Slow tuna bite; inshore and bottom remain consistent.

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 5th, 2024

Despite ideal weather conditions and a good variety of fish species on our local grounds, we have seen limited numbers of anglers now visiting. We are starting to experience hotter sunny days as we are now seeing temperatures in the high 80s. We should be in the low 90s in no time.

Our yellowfin tuna bite slowed down significantly this week. The best days for tuna were Monday and Tuesday. Most of the fish caught were medium sized, averaging around 30-40 pounds, though there are still some nicer ones in the mix. The biggest one caught this week was 125 pounds coming from Iman Bank. Most of this action came from live and dead sardines. A few boats started using strips of squid and we did hear of a couple boats hooking into nicer fish this way. Throughout mid-week and this weekend, we only saw a few tuna per day.

Due to the slow tuna bite, most of the boats focused on bottom and inshore action. The best action seemed to be coming from rock structures at Cardon. We continue to see good numbers of yellow snapper, leopard grouper, amberjack, and triggerfish. We are mostly using live sardines to fish the bottom, though we have caught a few nicer groupers on jigs.

Closer to shore, we continue catching Spanish mackerel (Sierra), Jacks, and Roosterfish. We are now starting to see bigger Roosters in the area. A couple captains reported a few 30-40 pounders caught and released.

This was a slow week for Dorado and Wahoo as well as we only saw a handful caught throughout the week. Most of the wahoo caught are coming from Iman while fishing for tuna with live sardines. The best chance for a dorado was closer to shore.

Good Fishing, Brian