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Los Cabos Fishing Report

August 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment

August 31, 2014 192_Tino

The week started off with weather changes on Sunday, the arrival of high swells created by Hurricane Marie, this forced closure of all water activities for three days. Swells generated by this powerful category five hurricane reached its peak on Sunday evening and through Monday, nearing 20 ft. high, causing some erosion problems, but overall everyone felt fortunate that this storm system stayed several hundred miles off to the west and did not cause much damage. Isolated thundershowers were recorded, heavy downpours at times, lightening strikes, with some power outages. Schools were all closed on Monday as a precaution

Skies are now clear and sportfishing fleets are back in operation. Just before the swell arrived, on Saturday, the fishing action had improved and the season’s first super cow sized yellowfin tuna was weighed in late that same day, just before the Port was closed the following morning. The tuna was caught by a group of three La Playita pangeros, they were trolling a larger sized live skipjack for bait on the Outer Gordo Bank and after a two hour battle landed the monster, which officially weighed in at 335 lb. So the cows have returned and since the reopening of the port there have been several more landed, mainly by the hard core La Playita pangeros, several very large fish were lost after extended battles.  Sardinas were found schooling again around the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Jetty and these baitfish were the bait of choice for the better chances of all around action.

Fleets reported finding mixed sizes of yellowfin tuna off of Santa Maria, Red Hill, Gordo Banks and Iman. The Iman was producing football sized yellowfin and another grade of tuna in the 40 to 70 pound class, a bit finicky, hitting best on lighter tackle, then the problem is fighting heavier fish that are hooked on too light of tackle. The chance at the cows has been on the Gordo Banks, with fish reportedly holding on both the Inner and Outer Gordo Banks. Heavy dive boat pressure has been a negative factor on the Gordo Banks.

The majority of the dorado that are now being encountered are smaller juvenile sized fish, most of them females, which should actually be released and given a chance to mature and spawn in order to help maintain a quality fishery. A major problem is getting the people interested in thinking about the future, instead of the mentality of what they can get for today. Officials would be smart to enforce a temporary closure of all dorado fishing until a later date in the Fall.

An occasional wahoo being reported, but there was more activity from these fish before the recent storm passed through. Billfish action has been spread out as well. Best bet has been to target the yellowfin of varying sizes. Not much reported off the bottom, an occasional dogtooth snapper or cabrilla. No inshore action to speak of, as is normal for late summer.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 47 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
1 striped marlin, 4 sailfish, 170 yellowfin tuna, 20 bonito, 8 cabrilla, 76 dorado, 2 wahoo and 4 dogtooth snapper.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing, Los Cabos Fishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report

August 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

August 24, 2014 194_Goddard

For adventurous travelers who enjoy humid tropical weather conditions, this is a great time to visit the Southern Baja Peninsula. Daily forecasts have called for chances of scattered thunder showers, which has been the pattern throughout August, though most of the rainfall recoded, fell over the mountainous regions and the majority of the time in the direction to the north of San Jose del Cabo. Conditions can change rapidly, this past week there were threatening skies at times, but only isolated showers, winds were light and ocean conditions were comfortable. Moderate swells at the present time, though early next week a large storm swell is predicted to impact the area and waves could be as big as twenty feet. This storm surge is being produced by Tropical Storm Marie, which is now positioned to the southwest, rapidly gaining strength and will be passing close by, offshore of Cabo San Lucas. High chances of rainfall in the coming days as well, be prepared to button down the hatches, because this is the time of year that when it does rain, it can really pour.

Good news that more schooling sardinas have been appearing, smaller sized baitfish were being found around the marina jetty, now larger sized sardinas are schooling inshore off of Red Hill, it has been a long time since these baitfish have even been found in local waters. It is hard to say what the arrival of the big swell will do, likely scatter these baitfish. Water clarity has been clear and blue, this will likely become stirred up closer to shore. Ocean temperatures are ranging from 84 to 88 degrees, warmest zone towards Los Frailes.

