September 23, 2001
This
week flights resumed into the Los Cabos Airport, but as could be
expected there were only a handful of passengers on these planes. It
is never very crowded during the month of September, but as a result
of the horrific events in the United States the entire tourism
industry is
being directly affected. Airlines were offering only limited daily
flights and even so many people just were not feeling right about
flying, or spending much of their hard earned savings, since the
future of the economy remained uncertain. There were very few tourists
now in Los Cabos and everyone is feeling the effects, perhaps as many
as 50 % fewer people in town than normal. There has been a rash of
cancellations for travelers who had pre-booked trips for coming months
and far less new reservations are now being made. Everyone that is in
tourist related businesses are very nervous about the future and are
following all news updates closely. Locals are realizing the hard way
just how important the visitors are to keeping the economy flowing and
the few tourists that have made the trip down have had plenty of
inquisitive persons ready to help and offer their services. Maybe once
the situation improves and crowds return to normal the foreigner will
be appreciated more and perhaps this will persuade restaurants and
hotels to considering lowering their rates, just to give people an
added incentive to plan a trip to Los Cabos.
The
weather this past week was warm and humid with a scattering of clouds.
Conditions were on the Sea of Cortez side saw only moderate swells and
minimal wind, but on the Pacific there were reports of strong cool
winds and high swells. Water temperatures have averaged about 85
degrees and the clarity is improved, blue within a couple miles of
shore. No rain reported this past week but as of now we are all
watching closely the development of Tropical Storm Juliette to the
south of Acapulco, this storm is intensifying and is forecast to be
tracking in the direction of Southern Baja.
Sportfishing
fleets were trolling the waters from Cabo San Lucas to Vinorama,
finding mixed success, a couple of the more consistent areas recently
were off of Red Hill and north of Punta Gorda, at La Fortuna and the
Iman Bank. They were catching yellowfin tuna, dorado, sailfish, wahoo,
skipjack, striped marlin and a few black and blue marlin. Live
sardinas were being netted near Palmilla and this was the most
productive bait for the medium sized gamefish that were available.
Last week dorado were found in large schools throughout the area, most
of the fish were in the 5 to10 pound range, some big bulls to over
forty pounds were accounted for, though not numerous, in recent days
dorado proved harder to locate and it was the football sized (10 to 15
pound ) yellowfin tuna that dominated the action. In some location
anglers reported larger yellowfin tuna of 40 to 60 pounds. Pangas were
recording an average of ten tuna and several dorado per boat. The fish
were hitting on a variety of medium sized trolling lures and once
found could be chummed up with the sardinas. A few wahoo were taken
off of trolled lures in the areas of Red Hill and Iman, but it was
just one here and there, they ranged up to 45 pounds. The sailfish
were found scattered on the offshore fishing grounds and weighed from
50 to 90 pounds. A handful of blue and black marlin, along with
striped marlin were accounted for out of La Playita this past week,
the largest fish reported was a 383 pound black marlin, caught off the
Gordo Banks by local panga anglers Carlos and Titi on Saturday,
Saturday, the 22 nd.
Good Fishing,
Eric
Eric Brictson
Fleet Owner/Operator
Gordo Banks Pangas
Phone/Fax 011-52-114 2-11-47
http://www.gordobanks.com
E-mail: gordobanks@cabonet.net.mx
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