Hurricane Norbert Shuts Down Action
Capt. Eric Brictson
October 12, 2008
San Jose del Cabo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Gordo Banks Pangas
San Jose del Cabo
October 12, 2008
Anglers –
The first week of October typically attracts large crowds of anglers and this has been the case in recent days. It also is the time when the tropical storm activity normally is over, but this is not the case in 2008, with warmer than usually water temperatures of 86 degrees or more, this has kept conditions ripe for development. For the past several days all local interests were keeping a close watch on Hurricane Norbert, which at one point was a powerful category four storm, then downgraded to yet still a very dangerous category two, before making landfall near San Carlos, Magdalena Bay and crossing the Baja Peninsula and once again making landfall as a hurricane on Mainland of Mexico.
Most charter operations shut down their operations as of Thursday morning due to small craft advisors, eight foot seas and rainfall possibilities. On Sunday the ocean had calmed and boats were able to get out, though many fleets were waiting until Monday to fully resume operations. The Los Cabos area once again was lucky to narrowly miss the full brunt force of the latest hurricane. Following Hurricane Norbert we have Tropical Storm Odile, which appeared to be following a similar path, taking it on a course paralleling the coast, in the direction of Southern Baja, though at this time is fortunately weakening and does not look like it will be a threat. Reports are coming in of major damage sustained in the areas that were in the direct path of Norbert and our sympathy goes out to everyone who is suffering because of this disaster.
This past week the Pacific Banks continued to produce wide open action on striped marlin, as well as large numbers of dorado. One Pisces fleet charter, the 31 ft. cruiser "Rebecca" reported catching and releasing 45 stripers during one morning and that was just one example of how the marlin action appears to be shaping up to be just as hot as it was last winter season. The Gordo Banks area produced some action for blue and black marlin for anglers trolling with larger skipjack baits, as fish to over 250 pounds were landed, larger marlin were hooked into but were eventually lost after extended battles.
The overall bite for the local panga fleet out of the San Jose del Cabo area became much more scattered than it had been during last week's bonanza style bite. The hot action that was found close off of Punta Gorda became much less consistent, though on some days a handful of pangas found good early morning action on yellowfin tuna up to 20 pounds while drift fishing with sardinas. The Gordo and Iman Banks produced some larger grade yellowfin of 40 to 60 pounds for anglers drifting with fresh cut strips of giant squid, which were still abundant in the region. This bite was on and off and generally anglers were fortunate to land one of the nicer sized tuna. With all of the squid in the area the nicer grade of tuna have definitely had a preference for them.
Dorado were found spread out, no particular place from day to day, but anglers trolling with lures and bait were accounting for limits most of the time, which is two per person. Average sized dorado inside the Sea of Cortez were ranging 5 to 15 pounds, with some larger bulls mixed in, while on the Pacific the average was more like 15 pounds and up.
Anglers using various baits and yo-yo's off of the rocky high spots accounted for some nice sized huachinango, barred pargo and a few dog tooth snapper. Commercial pangueros hauled in some yellowtail up to 30 pounds from deeper cooler waters outside of the Gordo Banks.
The combined panga fleets launching from La Playita/Puerto Los Cabos sent out approximately 96 charters for the week, with anglers accounted for: 1 black marlin, 2 striped marlin, 6 sailfish, 2 wahoo, 194 dorado, 236 yellowfin tuna, 14 dogtooth snapper, 25 barred pargo, 35 huachinango (red snapper), 76 triggerfish, 3 amberjack and 9 cabrilla.
Good fishing, Eric
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