Sportfishing fleets have been only moderately busy, as the epic bite off of Southern California is keeping anglers busy. This past week there were a variety of gamefish encountered, most common targeted species were yellowfin tuna, dorado, billfish, snapper and wahoo. With the availability of live sardinas this opened up more options for finding cooperative schools of yellowfin tuna, anglers found the most consistent grounds to be off of Palmilla and Red Hill, though sometimes these schools of tuna would sleep in and only bite mid day, Santa Maria and the Gordo Banks also were holding yellowfin tuna. Fly lining sardinas on lighter tackle was the best method to entice action. The majority of these yellowfin tuna were of the football sized variety, 5 to 12 lb., though there was a larger grade of 40 to 55 lb. tuna being found on the Gordo Banks, though this bite was even more unpredictable and the fish became even increasingly shy as more and more dive boat operators are chartering group tours that anchor and concentrate on these already heavily pressured fragile fishing grounds.

Dorado action was more concentrated to the north of Punta Gorda, small to medium sized fish, striking baitfish and trolled lures. Wahoo became a bit more active in this same region, even though water temperatures are higher than their preferred preference. Wahoo in the 20 to 40 pound class were striking on rigged ballyhoo, as well as trolled Rapalas, no big numbers, but a couple of charters did account for up to a pair of nice wahoo, that is always a bonus.

Best bottom action recently has been for the chance at hooking into a heavy dogtooth snapper, now holding on the shallow to medium depth rocky high spots, including the Gordo Banks, Iman and La Fortuna. Currents have been swift, which does make this style of drift fishing more difficult.

There has been a variety of billfish now found in local waters, namely striped, blue and black marlin, as well as sailfish. Some offshore charters had as mainly as three of four fish, striped marlin and sailfish being the most common, but also some blues and blacks lurking, this is the time of year when some of the biggest marlin are encountered. As anglers Vern and Gerry Eickhorn, from Canada, will attest to. The Eickhorn’s were fishing aboard the super panga “Killer II” with skipper Chame Pino, when they were trolling a live skipjack on the Gordo Banks around 10 a.m., they hooked into a huge black marlin that they battled, along with other additional back up help for some 12 hours while using 80 pound tackle, the group was never able to get the giant fish alongside the boat, it would stay just far enough away for anyone to be able to grab the 20 foot leader. This was one of those gladiator battles, addition supplies were dropping off, water, food, etc…none of it mattered, as the fish eventually broke the line and gained its freedom. Sure made for a good fish story though and some video footage helped verify that the marlin was estimated to weigh in the 800 pound range.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 70 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:

5 striped marlin, 12 sailfish, 280 yellowfin tuna, 9 cabrilla, 84 dorado, 15 wahoo, 15 dogtooth snapper and 4 amberjack.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing Tagged With: , , ,

Cabo Fishing Report

August 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment

August 16, 2014 194_PurvisPargo

Light crowds of visitors this past week, as many families are now busy preparing for the start of fall school semesters. Another factor for the limited crowds of anglers is that Southern California is now enjoying an epic El Nino season, where they are catching yellowfin and bluefin tuna, dorado and yellowtail, all in local waters. Weather patterns in Southern Baja continues to be unpredictable, forecasts have called for scattered thundershowers for much of the past two weeks, most of this activity has been over the mountain regions in the afternoon and not on the coastline, though there were isolated heavy showers over the coastal stretches as well. Ocean conditions have varied from day to day, swirling seas with increased swells, breezes from the north, east and south, then the next day would be calm. Charter fleets were able to launch every day, though on certain days it was wise to stay in closer proximately in case the weather turned unfavorable. There is a newly formed Tropical Storm Karina, now heading westward and far away from having any impact on land.

