GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 29th, 2024

We are now starting to see more tourist activity in our area as we head into our busy October/November season. Mornings at the marina are starting to feel a bit cooler averaging around 76-77 degrees. Temperature throughout the day is slightly down, averaging high 80s/low 90s.

The main highlight this week was the yellowfin tuna bite towards San Luis and Iman. We are seeing warm water in the 86-87 range throughout these high spots. Most of these yellowfin are juvenile, averaging around 4-5 pounds, though we have seen a few nicer ones 20-40 pounds landed in the same area. We are trying to release as many of the smaller ones as we can. We are using live and dead sardines. Most boats are catching their tuna limits every day. It would be nice to fight these fish with super light tackle, though it is almost impossible due to shark activity. We are also catching plenty of skipjacks within the same school. This week, we saw a lot more white skipjacks, which are great to eat. These were a bit bigger than the yellowfin. Within the same area, most of the boats were able to land a few dorado per day while fast trolling ballyhoo. A handful of nice wahoo were also landed on Rapalas this weekend.

A few of the local guys scouted out different rock structures at San Luis and Iman. They were able to land some nice dogtooth snapper on strips of skipjacks. A big broomtail grouper was also landed at Iman on a live skipjack.

We had a good blue/striped marlin bite towards 1150 Bank this week. Most of these bites came on the smaller lures or rigged ballyhoo. Most of the Blue marlin hooked were under 200 pounds, though there were a couple in the 300–400-pound range. There are still reports of a couple big Black marlin hooked at the Inner and Outer Gordos on live skipjacks. We have a couple boats specifically trying for Black marlin next week.

Happy Birthday to Eric Brictson; you are greatly missed every day!

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 22nd, 2024

We started focusing on Iman Bank this week as the water is clearing up after the storm pushed in green water. This area holds a lot of bait, specifically small skipjacks and some schools of bulito. That said, these waters can also be infested with sharks on some days. We are catching small yellowfin tuna, though the skipjacks are winning most of the battles to the bait. Most of these tuna are small, averaging around 5 pounds, though some nicer, 30-50 pounders were spotted chasing the live sardines. The biggest tuna caught at Iman this week was close to 70 pounds. This was over an hour fight with 30# test.

There is also a good chance of landing a few dorado in this area, though nothing big at this time. We are using live sardines. The bait guys have been netting sardines towards Palmilla’s shoreline. A few nice wahoo were also hooked earlier in the morning while trolling rigged ballyhoo and XRaps at Iman and La Fortuna. Within the same area, a handful of sailfish were also landed, some of them pushing the 100-pound mark, good fight on light tackle.

This weekend, a group of 5-6 boats decided to specifically look for porpoise schools to target yellowfin tuna with live sardines. As they were headed out, they encountered a good school of them a few miles out from the Outer Gordo. They were successful as most of the boats landed their 5-tuna per license limit within the first couple hours. Most of these tuna were averaging around 20 pounds.

We are still hearing reports of Striped and Blue Marlin offshore on lures and rigged ballyhoo. A couple Black Marlin were also spotted in between the Outer and Iner Gordo. The boats that tried trolling live skipjacks had difficulty due to Sharks eating the bait as soon as they started trolling. On the days where the Sharks weren’t too bad, some boats were able to drift strips of skipjack for Dogtooth Snapper. A few of them were landed at the Inner Gordo.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 15th, 2024

Most boats were taken out of the marina Tuesday and Wednesday as we experienced Tropical Storm Ileana on Thursday and Friday. Winds were not too bad averaging around 30 mph. We did get a lot of rain in our area, which was much needed. We took advantage of this off week to detail and do some maintenance on the boats as we prep for our busy October/November season.

The port was reopened Saturday morning. The boats that fished this weekend reported catching some small yellowfin tuna, dorado, and marlin (blue and striped). All of these species were caught offshore while trolling lures looking for surface activity. This upcoming week, we will most likely focus on San Luis, Iman, and Gordo as many boats reported seeing big schools of bait this weekend.

Good Fishing, Brian