Gordo Banks Pangas Fish Report May 17, 2019

San Jose del Cabo Anglers – May 17, 2019

We are seeing limited crowds of tourists now, but we have noticed an increased number of actual anglers, so hopefully this trend will continue. Weather patterns remain ideal, lows of about 65 degrees, with highs reaching into the near 90 some days. Mostly clear sunny skies, not many clouds besides some early in the day that quickly burn off. Moderate winds later in the week, early on had been very calm. Warmer current moving in from the north, up to 78 degrees on the Gordo Banks, still much cooler on the Pacific side of Cabo San Lucas.

Bait netters had to work extra hard to obtain what they could, a mix of moonfish, caballito and a few species of sardinas were found. On the fishing grounds, namely Gordo Banks, anglers were able to jig up some other chihuil baitfish, but this proved scarcer by the day as water warmed up quickly. Using mullet now is prohibited, believe this season will open up in coming weeks.

Main fishing grounds being concentrated on now, have been from Palmilla, Red Hill, Gordo Banks, San Luis and as far north as Vinorama. The Gordo Banks had been the location where yellowtail were being found, averaging 25 to 35 lb., striking on larger live baits near the bottom, though as the week progressed this bite came to a standstill, large numbers of various shark species were also moving in on these same grounds, that seems to spook the gamefish. Sea lions were a pesky problem as well, especially on the grounds to the north, good action for red snapper and bonito was wrecked by these aggressive mammals. Other bottom action included cabrilla, leopard grouper, pargo and amberjack, on Thursday there was a very impressive 96 lb. amberjack landed from a panga. More numbers bonito than anything else, most of these were striking on yo-yo style jigs, weighing 5 to 10 lb..

In recent days the striped marlin became much more active, on these same grounds and a bit further offshore there were stripers being found, most of these were striking various baits and average weights were 70 to 100 lb., though one monster striper of about 180 lb. was landed on Friday, many people were thinking it was a blue marlin because of its size, years past we used to see more of the larger striped marlin. One wahoo of about 25 lb. was also landed Friday, no dorado or yellowfin tuna to speak of. To the north off of Cabo Pulmo they have been finding tuna, so we expect these fish will also move south into our range before too long. Off of the San Jose del Cabo hotel zone anglers were finding better action for roosterfish in the 15 to 25 lb. range, we look for this action to peak in the six weeks or so, please remember that these gamefish should always be released. Not as many sierra being seen now, no large schools of sardinas to attract them and as the water temperatures increase these fish usually migrate out of this region.

The combined sportfishing fleet out of the panga area from Puerto Los Cabos Marina reported an estimated 66 charters for the week and anglers reported an approximate fish count of: 13 striped marlin, 13 yellowtail, 1 wahoo, 18 leopard grouper, 360 bonito, 74 red snapper, 10 yellow snapper, 5 African pompano, 6 barred pargo, 29 amberjack, 11 sierra, 6 glasseye pargo, 32 roosterfish and 75 triggerfish.  Good Fishing, Eric