Ocean temperatures ranged from 82 to 88 degrees through most of the area, clean blue water was found within one mile of shore, lots of schooling skipjack now on the fishing grounds, sardinas are now being netted from the Puerto Los Cabos Marina Jetty area, very small in size. This has been the bait of choice for enticing the schooling football sized yellowfin tuna off of Palmilla Point, the tuna are also now found schooling off of Punta Gorda and La Fortuna, the key is obtaining the sardinas, this is a limited resource that really needs to see Government restrictions enforced in order to maintain a sustainable fishery.

This week local San Jose del Cabo fleets found action close by, with Palmilla Point being one of the more productive spots, anglers were fly lining live sardinas for yellowfin tuna in the 6 to 14 lb. class., some days there were quite a few skipjack to deal with, other times smaller sized schools of dorado would appear and to keep things interesting there were chances at hooking into a wahoo, striped marlin of sailfish. Hard to predict the exact time of day that this inshore action would be best, one morning it would be very early when the fish were most active, then the very next day they would not get going until 11 a.m., who’s to figure why?, current, tides, barometer, full moon, a lot of factors involved.

The Gordo Banks is starting to come alive, with cow sized yellowfin tuna making an appearance, but not in the biting mood yet, another grade of tuna in the 40 to 60 lb. range was also holding on these grounds and several of these were landed, early in the day striking on chunked skipjack or sardinas for bait. A handful of wahoo strikes off of these banks as well and at times the dogtooth snapper were in the mix. These grounds are coming alive, anything could happen on any given day. A black marlin estimated to be in the 450 lb. range was battled for two hours from a local panga, only to have the hook pull free as the fish was near the boat.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 69 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:

2 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 320 yellowfin tuna, 5 cabrilla, 8 jack crevalle, 66 dorado, 7 wahoo, 12 dogtooth snapper, 18 red snapper, 150 skipjack and 6 roosterfish.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing Tagged With: , , ,

Los Cabos Fishing Report

August 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

August 10, 2014 195_Ty_Gary_Purvis

Southern Baja California official kicks off Tournament season with the Bisbee event out of East Cape now going on. Weather patterns remain very tropical, no new storm systems threatening at this time, though forecasts have anticipated scattered thundershowers throughout this week, so far we have seen little moisture fall near the the coast, though over the mountainous terrain they have received more and at times some serious hard rainfall with lightning and thunder, though in isolated areas. Very warm temperatures persist, though we have felt slight relief with increased cloudiness and breezes from the south, off the Pacific.

Swells increased some and then dropped off just as quickly. Ocean water temperatures are now averaging in the upper 80’s throughout the region. Water clarity varied, southern breezes will push in off colored currents, though for the most part blue water has been found within a few miles of shore, which is normal for the summer season.

Bait situation has consisted of limited amounts of sardinas, these schooling baitfish are just moving back in to the Puerto Los Cabos Marina jetty area, small juvenile sized, but have been the ticket to getting into a local yellowfin tuna bite that has developed off of Red Hill and Palmilla, football sized tuna, found close to shore, striking on the live fly lined baits. Hard to say how long this bait resource will hold up, they should actually close this zone from commercial netting of these baitfish, in order to give them a chance to mature, spawn and reproduce, a lot easier said than done, when anglers are relying on these baitfish to provide them action for larger gamefish and particularly when these inshore tuna do want to hit on any other offering besides these small sardinas..

The bite for the larger grade of yellowfin tuna continues far to the north, near Los Frailes, not within range of a normal charter from San Jose del Cabo, actually closer for the East Cape fleets, though a handful of charters from the San Jose are making the long trek, be prepared for gas surcharges if wanting to fish those grounds, where tuna ranging up to 50 pounds have been accounted for. Limited sardinas being offered and more charters were looking for slabs of giant squid, sold at times in local super markets.

