GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 2nd, 2025
We are now in the midst of our busy season. Crowds of anglers are arriving to take advantage of great angling opportunities now available as we are seeing action-packed days within 15 miles from our marina. The climate is almost perfect now with sunny days in the low to mid 80s and mornings in the low 70s.
Live sardines were a challenge to start the week. We were forced to fish with squid and bait that we made out on the fishing grounds (skipjack, bulito, and chiwili). Even though we did not have sardines to start the week, we had great action on the other baits mentioned above. On Thursday, we started to see schools of live sardines close to our shorelines and rock structures. This weekend, we had good size live sardines which contributed to a hot tuna weekend bite.
Overall, this week produced great fishing action; wahoo and tuna were the highlights of the week. The wahoo were biting good towards San Luis, Iman, La Fortuna, and 25. Most of the bites came around the Iman area. These were good quality wahoo in the 25–30-pound range, with many surpassing the 40-pound mark. The biggest wahoo this week was a 67-pounder caught on live chiwili. These wahoo strikes came on X-Raps, Nomad DTXs, ballyhoo, chiwili, and some even on live sardines while fishing for tuna. Some boats managed to land 3-4 wahoo in one day, while still losing a few others close to the boat. Mant captains reported schools of wahoo chasing sardines and swimming with the chum line while drifting bait for tuna.
At Iman, the tuna bite was hit or miss throughout most part of the week. This weekend was much better at Iman as we had live sardines. We were able to bring more tuna up to the surface. Most of the tuna at Iman were on the smaller side, 10-30 pounds, though we did see quite a few over the 40-pound mark. Only a handful of dorado came to the fillet tables, caught within the same area while fishing for tuna. Not a lot of bottom action to report, only a few snapper and grouper in the mix this week.
We had a good tuna bite at the inner and outer Gordo. These tuna hit on live sardines, strips of squid, chunks of tuna, chiwili, and live bulito/small skipjacks. We saw nice tuna in the range of 50-140 pounds. The biggest tuna brought in this week came in at 185 pounds. We did hear reports from private boats of 220–250-pound fish in the same area. It should be an interesting Tuna Jackpot tournament coming up on Thursday.
Long days at the fillet station and clients having to buy extra coolers, not a bad problem to have!
