GORDO BANKS PANGAS
April 13th, 2025

We are now experiencing the perfect weather, and we are trying to take advantage of it before it gets too hot. We are now feeling some heat throughout the days with most days being in the mid 80s; still pretty fresh in the mornings (high 60s and low 70s).

Not many boats tried fishing Vinorama, San Luis, and Iman areas this week. The few boats that gave it a shot did not have much success. Only one tuna (35 pounds), a few amberjack, a couple grouper, and a handful of white Bonita were caught throughout these areas.

Most fleets continue to focus closer to shore, with best action coming from Palmilla Point, Cerro Colorado, and The Westin. We continue to catch Sierra limits almost every day, with quality size Sierra in the mix, many of them over 6-7 pounds. While drifting dead sardines for Sierra, a handful of snapper, small grouper, and triggerfish were also caught. 

Some yellowtail and amberjack were reported at Palmilla Point too on jigs, in 120-140 ft of water. The boats that trolled live caballito and mullet throughout the shorelines of Palmilla, Costa Azul, and La Laguna, reported good Roosterfish action, most of them averaging 15-20 pounds.

Many of the boats fishing for Sierra are heading a bit offshore after catching their limit to look for a striped marlin or two. Many reports this week claimed seeing many marlin, though they wouldn’t bite much. We are using rigged ballyhoo and lures to target these marlin. Live bait (caballito) has been coming in handy when we get a marlin to chase the teasers. However, live bait continues to be an issue. Only a couple of boats a day are able to get live bait. Boats are starting to troll for marlin 5-6 miles offshore from Palmilla, covering grounds surrounding the 1150 Bank. While looking for marlin, a few wahoo and dorado were reported as well.

This week was very similar to the previous one. We are now headed into our slow season as we are starting to see the number of fishing charters at our marina decrease significantly; this usually happens right after sprink break. Whales are slowly starting to leave the area as well.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
April 6th, 2025

Despite wind conditions limiting offshore fishing for marlin, the Gordo Banks Pangas fleet reported successful fishing action closer to shore. The bigger boats that went offshore, focused on the 1150 Bank. They did report seeing many marlin on the surface, though they wouldn’t bite much. One big wahoo, 69.8 pounds was caught at the 1150 Bank while looking for marlin on a rigged ballyhoo.

We had plenty of action at Palmilla Point, Cerro Colorado, and The Westin. On most days, our boats were able to limit on Sierra (Spanish Mackerel). This week, we had a school of quality size Sierras come in as compared to previous weeks where they were running small (2-3 pounds). Most of them were averaging 5-7 pounds, and a handful of them closer to 10 pounds. Fun to fish for these fish with light tackle. We are drifting dead sardines for these Sierras as we continue to see a low supply of live sardines. While drifting dead sardines, we also saw a handful of small yellowtail, snapper, grouper, and triggerfish. A few boats also tried jigging in 120-140 ft of water at Palmilla point. Not a lot of action on the jigs, though we did see a few nice amberjack, grouper, and white bonita.

A few boats were able to get live caballitos and they paid off by trolling them throughout our shoreline for Roosterfish. On Saturday, one of the boats had 8 caballitos and were able to catch and release 7 Roosters within a couple of hours. Most of these Roosters are averaging around 15 pounds, though we are starting to see some nicer ones in the mix, around 30 pounds.

Earlier in the week, when the wind conditions were better, a few boats were able to land quality bottom fish on the jigs throughout different rock structures at Vinorama and San Luis. We saw a good bag of amberjack, red snapper, grouper, and a couple of nice yellowtail. No tuna were reported this week.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 23rd, 2025

Water temperatures are warming up with most of our high spots averaging around 71-73 degrees. Offshore, in areas surrounding Cabrillo, water temperatures are up to 75-77. That said, we are finally starting to see more striped marlin coming in closer to our grounds. Many of the boats looking for marlin are fishing a few miles offshore from Gordo and covering the grounds in between towards Cabeza de Ballena. Many of our guys reported hooking into marlin as close as 6 miles from shore. These marlin were hooked on lures and rigged ballyhoo. A couple of dorado were also reported throughout these areas. We also had one wahoo at the fillet tables that hit on a marlin lure. We hope that as water temperatures remain in the mid to high 70s, we will start to see more dorado, wahoo, marlin, and tuna.

The tuna bite continues to be spotty. We are seeing on average 2-3 quality fish a day in between all the pangas. These tuna are averaging 70-90 pounds, with a couple of them over the 100-pound mark. We are mostly focusing at Iman Bank and using strips of squid and dead sardines. One tuna was caught on a live caballito. Live bait continues to be an issue for us on most days. We have to supplement with dead sardines, squid, and ballyhoo (if you are looking for marlin and dorado). While drifting bait for tuna, we are also catching some white Bonita on the same sardines and squid, and also on the jigs. These bonita will make up your dinner if you end up striking out on tuna.

Since the tuna bite remains spotty, many of our boats are focusing closer to shore and reef structures. We continue to catch Sierra (Spanish mackerel) limits on most days. In the same areas, we are seeing a few pompano, snapper, and grouper. Best action continues to come from The Hilton, The Westin, and Cerro Colorado/Palmilla areas.

Bottom action was a bit slower this week, though we did see a few quality yellowtail, amberjack, and grouper. Palmilla Point seems to be one of the popular areas for yellowtail at this time. There is not a guarantee, but there is a chance of hooking into a quality fish if you put in the time jigging. La Fortuna, Cardon, and Iman also produced some bottom action on jigs and dead bait.

Good Fishing, Brian