GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 26th, 2023

With the passing of Thanksgiving, we are now marking the end of our busy season. It usually settles down for a couple of weeks and then we start to see new crowds arrive for Christmas break.

This week was very productive even though we had a few windy days at the beginning of the week. This made it difficult to reach the Vinorama bank to look for the smaller sized tuna. Our fleet focused mainly on Iman, Fortuna, Cardon, Punta Gorda, and both Inner and Outer Gordos. Some of our boats also continued fishing off Palmilla Point. Even though Palmilla Point has produced some decent wahoo and dorado action, the bigger wahoo are being caught off Iman and Fortuna.

Overall, the wahoo bite has been on and off this week, but they are definitely around. Most of the boats are targeting wahoo and dorado on the daily with different techniques. On average, it seems that you can count with 1-2 wahoo strikes per day if you cover enough ground and put in the time. The most productive plan has been trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo throughout the early morning and switching to slow trolling live bait/ballyhoo later in the day. The biggest wahoo weighed this week came in at 51 pounds.

Although we are mainly looking for the elusive wahoo, this type of fishing is producing good dorado action. For some reason, we are seeing some big bulls come in on the daily. On Thanksgiving Day, our fleet caught 6 bulls over 25 pounds, the biggest one weighing in at 40 pounds. We weighed a couple more at 33 and 38 pounds. We noticed that these dorado are large but thin. Some of these large sized dorado were caught with live sardines. The majority of them were caught while fast/slow trolling ballyhoo. A few sailfish were caught in the mix while slow trolling live/dead bait on the same grounds. We always encourage the safe release of smaller dorado (especially small females) and sailfish/striped marlin to support their growth and our livelihood as fishermen. These species are unique as they are great contributors to the beauty of Sportfishing.

The tuna bite at the Gordo has been on and off for the last week. Due to the consistent dorado bite, not many boats are targeting these nice sized tuna, even though they are definitely still there. This week, our fleet caught 3 nice sized yellowfins, with the biggest one weighing in at 93 pounds. All 3 were caught with strips of squid. On Saturday (yesterday), a few boats looked for these tuna in the afternoon; they were successful as most of them caught one or two 70+pound tuna.

We are now starting to fish off Punta Gorda, most specifically on days where the wind picks up later in the day. Punta Gorda has produced nice dorado action with an occasional wahoo in the mix. We have also seen a few Sierra while fishing this area.

We are also starting to target different reefs and rock structures at Fortuna, Cardon, and the inner Gordo. We are mainly using live/dead sardinas and strips of skipjack; there is also a good chance of hooking something on the jig. Some species caught have been yellow snapper, grouper, bared snapper, and dogtooth snapper. It seems that bottom action is more consistent throughout the early morning.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 19th, 2023

We are now heading into the last couple weeks of November and the weather continues to be nice and warm. We had a few days this week with temperatures in the high 80s. Early morning at the marina are nice enough to continue wearing shorts and sandals.

The main target species has changed this week. We have been focusing more on Wahoo and Dorado, but most specifically Wahoo. We have seen quite a few caught this week, best action so far was Saturday; we had one boat come in with 4 nice 25–30-pound Wahoo while losing a couple more. Most of these wahoo are nice sized, with some 40+ pounders in the mix. One of our charters caught a 57-pound Wahoo on Saturday. This has been the biggest Wahoo seen so far this year at out panga area.

Most of these Wahoo have been caught with a variety of deep diving Rapalas earlier in the morning. It has been beneficial to put in a couple of hours early in the morning towards fast trolling Rapalas and ballyhoo. We are shifting to live/dead bait later in the day. The bigger Wahoo have been hooked on live chiwili. The main hot areas for Wahoo have been Palmilla, Iman, Fortuna, and Vinorama. Many of the boats have been focusing on looking for big wahoo as we have a local wahoo tournament today. That said, the boats have been catching chiwili at the inner Gordo and then spreading out to Palmilla or Iman to cover as much ground as possible. Most of the bigger wahoo have been spotted at Iman.

