FOUR-DAY LOS CABOS FISHING TRIP WITH GORDO BANKS PANGAS

Oct. 22-27, 2005, David Gassman, San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

Richard Yonemura of Concord, Calif. hosted this year's San Jose del Cabo fishing trip. The anglers were: Dave Gassman of Truckee, Calif., Mark Kralj of Stockton, Calif., Pat Kralj of Lafayette, Calif., and Dan Schafer of Shingle Springs, Calif.

We fished at San Jose del Cabo four days with Eric Brictson's Gordo Banks Pangas, and one day with Luis Duarte's Palmilla Bay Sportfishing.

Fishing on Saturday 10/22, we launched two pangas from La Playita and made the long run west to Bahia Santa Maria for bait. At Santa Maria, we first encountered the "Bisbee Madness" where we saw an 80 foot sportfisher backing into the bay which barely could hold the carnador's bait panga and the other large sportfisher already waiting for the bait. We opted to head to the bite with jigs and the bait guys would deliver later.

Still westbound, we motored to Cabeza de Ballena to find the fleet working a school of football yellowfin out two or three miles. The fleet was at least 200 strong. How the bait panga found us was beyond me. The sardines were both scarce and small. The unruly fleet was keeping the school deep with all the big twin-screw battle wagons idling between running over boiling fish. The Bisbee boats that were pre-fishing kept coming from Cabo's harbor. What a Navy!

Our two pangas scored five yellowfin, 12 to 18 pounds. Four on sardines, and one on iron.

Fishing on Monday 10/24, five of us fished the 31 foot "Alajondra" with Capt. Jesus and Ramon on deck. We bought a small scoop of sardines. These sardines were barely more than two eyes and a wiggle, though they were what the 10"-12" skipjack wanted.

With bait made, we tacked southwest and set our wahoo spread. After two hour of looking for 'hoo, Ramon began changing the spread to marlin raisers. Watching Ramon was a highlight of our day. His knots were jewel-like and he carefully placed each jig for maximum effect. We baited on marlin that we did a drive-by on. The fish didn't enter our spread, and wasn't interested in the live skipjack either.

Monday's score: One marlin baited, zero marlin hooked.

Fishing on Tuesday through Thursday 10/25-10/27, we launched two pangas with Skippers Nico and Manuel and fished the Iman Bank, 17 miles northeast of La Playita, San Jose del Cabo, within sight of Los Frailes. For bait, we purchased giant Humboldt Squid from the new MEGA store in San Jose at 14.9 pesos/kilo. We bought 50 pounds of squid for the three days. This was chunking 101, and the fishing was scratchy at best.

On Tuesday and Wednesday many Bisbee boats also fished the Iman. This time they were well behaved, but making bait was scratchy for them too. On Wednesday, some Bisbee boats were still trying to make bait past noon.

For the three days of fishing at San Jose del Cabo, we caught yellowfin tuna 15 to 35 pounds, a 10-15 pound amberjack, some triggers released, a 15 pound cabrilla and a small yellowtail pargo. We had some wahoo action, two jig strikes that didn't stick. One on an 8 inch orange/black Marauder, the other on a purple/black 16 ounce spinner jet. We got bit off three times chunking the squid. A few wahoo were taken on mono by the La Playita fleet.

A few observations on the "Puerto Los Cabos" marina development at San Jose del Cabo. We didn't see much change to the San Jose del Cabo marina work since our trip last October. Work on the breakwater has begun. About 200 meters extends out from the beach, though we saw no work being done on it all week. We did see some more rip-rap rock being stockpiled, and Mother Nature is starting to scour away the marina entrance.

At this time, most of the work is being done on the adjoining real estate development to the east. Concrete roads, roundabouts, utility trenches, and SOLD signs are everywhere. Many workers we pouring roads, and forming drainage infrastructure.

A new large foundation about 3 miles east of La Playita has closed the coast road to Buzzard's.

(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.