Dorado schools were scattered, mostly small sized fish, lots of females, good practice to always release these juvenile dorado to give them a chance to mature, reportedly these popular gamefish are one of the more rapidly growing fish, gaining five pounds per month.
This past week these fish became scarcer, though at times were found in schools, striking on lures and various baits. Wahoo remain in the area, though often become more sluggish in such warm ocean conditions, every day we are seeing one or two of these speedsters mixed in the fish counts. Trolled lures accounted for more of the wahoo strikes, though a handful were hooked into for anglers using chunk or whole baits.

Bottom action remain slow, an occasional snapper, cabrilla, amberjack, with more triggerfish than anything else. A few dogtooth snapper found off the rock piles, deep water grouper and snapper keeping commercial fleet busy, rapid currents making this a tough option for drift fishing. Best chance at hooking into fish while using yo-yo style jigs has been very early in the morning, after the sun comes up this action completely comes to a standstill.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 69 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
1 blue marlin, 6 striped marlin, 9 sailfish, 175 yellowfin tuna, 6 cabrilla, 12 jack crevalle, 36 dorado, 11 wahoo, 3 dogtooth snapper, 11 red snapper, 4 amberjack,10 bonito and 2 roosterfish.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing, Los Cabos Fishing Tagged With: , ,

Bisbees East Cape Offshore Fishing Tournament 2014

August 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment

August 8, 2014, East Cape, Baja California Sur: Bisbees East Cape

Hector Guilarro picked the perfect time to catch his first marlin. On the afternoon of the last day of the 2014 East Cape Offshore Tournament, Guilarro and his team aboard Nautahorse, a 40 Cabo Express, boated a 323-pound blue after a brief battle. As the only qualifying marlin recorded for the three-day event, that fish is worth $396,705, sweeping all three daily jackpots and the top tournament marlin prize. Capt. Mick Thompson is the Nautahorse skipper.

“We were fishing on Gordo Bank and the fight only took 10 minutes on 80-pound tackle. It ate a Pakula lure, a Mick Special,” Thompson said with a laugh after the weight was announced. Guilarro lives in Guadalajara, Mexico and the boat is based in Puerto Los Cabos.

The other big winner for Friday was Manual Cadena, fishing aboard Pocoyos, a 28-foot Pursuit. Cadena used a bait skirted with a pink and blue squid skirt to whip a 45.7-pound dorado. That turned out to be the largest dorado of the tournament and will earn a substantial payout since no dorado were weighed on Thursday. As a result, the previous day’s dorado jackpot rolled over to Friday.

Tony Talamantes on Borracho recorded the only other qualifying fish on Friday. Talamantes’ dorado weighed 38.5 pounds, which turned out to be the third largest fish in that game fish category.

In order to qualify, blue or black marlin must weigh at least 300 pounds. The minimum sizes for tuna and dorado are 40 and 30 pounds, respectively. Teams compete for cash prizes in the base entry divisions, as well as optional daily jackpots.

“We expected to weigh more fish this week after moving the tournament back into August,” said Tournament Director Wayne Bisbee. “But it’s been a very weird season so far, weather-wise here in Baja. Some blame El Nino and the warmer water and others say it’s because of the approaching full moon. Only the fish gods know for sure. But I’m happy Nautahorse found one and we can give away a really big check tomorrow night at the awards banquet.”

The 2014 ECO concludes Saturday night with a traditional Mexican feast hosted by Hotel Buena Vista Resort, on the beach overlooking the Sea of Cortez. The festivities will be illuminated by natural light. From the full moon, of course.

Filed Under: Bisbees Fishing, Fishing, Los Cabos Fishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Cabo San Lucas Fishing Report

July 27, 2014 by Leave a Comment

July 27, 2014 197_Katy_Steve_Holm_Tuna

We are now in the later part of the month of July, this is always a warm time of year, very humid, muggy, days are long and tropical weather can rapidly change overnight. Crowds are a bit below average this month, perhaps the great fishing now being found off of Sothern California is a factor, as many anglers are taking advantage of their local bite, where yellowtail, bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and yellowtail are all providing epic action.

