Reports for La Paz, East Cape, Gordo Banks & Cabo

by Cass Tours

Cabo San Lucas - Gaviota Fleet
The billfish catches were right at the average of one per boat per fishing day and the "Gaviota VI" was the only boat landing a blue marlin for the week. Fishing with Captain Plutarco Cesena, angler Jaime Blay, Santa Fe, NM, landed his first blue marlin, a 250-pounder, taken on 50 lb. test, following a 90 minute battle. The blue was taken on an artificial and off the Herradura area. The "Tuna Time", skippered by Captain Christian Lopez, fished a single day for 1 single striper released, 2 wahoo, 1 mako shark and limits of dorado on the edge of the Jaime Bank on the Pacific side of Cabo. The dorado counts were up a bit this past week and some of the fish were of nice quality, approaching the 45 lb. mark. The overall combined catches for a total of 10 days fished reflected 1 blue marlin, 9 stripers released, 2 sharks, 3 wahoo, 3 yellowfin tuna and 56 dorado.

Cabo Climate: Cloudy, hot & humid and Tropical Storm Frank pushing southwest swells to Cabo while hovering in the Clarion Island area, about 400 miles or so offshore. Temps ranged from 75 nights to 96 daytime highs.

Sea Conditions: Some bigger south-southwest swells but not enough wind on them to hamper the fishing effort. Water temps on the Pacific side to Cabo Falso were at 84 and rising to 85-86 by Cabo and up to the Gorda Banks, then rising to 87-88 above the banks. Good blue water conditions throughout the area.

Best Fishing Area: Still good fishing fairly close to home port but starting to scatter around with good fishing at the Jaime Bank, a few marlin at the Golden Gate, big yellowfin tuna at the Gorda Banks and scattered blue marlin strikes on both sides of the peninsula.

Best Lure/Bait: Live bait was best for the dorado and the stripers but the blues were more active on the dorado colored artificials on a faster troll.

Live Bait Supply: Mostly caballitos this past week with good availability. Sardinas scarce with the high surf/swell conditions.

San Jose Del Cabo - Gordo Banks
With the month of August now winding down we can say that all around it definitely turned out to be busier and more productive that did July. Crowds have lightened this last week as families are returning to their school routines. The mild summer conditions gave way to more normal like serious heat and humidity this past week. At this time Hurricane Frank has been downgraded to a tropical depression, turning back toward the Southern Baja Peninsula as it dissipates, though there still a chance of some isolated thundershowers and the swell that had picked up is now diminishing. There is a new low pressure area near Acapulco, so we will be monitoring this system in the coming days.

Water conditions were mostly calm with variable ground swells of four to eight feet, water temperature ranged up close to 85 degrees in the direction of the Sea of Cortez. Local pangeros are driving to La Ribera in the afternoon to net sardinas off the beach in order to supply the La Playita fleets with fresh dead sardinas, which have been the ticket for catching the yellowfin tuna, as the tuna continued to dominate the action.

Fleets were fishing from the Gordo Banks to Iman. Drifting with the fresh dead bait has been the most productive method. The largest concentrations of tuna were found on the Iman Bank, these fish averaged 20 to 35 pounds. The fish on the Gordo Banks were not as numerous, but were weighing 30 to 100 or more pounds. Most charters were averaging anywhere from 4 to 10 yellowfin per morning. Also quite a few bonito and skipjack mixed in. Dorado were found spread out throughout the area, striking on trolled lures and bait once the smaller sized school were located, most of the dorado were 15 pounds or less, but there were a few exceptions of larger bulls being accounted for. Wahoo were encountered on occasion while trolling lures over the structure near La Fortuna to Iman, weights ranged to 40 pounds.

Most anglers were concentrating on the tuna action, as this was the surest bet of filling up the fish box and coolers. A few nice sized dogtooth snapper were landed off of the same spots where the tuna were schooling, also a handful of amberjack and cabrila.

The billfish action produced a mix of striped, blue and black marlin, sailfish have been surprisingly scarce this summer. Black marlin up to 450 pounds were landed from the La Playita panga fleet in recent days, also at least one blue marlin of 400 pounds was accounted for. Most of these larger marlin were hooked into while trolling larger baitfish in the vicinity of the Gordo Banks, several were hooked into on trolled lures as well. Something about the full moon always seem to make the black and blue marlin more active, they like the larger tidal swing that produces more upwelling on the high spots, this seems to make the whole food chain more lively.

The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 58 charters for the week, with anglers reporting a fish count of: 4 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin, 4 black marlin, 5 hammerhead, 54 dorado, 404 yellowfin tuna, 4 wahoo, 12 cabrilla, 10 amberjack, 6 dogtooth snapper, 11 huachinango and 42 bonito.

Vista Sea Sport - East Cape Dive Report
Prior to Hurricane Frank coming on the seen diving was simply spectacular. We were enjoying the best conditions all year with Tidy Bowl blue 88 degree water and 80 to 100 ft. plus vis.

As Frank passes by our biggest impact has been bumpy boat rides and a little less vis. Sea life sightings have been the normal parade of large pelagic fish and huge schools of reef fish the Sea of Cortez is famous for. With any luck conditions will be back to normal in a day or two with calms seas.