Using the same technique, many boats have been catching their limit count for dorado with some nicer ones in the mix. A few Sailfish and Striped Marlin have also been hooked while slow trolling live bait. While slow trolling, it has been productive to cast some flashy jigs on the surface. Some nice Sierra and Wahoo have been hooked with this technique as well.

There are still big Tuna at the Gordos. There is a good chance of hooking a nice yellowfin while drifting strips of squid or slow trolling some chiwili or small skipjacks that you can catch on the same grounds. The biggest tuna weighed in this week was at 103 pounds, caught on a live chiwili. We had another yellowfin estimated at around 110 that we were not able to weigh as the anglers arrived later in the evening.

At the inner Gordo, there is a good chance of hooking a few dogtooth snappers and bared pargo. Most of these were hooked with a strip of skipjack.

Some smaller Tuna (20-40 pounds) have been spotted at Iman and Vinorama banks. A few boats were able to catch a couple with some live and dead sardinas. This bait has mainly been early in the morning and dies off at around 9 am. The sardina supply has remained consistent for the last few weeks, though these baits are not the best size, too small even for the smallest hooks we are using.

We are excited to see what the biggest wahoo will be throughout our local wahoo tournament today. Many of our captains will be participating in this tournament and we are hoping to see some big fish at the scale.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 12th, 2023

As we are approaching mid-November, the weather continues to be favorable for groups of anglers arriving in Cabo, specifically to fish. We are starting to see a few windy days, nonetheless the days are enjoyable with morning temperatures in the high 60s and sunny days in the mid 80s.

Due to north winds creeping in the last couple days, many fleets were forced to try different areas, closer to our marina and inshore. Many boats started fishing a few miles off Palmilla point targeting dorado. Nice schools of dorado were found while fast trolling lures/feathers, Rapalas, and ballyhoos. These dorado are averaging 10-15 pounds on most days, with a few 20 pounders in the mix.  There were a few days were boats were able to catch their limit and still release many; other days, just a couple per boat if lucky. While targeting dorado, a few of our charters were able to hook a couple of wahoo, though nothing big, 10-15 pounds. Many of these wahoo were lost on the first run due to their smaller size.

This past week, our fleet hosted a 17 boat group tournament organized by Cass Tours. This “Wahoo Rumble” was a 3-day tournament specifically targeting large wahoo. Throughout the 3 days of fishing, we were only able to weigh in 4 wahoo, the biggest one weighing in at 38 pounds and the smallest at 9 pounds. The biggest wahoo was caught while slow trolling a live caballito, the other smaller ones on Rapalas. Not the wahoo action we were expecting, but the scarcity definitely added emotion to this tournament. We had lots of fun and did see many nice sized dorado and tuna.

The tuna bite is still good at the Vinorama bank, if you are able to make it there. This week, not many boats tried going that far due to unexpected winds creeping in. The boats that did try, were able to catch a few of the 20-40 pounders while drifting strips of squid and live/dead sardinas. We continue to have a decent supply of live sardinas in the morning, though their size is not the most favorable. These sardinas are small and are mostly used to chum.

The main talk has been the inner and outer Gordos as they have been producing big yellowfin tuna. The biggest one weighed in by our fleet this week came in at 106, with many others in the 70 to 90 pound club. A few boats hooked some cows that almost spooled them a few times and were not able to slow them down. Unfortunately, some of these fish were lost after long 1-2 hour battles. Most of these yellowfin were hooked while drifting strips of squid, a few on strips of skipjacks. We are excited to see what the Gordo will deliver next week, as many boats are specifically targeting the big cows due to the great activity we saw this week.

Not a lot to report off the bottom at this time. We had one dogtooth snapper at the Gordo that hit on a strip of skipjack. A few nice 30-40 pound amberjack were also caught in the same area while jigging. Inshore, we also saw some of the first Sierra. Most of these Sierra were nice sized, some of them 5-7 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian