August 29, 2015 

Now into the final month of the summer season and weather patterns have remained calm off of the Southern Baja Peninsula, at this time there is Hurricane Jimena now gaining strength, positioned over 1000 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas, this system is nearing major hurricane status and we are all fortunate that it is heading in a direction far from land. Crowds of tourists remained light, though vacationers are enjoying the clear and calm conditions, though it is very tropical, warm and humid now, need to remember to stay hydrated. We are seeing some afternoon thundershowers over the mountains to the north, though not as concentrated as in past weeks. We will be following weather forecasts very closely for the next month, this is historically when storm systems can develop rapidly.

Water temperatures have ranged from 84 degrees on the Pacific, to an average of 87 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Swells have been light for this time of year, strong currents on occasions and calm seas early in the day, with breezes picking up in the afternoon, but no heavy winds to report. Overall the ocean water conditions have steadily improved throughout the week, no more greenish water to report, clarity is clean and blue to within a mile of shore. With these improving conditions we have seen more numbers of dorado, wahoo and even bottom species biting. Most fleets have been finding the most consistent action from the Gordo to the Iman Banks.

Bait supplies near the marina consisted of sardinas and caballito, sardinas were plentiful, but often were not able to be netted until about 7 a.m. when schools moved close to shore. On the fishing offshore grounds there have been chihuil, bolito, skipjack and small sized yellowfin tuna, all of which can be used for bait targeting larger gamefish. Strips of giant squid also remained an option, found in some of the local super markets. Yellowfin tuna have been found in a wide range of sizes, from 5 lb. to over 300 lb. Best chances for the largest yellowfin tuna has been mainly around the Gordo Banks, no big numbers, but this is the best it has been so far this summer, while Iman Bank has produced greater numbers of fish in the football to 60 pound size. This is also where dorado action has come alive in recent days, most do-do’s weighed under 15 lb. Wahoo action has really come to life with the cleaner inshore ocean conditions, hot spot just to the north of Punta Gorda. Several anglers reported having up to a half dozen solid wahoo strikes while trolling Rapalas and other favored lures, sizes were in the 20 to 40 lb. class, bite was not only early in the morning, some days best action was encountered late morning.

Anglers found mixed success off of the bottom structure, there were dogtooth up to 55 lb. landed, amberjack to 50 lb., a few yellowtail to 35 lb., grouper to 40 lb., barred pargo to 15 lb., quality yellow snapper as well, surgeonfish and rainbow runner. Great variety for quality species, no significant numbers, but great to have this option, all in the same area as where the other highly sought after surface fish were being found.

Billfish are hanging around large concentrations of baitfish, chances at a offshore grand slam now, with sailfish, striped, blue and black marlin all being hooked into on any given day, something you do have to target and put some time into, but the opportunities are definitely there.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 50 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of:  6 striped marlin, 3 blue marlin, 3 black marlin, 9 sailfish, 17 wahoo, 58 dorado, 530 yellowfin tuna, 7 dogtooth snapper, 6 amberjack, 3 yellowtail, 9 cabrilla, 2 broomtail grouper, 15 bonito, 18 rainbow runners, 13 yellow snapper, 16 barred pargo and 2 surgeonfish.

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

July 19, 2015

After a quiet few weeks of calm weather with no tropical storm activity, things became busy once again in the Eastern Pacific. With two named systems developing quickly early in the week, Hurricane Dolores and Tropical Storm Enrique, of which only Dolores moved close enough to impact Southern Baja, this storm reached category four strength at one point while churning over warm waters some 200 plus miles west of Cabo San Lucas, we all felt fortunate that this storm stayed far enough from land to not cause any devastating damage. The main impact we felt was that all ocean activities were halted on Tuesday, as the Ports of Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Los Cabos were closed with posted Red Flag conditions. There was only scattered rainfall felt, more of this towards Todo Santos, with winds to 30 mph, ocean swells peaked close to 15 feet high on Thursday. We do expect that the Ports will reopen over the weekend sometime and  sportfishing charters and other outdoor activities will resume.

Prior to the stormy ocean conditions forcing port closures we were seeing improved action for yellowfin tuna and dorado. Dorado were just making more of a presence before the latest storm system, weights up to 20 lb. Most of the yellowfin were smaller 5 to 10 lb. fish, though there were some larger tuna in the area. Skipper Chame Pino on the super panga “Killer II” out of La Playita landed a 140 pound yellowfin tuna off of the Gordo Banks while using a fresh lively bolito for bait. This area has been plagued with sharks recently, making it hard to keep a bait in the water long enough without having a shark grab onto it, before any other gamefish has a chance. Hopefully these pesky sharks move elsewhere soon so that anglers have more opportunities. Ocean temperatures were nearing the 85 degree range in some areas, likely that currents have cooled slightly with choppy seas through much of the week, clarity will be stirred up for a bit as conditions take time to rebound.

Live bait sources remained much the same, with caballito and a mix of some moonfish being available. Only limited supplies of sardinas were found for a few days before the storm, now bait suppliers will need to search all over again for possible resources.

Roosterfish had become much more scattered during the past week, most productive reports came from areas near Vinorama, where good numbers of quality sized roosterfish were encountered. Only a handful of dogtooth snappers were reported, most of these were seen very briefly, as they engulfed slow trolled bait and immediately headed for the nearest rock outcropping to cut the leader. Time we should see these big snapper showing up on the offshore banks.

There continued to be chances at early morning action off of San Luis Bank for red snapper (huachinango) while working yo-yo jigs, with some of these fish nearing 15 lb., though this action was showing signs of slowing down in the rapidly warming waters.

Billfish action was scattered, no particular hot spot, warmer currents had the main migration of striped marlin moving towards Southern California. Sailfish were encountered in limited numbers, as we near August we expect more black and blue marlin to arrive on the local fishing grounds. With all of the smaller sized yellowfin tuna now present, these are a favored food source for big gamefish.

The combined panga fleets launching out of La Playita, Puerto Los Cabos Marina sent out approximately 21 charters for storm shortened week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 1 sailfish, 2 striped marlin, 26 dorado, 2 wahoo, 78 yellowfin tuna, 1 dogtooth snapper, 7 yellow snapper, 6 jack crevalle, 9 bonito, 16 roosterfish and 18 huachinango (red 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