This past week the highlight for the San Jose del Cabo sportfishing fleet was the yellowfin tuna bite that developed north of Vinormama, some 20 to 25 miles north of Puerto Los Cabos Marina, a bit further than what normal panga or local cruiser charters travel on a regular basis. We could see fuel surcharges soon, if this continues. This is the same fishing grounds where the East Cape fleet has been concentrated on and they are located closer to these grounds than Cabo fleets. The key has been the availability of live sardinas, which are being found schooling near Los Frailes. Anglers were drift fishing with these baits and hooking into yellowfin tuna in the 25 to 45 lb. class. This area where the fleet is finding these fish is very close to shore, so close that triggerfish are thick and skipjack are also out numbering the tuna. With persistence and the proper baitfish, charters were able to land, one to five of these yellowfin per morning. Rigging with forty pound main line spliced to 40 or 50 lb. fluorocarbon leader material has been the most productive technique.

Dorado have been found more spread out, the majority being juvenile sized fish, but there are some much larger fish mixed in, bulls weighing up to 50 lb. were reported, though no big numbers, trolling larger baitfish such as bolito was one method than was producing a larger grade of dorado.

Open water trolling saw a mix of billfish, actually last week there was sailfish, striped, black and blue marlin caught from local waters, again no big numbers, but these gamefish are present and an offshore grand slam could happen on any given day.

Ocean conditions are very warm, averaging 85 to 87 degrees, even warmer further offshore, this is the time of year where charters do not need to travel very far offshore to find pelagic gamefish species. Winds were relatively mild most days, with the exception of Thursday, when a tropical squall flared up, moving in from the east and closing charter operations for the morning, not before many charters had already launching into what appeared to be moderate conditions, only to have the breeze switch and turn this squall into a major situation for an hour or two, all boats had to return as quickly as possible to the Marina, but seas became extremely rough quickly, wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph, accompanied by driving tropical storm force thunder showers. Everyone did return safely, storm system passed on through and by mid day, skies were sunny again. Lengthy local power outages, wind and minor flood damage was reported. The landscape will surely turn tropical green from this deluge.

Not much bottom action reported some early morning pargo, bonito, cabrilla action on yo-yo jigs, but nothing red hot. Only an occasional roosterfish or jack crevalle found along the shoreline, no signs of much mullet activity to attract the inshore gamefish, getting late in the season now, it appears that we might not see the large schools of mullet as we would normally expect. Last season we witnessed one of the best roosterfish bites on record and this season has been the complete reverse.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 63 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
1 black marlin, 2 blue marlin, 4 striped marlin, 8 sailfish, 48 yellowfin tuna, 6 amberjack, 5 cabrilla, 4 jack crevalle, 58 dorado, 3 wahoo,1 dogtooth snapper, 10 bonito, 230 black skipjack and 2 roosterfish.

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

Filed Under: Cabo San Lucas Blog, Cabo San Lucas Fishing, Fishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Los Cabos Fishing Report

July 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

July 20, 2014 198_ChipHouske

The summer season continues to progress along, crowds of visitors remain at moderate levels, weather patterns are becoming increasingly more humid and tropical, presently we have no new tropical storms that have developed off of mainland Mexico, where ocean water temperatures are ripe for development and we are seeing local thunderstorms arise practical each afternoon over the foothills and north of the International Airport.

Oceans swells have resided, winds have been variable, some days gusting from the east and then the south. Overall the fishing action was scattered and spotty from day to day. Very strong southern current sweeping through, this will put baitfish down and cause fish to go into the lock jaw mode. Water temperatures are ranging from 85 degrees and even warmer throughout the region, definitely no talk of the water being too cold now, in fact it is the opposite, warmer than what would be considered ideal.

San Jose del Cabo charters are finding the most productive grounds to be north of Punta Gorda, from Iman to Vinorama and further towards Los Frailes. In the Puerto Los Cabos Marina channel area los carnaderos (bait fishermen) are finding caballito and moonfish, ballyhoo have been another option. There have been schools of sardinas moving into the Los Frailes region the past couple of weeks and they are being vigilantly watched over by locals and authorities alike. Limited amounts of these prized evasive baitfish, which have been absent from local waters for over six months, are now being netted and hauled by commercial pangeros towards the Vinorama grounds, a handful of San Jose del Cabo charters have obtained these baits and are using them to entice the yellowfin tuna which have been schooling with black skipjack within a couple miles of shore north of Vinorama. The tuna are quality fish, averaging 30 to 40 pounds, these fish were coming up to chummed sardinas sporadically and there were many more skipjack than tuna being hooked into, in fact in these shallow waters the triggerfish were aggressive and had to be dealt with as well. This sardina situation is very limited and day to day as to when there might be a complete shut down by authorities. The handful of charters making the long run and being able to secure sardinas did accountant for one, two, three and in some cases even more of the yellowfin, having to battle a couple of dozen skipjack in the mean time.

There were several stories of large sized hammerhead sharks, up to ten feet long, having followed in hooked tuna and then taking advantage of an easy meal at the fishermen’s loss. Dorado were found on the same grounds as well, most of them were smaller sized, though a few larger bulls up to 40 lb. were mixed in. On occasion anglers ran across large schools of juvenile dorado, this would be great fly rod catch and release action.

Off the bottom, the strong current made for very fast drift fishing with limited results, only a few snapper, triggerfish, amberjack, bonito and cabrilla being accounted for, this was a early morning bite on yo-yo jigs and bait and dependant on fluctuating currents.

Billfish action included blue and striped marlin, as well as sailfish, no numbers to speak of, scattered action, found by trolling lures and bait, within several miles of shore, do not have to venture far offshore this time of year, though with swell and current activity, inshore clarity can become murky, usually within several miles anglers can find blue water conditions.

Inshore there was spotty action for roosterfish, jack crevalle and a few dogtooth snapper, though with the lack of schooling mullet along the shoreline, this bite has been sub par, considering this is peak season for these mentioned species.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 58 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
34 yellowfin tuna, 5 sailfish, 8 striped marlin, 8 amberjack, 9 cabrilla, 13 jack crevalle, 155 dorado, 2 dogtooth snapper, 16 bonito, 350 black skipjack and 6 roosterfish.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing Tagged With: , , ,

Los Cabos Fishing Report – Tuna Time!

July 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment

July 13, 2014  199_230Tuna

Light crowds of tourists have been enjoying recent tropical weather patterns, which are now the normal pattern for the rest of the summer. No new storm systems at this time, though there have been scattered tropical cloud formations and some isolated thunder showers in the foot hills, very humid, with light breezes this past week.

Ocean conditions became cloudy and off colored closer to shore due to prior swells that pushed through the region, now seas are settling down again and clarity has improved closer to shore. Anglers were finding a mix of caballito, moonfish, as well as ballyhoo available for bait. Another bait option in recent days were live sardinas being delivered to the fishing of San Luis and Vinormama, by commercial pangeros based out of Los Frailes, this is a great sign, as local fleets have not been able to obtain any sardinas for a long time, in fact for the entire 2014 season, up until this week. This is a limited resource and still a long distance to go for bait, who knows how long this will last, large swells will scatter inshore baitfish schools in a hurry.

San Jose del Cabo fleets have been concentrating their efforts on the grounds to the north of Punta Gorda, namely Iman, San Luis and Vinorama Banks, this is where they have found the most productive all around action. Early in the day anglers found decent action on species such as bonito, red snapper, skipjack, a few amberjack and cabrilla, yo-yo jigs and various baits all produced.

