GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 26th, 2025

The Bisbee’s tournaments are officially done, and our captains are desperately waiting for the Tuna Jackpot tournament on November 6^th. Unfortunately, none of our captains brought any fish to the scales this past Bisbee’s. Most of the blues and blacks they caught were in the range of 200-250 pounds. In fact, most of the marlin in this tournament were not qualifying fish. Congratulations to team Magic Touch on taking home $2.4 million. This team landed a 344-pound blue on Thursday and a 459-pound blue (heaviest of the tournament) on Friday.

Because of this tournament, our marina in San Jose was a ghost town Wednesday through Friday; we only had a couple charters per day (very unusual for our busiest time of the year). Because most of the bait guys focused on the big tournament boats, our live sardine supply was also low. We only had a couple of bait guys distributing to the pangas. We are hoping to see the bait situation back to normal next week.

Early in the week, our fleet focused on Vinorama and San Luis area. We saw a consistent tuna bite, though some days big skipjack schools would take over the area. Most of the yellowfin we caught were on the smaller side, between 5 and 10 pounds. We did see 5 tuna in the range of 45 to 80 pounds coming from this area. For bait, live/dead sardines and strips of squid were the go-to. We also saw a few small dorado   in the mix. We only saw a handful of wahoo at the fillet table this week. We had boats specifically try for wahoo, though most of them were not successful. On Wednesday, one boat did land 3 wahoo covering the grounds from Vinorama to 25 (no other boats caught wahoo this day).

On Wednesday and Thursday, we noticed the tuna bite slow down significantly at Vinorama and San Luis. Many tournament boats were trying to catch small yellowfin to troll for big marlin. At one point, some captains reported upwards of 40 boats at the Vinorama area. Because of this, many boats started fishing Iman. The tuna bite slowed down towards the end of the week as we were only seeing 2 to 5 per boat this Saturday and Sunday.

Some boats were able to salvage their day by landing one or two dogtooth snapper. They used chunks of skipjack for bait. The current was a bit tricky this week as some days the bait would go straight down and others, the current made it impossible to drift efficiently. One boat landed a 25-pound rainbow runner while slow trolling a live bulito. This was quite the surprise as we tend to see rainbows under 5 pounds in our area.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 19th, 2025

Good week of fishing for our marina, especially our local fishermen. The big tournaments started this week. We had the Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore Tournament start on Wednesday (3-day tournament). A handful of local fishermen from our marina had a successful tournament. Congratulations to team BURRO with our captains Chame, Freddy, Pollo, Mauri, and Lalo on winning the Day 1 Dorado Jackpot with a 43-pound Bull Dorado. This Dorado made them $45,900. From our marina, team North Star with captain Romelio also took home $45,900 with the Day 2 Tuna Jackpot with a 185-pound yellowfin. Captain Eduardo (Copeche) landed a 247-pound tuna on Day 1; unfortunately, did not take home any money as a 294-pound tuna beat them on the daily jackpots. This was the biggest tuna of the tournament.

The highlight of the week was captain Chuy and angler Terry landing a 302-pound yellowfin tuna on Wednesday (not on the tournament). They hooked this fish early in the morning at the Outer Gordo before all the tournaments boats got there. This was a tough battle on 60# test; they were able to land this fish under 2 hours as it died, and tail wrapped after the first hour. This tuna was hooked on a live skipjack.

On Saturday, captain Daniel with angler Mark caught a 297 pounder at the Gordo. On Sunday, Captain Chucho lost a big tuna right at the gaff after a 2-hour fight. They hooked this fish on a chunk of skipjack. They estimated this fish to be between 250 and 300 pounds. A handful of 80–130-pound tuna were also caught at the Gordo this week using strips of squid, chunks of skipjack, and live bulito/small skipjack. There has been a lot of pressure on these waters, but there is definitely a chance of hooking into a monster. We are seeing 4-5 good hookups at the Gordo almost every day.

Towards San Luis and Iman, we saw good yellowfin action on live sardines and strips of squid. Most of these tuna were on the smaller side, averaging 5-10 pounds, though we did see many in the 40-80 pound range. Since we were fishing lighter tackle, many of the bigger ones ended up breaking off. A lot of skipjack in this same area. Live bait was a challenge Wednesday through Friday due to the tournament. We had a good supply of live sardines this weekend.

Many boats tried for wahoo this week, though we only saw 2 at the fillet tables all week. Not a lot of dorado to report either, only a handful of smaller ones (most of them were released). Currents were not ideal this week and it was challenging to try and get to the bottom with chunks of skipjack. We did see a few nice dogtooth, grouper, and amberjack on days where the current was manageable.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 12th, 2025

Unfortunately, we did not get many lines in the water this week as we were only able to fish on Friday due to bad weather.

The port closed down Sunday evening and reopened on Thursday due to Hurricane Priscilla making a presence. This hurricane was not a direct hit, though we did get big waves; not much wind or rain in our area as we were expecting. 85% of the boats in our panga area were taken out.

The port was closed again on Friday night as we experienced Tropical Depression Raymond throughout the weekend. Again, we were expecting much worse as we only got some light rain and winds averaging 20-30 mph. The port should reopen later today as we are seeing decent weather all next week.

This was one of our busiest weeks of the year. Our fleet missed out on 48 charters in the span of 6 days. We had 12 charters go out on Friday and it was quite an eventful day as most of the panga dock area was also out fishing this day. There was a long line at the fillet station.

Our fleet mostly focused on yellowfin tuna. Even though it was not a wide-open bite, we did see some big tuna brought in. We had 8 big tuna. 4 of these tuna were over 140 pounds. 1 of these was close to 250 pounds. The rest were in the range of 60 to 80 pounds. These tuna came mostly from San Luis and the Inner/Outer Gordo on squid and slow trolling live chiwili or bulito. We also saw a handful of smaller tuna in the 10–20-pound range.

A few boats were able to land some nice wahoo, 30-35 pounds while trolling ballyhoo and Rapalas in the areas of San Luis and Iman. We had 4 wahoo at the tables on Friday. Within the same areas, we also had a handful of small dorado, most of them caught on live sardines. A few lucky boats also landed some dogtooth snapper, amberjack, and grouper while drifting chunks of chiwili and skipjack.

Good Fishing, Brian