GORDO BANKS PANGAS
January 28th, 2024

Even though we did not have a big number of boats go out this week, the fishing continues to be consistent and productive. Crowds of tourists arriving continue to enjoy the great weather now prevailing in the Los Cabos area. Locally, we are starting to feel the first signs of springtime, not quite as cool early in the mornings and scattered cloud cover throughout the day with average highs of about 80 degrees. We did have a few windy days this week with a mix of north and south air currents. Nonetheless, we were able to fish our go to spots.

Most of the fishing this week was concentrated at the Iman Bank. Due to great supplies of sardines, the fleet was able to be very productive as we saw a better mix of species. The main target continues to be yellowfin tuna. The tuna bite was consistent throughout the whole week, though we did see better action later in the day. Many of the local guys fished in the afternoons and were able to catch their limit within a few hours. We are using live sardines with 40# fluoro. We do not recommend going any lower than that as we saw bigger fish this week. The average tuna at Iman is around 20-40 pounds, though we did see a few ones over 70. The biggest one caught by the fleet this week was an 85 pounder. Tough fight with 30# line and 40# fluoro.

Within the same area, we continue to catch great numbers of dorado. As experienced throughout the last few months, these dorado continue to be nice sized, with many overpassing the 20-pound mark.

We did see more bottom action this week. Most of the boats that focused on the bottom, were able to catch good numbers of groupers, snappers, and amberjack while using live sardines and strips of skipjacks. The most unexpected catch this week was a 120-130 pound grouper. We were not able to weight this fish but many of the local fishermen estimated between 55-60 kilos. This fish was hooked on a strip of skipjack while looking for tuna. The fight was a bit unusual; according to the captain, they thought it was a nice size tuna throughout most of the fight.

The marlin bite did slow down a bit but they are definitely still out there. Many of the boats that specifically targeted marlin, were able to hook on average 3-5 fish a day, with some days being better than others.

Whale action has been incredible. We have been able to see them almost daily from our fillet station.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
January 21st, 2024

As we progress further into the winter season, we are seeing the typical tourist flow mainly from North America as they try to escape the cold and snow for a week or two. Weather patterns have not disappointed as we continue to have clear sunny skies, lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s. Ocean conditions have been nice for the most part; variable wind predominantly from the north has been picking up later in the day, though still allowing us to fish our go-to grounds.

The main highlight this week continues to be the tuna and marlin bite. For tuna, the fleet focused at the Punta Gorda point and Zacatitos, less than a mile from shore. The bite was more productive earlier in the week. As the week progressed, the bite started to slow down, continuing to experience better action later in the day. Many of the local pangeros fished this area in the afternoon/evening as they were catching 10+ fish within a couple of hours. Most of these tuna are ranging 15-30 pounds, with an occasional 50-70 pounder in the mix. These larger fish, if hooked, have been tough to land as we are mostly using 30# fluoro.

The sardina supply has been consistent as the bait guys continue to net sardines in good quantities and decent size. Within the same area, we are still catching good numbers of nice sized dorado. We did notice some large bulls caught this week, many in the 30-40 pound class.

Within the same Punta Gorda and Zacatitos area, a few boats were able to land a couple wahoo earlier in the day, before all boats arrived to target the yellowfin tuna. Only a couple wahoo were landed, but we did see one that weighed 50 pounds by one of our locals. These wahoo were caught by trolling Xraps and Nomads early in the morning.

The marlin bite continues to be hot as close as 4 miles from our marina. Most of the boats targeting marlin are starting 4-5 miles straight out from our marina and cover the grounds towards Cerro Colorado, The Westin, or towards Punta Gorda and the inner/outer Gordos. We have seen best action by trolling rigged ballyhoo or live cocineros, though we are still hooking plenty on lures. Some boats have reported catching up to 10 in a day. Using the same technique, a few of the boats have been able to hook some big bulls.

This week, we did see some better bottom action with the sardinas. The fleet was able to catch good numbers of quality sized yellow snapper and leopard groupers. We saw a few more sierra in the fish counts, along with bonito, and triggerfish. Also, a few roosterfish up to 15 lb. were landed and released along the local sandy beach stretches.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

January 14th, 2024

Tourist activity has significantly decreased throughout these last 2 weeks. We continue to have really nice weather with colder mornings than usual. Perfect temperatures throughout the day for fishing and beach activities.

The main target species this week was tuna, dorado, and marlin.

The fleet continues to catch nice sized tuna at Iman and Punta Gorda, though not as many as compared to last week. Most of these fish are in the 20–30-pound range, with some nicer ones in the mix of up to 60-70 pounds. Best action for these fish has been later in the day usually closer to noon. The tuna bite seems to be slowing down quite a bit as we have not seen great numbers in the last 3-4 days. We are using live sardines for these tuna, though the sardine supply was limited this week. The bait guys continue to net sardines towards Cabo Real and head back towards the marina to supply our boats before they head out. 

Dorado action continues to be consistent. We are finding best action while drifting and trolling live sardines. These dorado tend to swim in big schools, so there is a good chance of hooking more than one at a time. Most of these dorado are nice sized and we continue to see big bulls in the mix of up to 40 pounds.

We did not see many wahoo this week. The few that were caught were on the smaller size. The boats that put in the time were lucky to get one or two bites all day. These wahoo strikes were on Rapalas, Nomads, and ballyhoo. Best action was between La Fortuna and Cardón. We did get word of a couple 50+ pounders that were lost near the boat.

The main highlight this week was the Striped Marlin bite. Most of the boats targeting marlin are starting 4-5 miles out from our marina and covering the grounds towards Chileno and Cerro Colorado. We have been able to flip live bait at them as we are seeing many of them on the surface. Most of these marlin are hitting ballyhoo and lures.

The Sierra bite was also good this week throughout most of our shoreline. Most of these Sierra are caught with live sardines, shiny jigs, or small Rapalas. We have also been picking up a few smaller groupers and snapper throughout the shore.

Whale watching has been incredible as we are spotting them less than a mile from shore. On some days, we can spot them from our fillet station.

As a reminder, we are giving away a full day fishing charter for up to 3 people (26 ft. super panga). We will decide through a draw who the winner is when we hit 250 reviews on Trip Advisor! To enter this give away, we are kindly asking for a Trip Advisor or Google review to help expand our presence. It would be great if you could include pictures of your latest or previous fishing trips with us.

Good Fishing, Brian