full moon phase from last week, conditions are settled down in the direction of the Sea of Cortez, though the Pacific has had more wind, with much cooler water temperatures and greener currents, not the deep blue waters being found north of Punta Gorda. Update on water clarity turning green after strong south sinds on Friday, this did slow down the action and now we will wait for conditions to rebound as winds reside.

Bait suppliers are mainly dealing caballito and mullet now, offshore grounds are seeing more bolito move in and some reports of chihuil also being present. All around action showed favorable improvement in recent days, still no huge numbers of any particular species, but always a great sign when we see billfish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado and roosterfish all being found on a daily basis. Most consistent grounds were from the Iman and San Luis Banks, north to Vinorama, this is where the water is clean and blue, with lots of baitfish schools present, which in turn means that the gamefish have more than enough natural food source to gorge themselves on and are not always hungry and aggressive in striking what anglers offer.

Yellowfin tuna are scattered throughout offshore grounds, though best chance at hooking into a 40 to 60 lb. yellowfin was in the vicinity of San Luis Bank and the bait of choice was either caballito or bolito, either while drift fishing or slow trolling. Other tuna in the 10 to 25 lb. range were randomly striking trolled Rapalas, hoochies, yo-yo jigs, etc. Though the better grade of tuna were striking mainly on the larger live baitfish. Though these fish were limited in numbers, with anglers very fortunate to land one or two of them.

.Inshore action is now dominated by roosterfish, with many fish in the 20 to 60 lb. class landed, as well as a handful of even larger fish reported. A bit sporadic as to where the best action might be found on any given day. Also mixed in are some jack crevalle to over 25 lb., as well as some late season sierra, a few nice sized fish close to ten pounds. Not much reported for inshore dogtooth snapper or amberjack, we are expected this annual bite to start up anytime, with schooling mullet now found along the shore line, this attracts larger gamefish.

The highlight of the week has to be the dorado action, after seeing very few of these popular gamefish for months, this week we finally saw more significant numbers, especially later in the week around the same San Luis and Iman Bank areas. Many charters were accounting for three or four dorado per outing, which would have been unheard of during previous weeks. Sizes were respectable as well, most of these dorado were in the 10 to 17 lb. range. These fish were striking best on slow trolled baits, but a percentage were also taken on lures. Wahoo are becoming more active as well, with many fish cutting mono leaders used while targeting tuna, some wahoo to 30 lb. were landed on caballito, as well as trolled Rapalas, many more wahoo were actually missed than were caught.

The main concentration of striped marlin was found around the 1150 spot further offshore, though marlin were also encountered near San Luis  and Iman Banks on some days. Also there were a couple of reports of swordfish sightings further offshore as well.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 77 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 8 striped marlin, 16 wahoo, 68 dorado, 3 amberjack, 5 pompano, 28 bonito, 58 yellowfin tuna, 14 yellow snapper, 12 barred pargo, 15 leopard grouper, 34 huachinango, 18 jack crevalle, 75 roosterfish, 22 sierra and 65 triggerfish.

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