GORDO BANKS BUZZING WITH SPORTFISHING
BOATS DURING BISBEE'S TOURNAMENT

Oct. 24, 2003, Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas, La Playita, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

The main activity in Los Cabos this past week was the Bisbee marlin tournament, as scores of fancy sport fishers set out in search of that monster marlin that could bring them prize money upwards of one million dollars. In the meantime the normal charter fleets continued their operations and found the best all around action on the side of the Sea of Cortez.

This week San Jose del Cabo's fall weather actually turned more winter like as northerly winds became more dominant and there was on and off thunderstorms for several days as a cool front south of Cabo San Lucas swept across the lower peninsula. When the sun did break through it did reach into the mid 80s and became quite humid.

San Jose del Cabo fishing action was a bit slowed down from the previous two-week period when anglers were treated to some amazing wahoo, tuna and dorado action, but nevertheless fish counts remained very respectable.

Water temperatures continued to be in the low 80s, currents were strong though and bait fish on San Jose del Cabo's offshore fishing grounds became scattered.

Inshore there were sardinas available, but they also became a bit scarce, some days pangueros netted them near Cabo and other days to the north of Punta Gorda.

For the San Jose del Cabo panga fleets the most common catches were that of dorado and yellowfin tuna while using the small sardinas for bait. Fish were found throughout the San Jose del Cabo fishing area, but the most productive two places were either Chileno or the Iman Bank. In recent days the better bite seem to be later in the morning, most of the fish were averaging 10 to 20 lb., but of course there were some larger specimens mixed in. Pangas had average daily catches of about a dozen fish per boat, with the yellowfin tuna being the more numerous species.

The larger tuna that had been hitting on the Gordo Banks for anglers using chunk bait came to a standstill as the north wind kicked up a stronger current and made the drift impossible for running a effective chum line and getting the tuna to come up. Along with the factor that there was the noise of the entire tournament fleet to deal with.

Early in the week when the wind was not a factor there was still some great wahoo action to be found, the inshore rock piles from La Fortuna to Vinorama were holding wahoo ranging 30 to 40 pounds. San Jose del Cabo anglers trolling yo-zuri's, marauders and skirted lead heads reported as many as three wahoo landed and with at least that many other short strikes lost. Also many wahoo continued to strike on the live sardinas that were being targeted for tuna and dorado, the majority of the time while using straight monofilament, and an average about one out of five strikes were luckily hooked in the front of the razor set of teeth and were landed. So far the wahoo have not really wanted to strike on trolled chihuil, but we do expect that within the next week or two that will be the preferred bait.

Overall San Jose del Cabo billfish action was slow, the pangas were hooking a handful of sailfish in the same spots where they found the tuna and dorado and the largest marlin of the tournament were reportedly taken from the vicinity around the Outer Gordo Banks.

Inshore San Jose del Cabo surf fishing action showed signs of improvement with some jack crevalle to 10 pounds and roosterfish to 8 pounds landed on casting lures off of the beach of La Playita, along with fair action on cut bait for smaller croakers and pompano.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from San Jose del Cabo and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for San Jose del Cabo may be found at Mexfish.com's main San Jose del Cabo page.