GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 27th, 2025

We had more activity at the marina this week as the tuna bite got hot, drawing in big crowds of anglers. Many anglers from Southern California took the short flight to get in on the action.

Surprisingly, the bite was consistent throughout most of the week. It was a bit slower this weekend, though we were still able to bring these tuna up to the surface. On most days, our pangas were able to catch their limit within the first hours of the morning. These tuna are averaging 15-20 pounds, with a handful of 30-40 pounders in the mix. On Wednesday, one of the cruisers landed a 110-pound tuna on a dead sardine. This fight took almost 2 hours on 40#test/#40fluoro. We have also seen some small dorado schools (5-12 pounds) and sailfish chase the sardines along with the tuna and skipjack. We are using live sardines that the bait guys are netting along the jetty structures of our marina. Bait guys reported a lower sardine supply this weekend. We will see how this affects the tuna bite in the upcoming days.

After catching enough tuna for dinner, many of the boats decided to troll lures a bit offshore, surrounding the areas of Vinorama, San Luis, all the way to the inner/outer Gordo. Many of these boats hooked into blue and striped marlin. These blue marlin are all on the smaller side, averaging 160- 250 pounds. No reports of big blues or blacks at this time. We have the Bisbee’s East Cape tournament coming up on July 30th; we are confident we will see some big marlin as water conditions are ideal. Most of our top captains will be participating in this tournament.

Not much bottom action to report at this time. We did have a few boats try jigging this week at Vinorama, San Luis, and Iman. Only a few small red snapper were caught this weekend on the jigs. The boats that tried jigging at Vinorama and San Luis reported hooking into tuna and skipjacks. We had 2 dogtooth snapper on Friday while drifting strips of squid at Iman.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 20th, 2025

Another slow week for us. Not many charters or activity at our marina. Throughout our high spots (Iman, San Luis, and Vinorama), we saw clear blue water averaging 84 to 86 degrees for most of the week. Earlier in the week, water temp at San Luis and Vinorama was 81-82.

Monday was the most productive day of the week for us as we saw a handful of red snapper, amberjack, and tuna at our fillet table. Most of these came on jigs, even a 65-pound  tuna, which put up a great fight on 30# test. A couple of tuna were also landed on strips of squid. This tuna bite remained slow, as well as the bottom bite. Many of the boats that put in the time on jigs only reported a couple strikes all morning.

Trolling lures, Rapalas, and ballyhoo throughout our high spots did not show good results. We only accounted 3 small female dorado in between all pangas.

We continue to see nice size Roosters along our shorelines. The best action continues to be at La Laguna, Zacaton, and Hotel Zone (trailer park to La Bocana). The bigger Roosters seems to be at San Luis (inshore). The Sierra bite slowed down at Palmilla and Cerro Colorado this week. Only a few boats reported catching one or two on small Rapalas. Many of these boats also tried jigging at Palmilla, though most of them came in empty.

The main highlight this week was a porpoise school 7-8 miles out from Vinorama on Thursday that held nice size tuna. Only 3 boats fished this school as not many charters went out this day. One of our pangas landed 4 tuna, one of them weighing 106 pounds; the other 3 were 60-80 pounds.

Towards the ends of the week, the bait guys were able to net some live sardines throughout the jetty structures of the marina. These were medium size for the most part; we are hoping to see them grow a bit more for our busy Fall months.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 13th, 2025

The week started off with great signs of improvement. On Tuesday, we had an unexpected yellowfin tuna bite at Vinorama and San Luis (best action came from Vinorama early in the morning). On Tuesday, we had some rain to start off the morning and then the tuna bite came along on jigs while looking for red snapper and amberjack. One of our pangas caught 13 yellowfin and 2 red snapper that morning; most of them came on jigs and a few on strips of squid. The average size was around 20-30 pounds, though we did see a handful of 35-40 pounders in the mix. A few pangas reported some tuna in the 80–100-pound range early in the week on strips of squid. This tuna bite slowed down significantly throughout the week, with most boats now landing 1 or 2 per day.

Most of the week, we had good action throughout the shorelines of Cerro Colorado and Palmilla. We focused on trolling small Rapalas for Sierra (Spanish mackerel). Many of the boats were able to catch their limit early in the morning and then head out a few miles to look for a dorado or striped marlin. Not many dorado or marlin were reported this week, only a handful of small female dorado. We did see some of these Sierra pushing the 10-pound mark.

We continue to see big Roosterfish in the area on live caballito and mullet. The best action was close to us throughout the shorelines of El Zacaton, La Laguna, Secrets/Marriot, and the Hotel Zone (trailer park to Cabo Azul). The bigger Roosters were seen at San Luis, though not many were caught this week.

Good Fishing, Brian