May 26th, 2024
GORDO BANKS PANGAS

We are starting to see more visiting families as some schools are now off for summer break. Many visiting families take advantage of the nice weather in May/June as the upcoming months tend to be extremely hot and humid.

The main target this week was wahoo. We had a decent wahoo bite throughout the week. Surprisingly, most of the wahoo caught were later in the day as only a few were picked up first thing in the morning. According to multiple reports, most of the bites came after 10 am. A few lucky anglers were able to land 3 in one day, while losing a few more strikes. Most of these wahoo were averaging 20-35 pounds, though we did have a handful in the 40-pound club. Most of the action came from fast trolling rigged ballyhoo. A few wahoo were also landed on the XRaps and Nomad DTXs. The best areas for wahoo this week were the grounds from La Fortuna to Cardon, with most caught at our 25 spot. The biggest wahoo caught this week was a 76-pounder caught at the Outer Gordo while looking for marlin with rigged ballyhoo.

The yellowfin tuna bite is now extremely slow, lucky if you get one bite all day long. We only saw a handful of tuna this week; these were quality fish as most of them were averaging 60-80 pounds. It has been hard to efficiently target these yellowfin as the needlefish are a nuisance on most days. The few tuna that we saw were caught on live and dead sardines.

We currently have a good striped marlin bite going on, 15-20 miles out from our marina. Many boats have been spotting marlin schools throughout both Gordos. There is a good chance of landing a few nice fish on different lures and ballyhoo.

Closer to shore and rock structure, we continue to catch good numbers of yellow snapper, amberjack, and grouper. A few reports indicate that Palmilla Point has been producing the best action. Cardon is also one of the favorites spots.

Along our shoreline, we are starting to see some nice Roosterfish on live sardines and mullet. The best action came from La Laguna as one of our boats caught and released 9 throughout the morning, while losing a few more. They also landed some small dorado and big Jacks.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 19th, 2024

The yellowfin tuna bite picked up again! Compared to the beginning of the month, our marina’s foot traffic has increased significantly, and we now have a full schedule for the remainder of the month. These big tunas tend to attract many of the locals and tourists as the word spreads fast. We are now starting to feel great heat throughout the days as we are seeing temperatures in the low 90s creep in.

The tuna bite was consistent throughout most of the week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the best days as we saw many fish in the 100–150-pound club. The biggest tuna caught this week was just shy of 200 pounds. This fish was hooked on 50# test, taking the team almost 3 hours to land. Most of the tuna action is coming from live and dead sardines at Iman and San Luis Banks. A few tuna have been hooked on strips of squid.

Many of our captains reported seeing more wahoo activity. One of the boats within the fleet had 5 strikes on Wednesday at Iman Bank while trolling Rapalas first thing in the morning. They only managed to land one. Some other boats reported a few hookups at Vinorama.

We continue to see a good variety of bottom fish from different rock structures at Cardon. Mostly using sardines, we have been able to catch yellow snapper, grouper, amberjack, sierra, and African pompano. A few grouper and amberjack were landed on jigs as well. The handful of dorado that we caught this week, came from inshore while fishing for Roosterfish. Small schools of dorado have been spotted closer to shore, most of them averaging around 10-12 pounds.

Bigger Roosterfish have been spotted throughout our shorelines as we are starting to see more mullet. Most of these fish are averaging 15-20 pounds, though we have seen a few over 30-40 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 12th, 2024

The weather and temperatures remain ideal for beach activities, slight winds and hot sunny days. Our slow season is starting to reflect at our marina as we are seeing limited charters per day. Many of the local captains are using their spare time to fish themselves and scout different areas.

Our target species continues to be the yellowfin tuna. Even though the bite slowed down, we continue to see them every day. We have been focusing on Iman Bank where we have seen most of the activity. Many of the pangeros have been scouting different areas such as San Luis and Vinorama but have come back empty handed. Most of the tuna have been hooked on live and dead sardines, though there have been a couple nicer ones that preferred the strip of squid. The biggest yellowfin we saw this week was slightly over 100 pounds. It was a difficult and long fight on 40# test. We saw more action this weekend as a few boats were able to catch 2 or 3 earlier in the morning.

When the tuna bite slows down, many of the boats are heading closer to shore to look for rock structures. Cardon seems to be the go-to spot as we are seeing a variety of great eating species such as yellow snapper, bared pargo, pompano, grouper, and spanish mackerel. We have also seen schools of dorado while fishing 20-30ft of water.

Throughout most of our shoreline we are starting to see more Roosterfish activity. We are seeing quality size fish as we are now starting to get mullets from the bait guys. Best areas for Roosterfish seem to be La Laguna, El Zacaton, and Secrets/Marriot Hotel.

Good Fishing, Brian