GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 12th, 2023
As we are approaching mid-November, the weather continues to be favorable for groups of anglers arriving in Cabo, specifically to fish. We are starting to see a few windy days, nonetheless the days are enjoyable with morning temperatures in the high 60s and sunny days in the mid 80s.
Due to north winds creeping in the last couple days, many fleets were forced to try different areas, closer to our marina and inshore. Many boats started fishing a few miles off Palmilla point targeting dorado. Nice schools of dorado were found while fast trolling lures/feathers, Rapalas, and ballyhoos. These dorado are averaging 10-15 pounds on most days, with a few 20 pounders in the mix. There were a few days were boats were able to catch their limit and still release many; other days, just a couple per boat if lucky. While targeting dorado, a few of our charters were able to hook a couple of wahoo, though nothing big, 10-15 pounds. Many of these wahoo were lost on the first run due to their smaller size.
This past week, our fleet hosted a 17 boat group tournament organized by Cass Tours. This “Wahoo Rumble” was a 3-day tournament specifically targeting large wahoo. Throughout the 3 days of fishing, we were only able to weigh in 4 wahoo, the biggest one weighing in at 38 pounds and the smallest at 9 pounds. The biggest wahoo was caught while slow trolling a live caballito, the other smaller ones on Rapalas. Not the wahoo action we were expecting, but the scarcity definitely added emotion to this tournament. We had lots of fun and did see many nice sized dorado and tuna.
The tuna bite is still good at the Vinorama bank, if you are able to make it there. This week, not many boats tried going that far due to unexpected winds creeping in. The boats that did try, were able to catch a few of the 20-40 pounders while drifting strips of squid and live/dead sardinas. We continue to have a decent supply of live sardinas in the morning, though their size is not the most favorable. These sardinas are small and are mostly used to chum.
The main talk has been the inner and outer Gordos as they have been producing big yellowfin tuna. The biggest one weighed in by our fleet this week came in at 106, with many others in the 70 to 90 pound club. A few boats hooked some cows that almost spooled them a few times and were not able to slow them down. Unfortunately, some of these fish were lost after long 1-2 hour battles. Most of these yellowfin were hooked while drifting strips of squid, a few on strips of skipjacks. We are excited to see what the Gordo will deliver next week, as many boats are specifically targeting the big cows due to the great activity we saw this week.
Not a lot to report off the bottom at this time. We had one dogtooth snapper at the Gordo that hit on a strip of skipjack. A few nice 30-40 pound amberjack were also caught in the same area while jigging. Inshore, we also saw some of the first Sierra. Most of these Sierra were nice sized, some of them 5-7 pounds.
Good Fishing, Brian