The same areas held schooling dorado, most of which were small juvenile sized fish, only an occasional bull to 15 pounds or more reported. Every few days we hear of someone having a wahoo strike, but definitely no numbers or particular spot. Yellowfin tuna are slowly moving into the region, sizes have ranged from footballs to Cows of over 200 pounds. With sardinas now being available, for the time being at least, there have been more chances at enticing the tuna, which are holding on the grounds from Iman to Vinormama. So far just a handful are being caught , most are nice fish though of 20 to 40 lb., the larger Cow sized tuna are striking on slow trolled bolito, which are being jigged up early in the day on the same banks. More large tuna were hooked and lost than actually landed, So far the largest brought into La Playita was a 230 pound fish last weekend in the inaugural Hook Up Tournament.

There has been a mix of sailfish, striped and blue marlin, again no big numbers, but these billfish are present and being hooked into everyday. The way the conditions are shaping up, warm blue water in the 80s, with congregations of bolito and flying fish being reported offshore, this is always a favorable sign that anything could happen on any given day.

Inshore action was more limited, scattered action on roosterfish to 40 lb., though only a fish or two here or there, more jack crevalle than roosters, nothing like the numbers we witnessed last season. A handful of dogtooth snapper have been hanging around the rock outcroppings, these fish will test the stoutest tackle to the limits.

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: 7 sailfish, 2 blue marlin, 9 striped marlin, 2 wahoo, 14 yellowfin tuna, 174 dorado, 38 pargo (red snapper),12 cabrilla, 8 amberjack, 26 jack crevalle, 16 roosterfish, 3 dogtooth snapper, 34 bonito and 22 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

Filed Under: Cabo San Lucas Blog, Cabo San Lucas Fishing, Fishing, Los Cabos Fishing Tagged With: , ,

Los Cabos Fishing Report

July 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment

July 4, 2014 200_Tuna_Yuko

Light crowds of visitors have been greeted by tropical weather patterns as we start the new month of July. Very humid conditions now, created by the recent development of Tropical Storm Douglas, which followed a path off to the northwest. This system brought scattered moderate to heavy thundershowers across Southern Baja on Thursday morning, many outdoor activities were cancelled, including local sportfishing charters, though by mid-day skies had cleared and presently the forecast appears more favorable. This is now the season where it is hard to predict the weather more than a couple of days ahead of time.

Swells increased with this distant tropical disturbance, but diminished as the storm’s distance away increased. Ocean conditions were calm, with a rolling swell, no wind to speak of in recent days.  Water temperatures were 80 degrees or warmer throughout the region and clean blue water was found close to shore.

Anglers were able to find a mix of caballito, moonfish, as well as some mullet on most days and there was reports of sardinas now schooling in the vicinity of Los Frailes and further north, so that is an optimistic sign.  Most common species being found out of the San Jose del Cabo area have been school sized dorado, at times very abundant and other days a bit more scattered. Majority of these dorado were juvenile sized, particularly the ones found close to shore, a handful of larger dorado up to 20 pounds have been encountered further offshore. Anglers were having good success on the schooling fish while trolling with hoochie type lures and strip baits.

Only an occasional yellowfin tuna accounted for out of Puerto Los Cabos, though charters making the long haul from the East Cape, where they have been able to find live sardinas, have found decent action on tuna in the 15 to 30 pound class near the San Luis Bank, these fish want the sardinas and have been hard to entice on anything else.

Roosterfish were found patrolling the shoreline, though the action has been hit or miss, recent trend showed these jacks more active early in the day, so far we have not seen the epic bite that there was last season. Jack crevalle were numerous along the shoreline and a few sierra were found as well. Surf fishing anglers have reported some quality sized snook to over 40 pounds during the last few week period, these prized fish hit on various baitfish as well as a variety of artificial casting lures.

Near Iman, to the San Luis and Vinorama high spots there was good action early in the morning for red snapper (huachinango), with a mix of some amberjack, cabrilla, bonito and triggerfish. Anglers did well early in the day on yo-yo jigs, as well as drift fish whole and cut baits, though this action tampered way off as the sun rose higher in the sky. This was time when most charters were shifting attention to trolling offshore waters for possible dorado and billfish. There was a mix of sailfish, striped and blue marlin now on local grounds, though not in any significant numbers, as more bolito and skipjack begin to congregate on the local fishing grounds we expect action to become more consistent.

