GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 17th, 2024

Fishing remains very similar to last week. We are getting sardines from the bait guys every morning, though they have been getting them to us a bit later, at around 6:40-7:00 am. They are netting the sardines towards Cerro Colorado/Palmilla shoreline. For the boats that do not want to wait for sardines, there are strips of squid available earlier in the morning for sale. Both bait sources have been equally productive for tuna. Some of the bigger tuna this week were hooked on strips of squid. Since most of the yellowfin are running small (5-10 pounds), we are using lighter tackle (30# test). A handful of bigger tuna (60-80 pounds) were caught this week on this lighter tackle, some boats taking over 2 hours to land these fish. While drifting for tuna, we are also catching dorado, though nothing big at this time. We did see a nice dorado, around 30 pounds earlier in the week, one of the bigger ones we have seen in the last few months. We did see more dorado than last week, which is a great sign. We also caught white bonita and sierra (Spanish mackerel) while drifting squid and sardines. We also had some nice snapper and grouper while drifting strips of skipjack. If the current allows it, this is definitely something to try.

We had our annual local wahoo tournament this Sunday and it was a close one. Surprisingly, not many wahoo came to the scales. Out of 25 boats, only 4 wahoo were brought in. The winning wahoo came in at 41.8 pounds. Congratulations to Captain Freddy and Chame for placing second with a 41-pound wahoo on team Burro. Third place belongs to captain Fernando on the 30ft “Tiburon” with a 40 pounder. All of these wahoo were caught fast trolling X-Raps and Nomads. We did not hear of any wahoo caught on bait this tournament. More strikes came from Vinorama and Iman. The wahoo bite was spotty this week, lucky to get one or two strikes throughout the day. Only 2 dorado came in, biggest one weighing 11 pounds. It was a challenging day for the small pangas as it was blowing 15-18 knots.

We are hearing more reports of striped marlin. The reports that came in this week fished areas 14-20 miles from our marina, offshore from Palmilla and Cerro Colorado. While waiting for sardines early in the morning, some boats have also landed a few smaller wahoo at Palmilla Point on Rapalas.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 10th, 2024

The Tuna Jackpot tournament on the 7^th and 8^th was a very exciting one.  There were many tuna in the 140–220-pound range. According to captain reports, all the big fish were caught while looking for porpoise schools, anywhere from 25-55 miles offshore from Cabo. These reports indicate that the bigger fish were either hooked on live skipjacks or strips of squid. We also saw a good number of wahoo at the scales, biggest one weighing 70 lbs. Two of our captains participated in this tournament and focused strictly on wahoo. They landed 9 wahoo in the 2 days, unfortunately, none of them were over the 40-pound mark. These fish were caught at San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman on live skipjacks, rigged ballyhoo, and X-Raps/Nomads DTXs.

The main highlight this week was this wahoo bite in the first few hours of the day. Our charters landed a good number of wahoo this weekend. Most of these fish were landed in the first couple hours of the day. The main spots were Vinorama, Iman, and 25. These fish are nice size, averaging 25-30 pounds. We saw more dorado this week while trolling ballyhoo. Most of these dorado are on the smaller side, though we did see a handful of 15 pounders in the mix. An occasional striped marlin or sailfish will also pop up in the spread.

We continue to catch small yellowfin tuna at Vinorama and Iman. Some days, the prefer small strips of squid, other days live/dead sardines. You will get a good workout on most days as skipjacks are a nuisance. If the current allows it, there is still a good chance of picking a nice dogtooth snapper from the bottom. The current has been tough on most days.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 3rd, 2024

The main highlight this week was looking for tuna offshore with porpoise. Most of these tuna were on the big side, as we saw many of them over the 100-pound mark. One of our boats tried this fishing on Friday and Saturday. Overall, they caught 9 yellowfin, 4 fish over 100 pounds, with the biggest one weighing 124 lbs. The others were nice sized as well, anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds. These smaller ones were caught on poppers and squid. The bigger ones were hooked on lures. This fishing can be challenging on a small panga with one engine; most of the boats looking for porpoise offshore are private boats with 2 to 4 engines that can get there within 45 minutes. The porpoise schools were spotted close to Cabrillo, anywhere from 32 to 45 miles out. The biggest tuna seen this week was around 180 pounds caught on a strip of squid. The Tuna Jackpot Tournament should be interesting next week.

Towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman, we are still catching the small yellowfin tuna. We are finally starting to see some 30-70 pounders in the mix more consistently.  Most of the action is coming on live/dead sardines and strips of squid. Live sardines have been limited on some mornings. A handful of tuna were also hooked on jigs. The best action came from Vinorama this week.

Within the areas of Vinorama to La Fortuna, we have caught a handful of nice wahoo, though the bite remains spotty. Most of the bites are coming early in the morning. We are trolling XRaps, Nomads, and rigged ballyhoo. A few small dorado were also caught this way. A couple boats reported landing smaller wahoo (15-20 pounds) at Palmilla Point and Cerro Colorado this weekend on Rápalas.

When the current allowed it, there was a good chance at a dogtooth snapper, grouper, or amberjack on the bottom. Best bottom action came from inner Gordo, though Iman has been decent as well. While drifting strips of skipjack at the Gordo, one of the boats caught a wahoo on a surface jig as well.

Good Fishing, Brian