Still have not seen any big inshore run of dogtooth snapper, sporadic action only, though this is the month when this action can be at its best, before moving to offshore structure later on in the summer.

Local panga charter fleets launching out of Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 46 charters for the week, with anglers accountjng for a fish count of:  3 sailfish, 4 striped marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 26 bonito, 55 red snapper (huachinango), 13 amberjack, 18  roosterfish, 3 sierra, 225 dorado (many juveniles released), 10 cabrilla and 18 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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing Tagged With: , ,

Los Cabos Fishing Report

June 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment

June 13, 2014 201_JanetRedar

Last week we saw a cold Pacific current sweep in as far north as Los Frailes, this dropped ocean water temperatures down into the 68 degree range, relentless south winds contributed to turning the water a greenish color and scattered the fishing action to few and very far between. The climate was a very pleasant though, as the cool Pacific air was refreshing. Now once again we have had a complete turnaround of conditions, with the months second major Hurricane forming, Cristina developed off the mainland and is presently following a path which will bring the system within a few hundred miles of the Southern Baja Peninsula. This has pushed ocean temperatures back up to 82 degrees, clean blue water close to shore and high swells of 8 to 10 feet. Coinciding with the full moon, there was a very high surge on the evening tide. Looks like this is all the impact we will feel, high humidity, some increasing late afternoon southern wind and a small chance of isolated showers, high swells are forecast to taper off starting on Saturday.

So we do have great water conditions now, though swells are high and the current is swift, still making for spread out sporadic action. Though there were encouraging signs in the past couple of days, a variety of fish are in the area and we have seen the roosterfish bite pick back up after having come to a standstill, anglers trolling with caballito and moonfish had great action on roosterfish to 50 pounds along the beach stretches north of Punta Gorda. After this swell resides it should be a great time to target the inshore dogtooth snapper action. We have noticed more mullet activity along the shore, this attracts more of the inshore gamefish and this is big amberjack season as well. A handful of very impressive fish were landed by beach anglers in recent days, including snook weighing 45 pounds and a few halibut, as large as 30 pounds, not a common local catch, but the way this whole year has been, nothing is out of the question. Beach anglers were using mullet and various casting lures for this action.

Dorado became more active with the warmer waters, though not being found in big numbers, there are some nice sized bulls in the area, one dorado pushing fifty pounds was reported and we saw several others in the 20 to 30 pound class. Dorado were encountered close to shore, as well as offshore, striking lures and bait. Marlin bite was more scattered, no real concentrations now, though they are being seen throughout the zone, not always hungry, we have heard that the striped marlin bite off the East Cape now is very good, though they are having a hard time finding other species in that area, only roosterfish and marlin.

Yellowfin tuna are making a presence on the outside of Cabo San Lucas, traveling with porpoise and also tuna in the 20 to 40 pound range are hanging around north of Punta Gorda, several were hooked into on rapalas and slow trolling larger baits.

Bottom action came to halt with the persistent windy conditions, but as this pattern settled anglers were returning to that option, only limited success on snapper, cabrilla or amberjack, a few yellowtail in the 30 pound range were accounted off of the Gordo Banks in the cold water, yo-yo jigs off the bottom was the method that produced these yellows, that was a one day deal though.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 91 charters for this past week, with anglers accounting for a fish count of:
5 yellowtail, 19 yellowfin tuna, 3 striped marlin, 1 halibut, 18 amberjack,14 cabrilla, 8 sierra, 16 jack crevalle, 44 dorado, 6 dogtooth snapper, 66 bonito and 22 roosterfish.

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

Filed Under: Cabo Fishing, Cabo San Lucas Blog, Fishing, Los Cabos Fishing Tagged With: , , , , ,
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