GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 5th, 2023

The annual largest tournaments are now over, though the busy fall season continues. We are seeing large crowds of anglers arriving to take advantage of great opportunities now available. We have been experiencing great conditions with mornings in the low 70s/high 60s and sunny days in the mid-80s.

We are consistently starting to see schools of sardinas every morning now. A combination of sardinas and slabs of squid has been the go-to and most recommended. There are some days where the tuna prefer one over the other and you will be thankful you have both. There are limited supplies of caballito certain mornings.

Overall, this week produced great fishing action. The main action was yellowfin tuna in the 20–40-pound range. Most boats targeting tuna can experience great action, double/triple hookups and reach their limit on most days. Of course, there are some days that are slower than others, but the fish are definitely there. These were caught while drifting strips of squid and sardinas. Using a small weight to target mid-water activity was also very successful. Our boats concentrated mostly at the Vinorama bank. Others that tried out Iman experienced a slower tuna bite.

Covering the grounds of Vinorama, Iman, and La Fortuna, there is a good chance of coming across a small school of dorado and wahoo. A few more wahoo are starting to show day by day. You can target these by covering as much ground as possible trolling rapalas, ballyhoo, and lures. One of our boats reported catching a smaller wahoo while slow trolling a caballito. A few wahoo were also hooked and lost while drifting live sardinas on the tuna grounds.

Not a lot of marlin action spotted on our side of Cabo. One of our boats did catch a nice 300 pound Black Marlin a couple days after the Bisbee’s while targeting yellowfin tuna at the inner Gordo. This fish was caught and released on 50lb test and 60lb leader. A tough fight, but quite the experience.

Nice sized tuna still hanging at the Inner and Outer Gordo. Many of our local fishermen reported seeing many fish over the 200-pound mark while fishing the Tuna Jackpot tournament, though they did not want to bite. Many tuna averaging 70-100 pounds were landed throughout this tournament. Congratulations to captain Chame and Team Castros for landing 3^rd place with a 95-pound yellowfin.

Not much bottom action this week, though we did have a nice dogtooth snapper at the Gordo while drifting for tuna. Not a lot of action along the shoreline either; a few boats did catch a few sierra while slow trolling live sardines. If sardines continue to show up, we should see better inshore action throughout the next few weeks.

First pods of whales are now arriving back into local waters after having migrated north to their summer feeding grounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

October 29^th, 2023

The weather took a drastic change right after the passing of Hurricane Norma. Hurricane Norma was not as bad as we were all expecting in our area. Surprisingly, we did not get a lot of rain, but we did get high winds of up to 80-100 mph, leading to power outages for a couple of days. Most importantly, our families, the marina and pangas were not harmed, and we are back to business.

The first couple of days after the hurricane, the weather completely changed. The mornings are now considered chilly for us locals with temperatures in the high 60s; the days are very nice with temperatures in the mid-80s. Late October and November are one of the most enjoyable times in Cabo as the weather is perfect for families coming to visit us for Thanksgiving.

Luckily for us and our busy season ahead, Hurricane Norma did not affect the fishing. The first couple days after the hurricane, the water was dirty and green as usual. After a couple of days, everything seemed to be back to normal, if not better than previous weeks. The main target is still yellowfin tuna at Iman and Vinorama Banks. There has been a lot of skipjacks in the same area, so it is a matter of what species gets the bait first. We are still using strips of squid due to sardinas supplies being very limited. Most of these tuna are averaging 20-40 pounds, with some occasional 70-100 pounder in the mix. Most of the boats this week were able to land 5+ tuna per day. Within the same area, we are starting to see more bottom fish action as expected. This week, we saw quite a few amberjack, yellowtail snapper, and grouper, most of them caught on the jig while drifting for tuna.

The big Bisbee’s tournament is now over and that does help alleviate some of the stress on the Gordo Banks. We still have the Western Outdoor News Cabo Tuna Jackpot coming up on November 2^nd and 3^rd. This will be an interesting one as there were quite a few tuna caught during the Bisbee’s. One of our local guys (Congratulations to Captain Romelio and team North Star) won the Top tuna overall on the Bisbee’s Offshore Tournament with two yellowfins, a 236 and 93.8 pounders. The best chance at finding one of these bigger tuna is trolling live skipjacks or bulito on the Inner and Outer Gordos.

With the change in water temperature, we are starting to see some wahoo show up at the Gordo and Iman Banks. There have been a few hooked fast trolling rapalas and lures, and some others are hitting the jigs on the surface. Most of these fish have been lost near the gaff. For some reason, this tends to be the case with the first showing wahoo of the season; you have to be extra careful and smooth while reeling these fish in.

Overall, we have seen a lot of action and a nice variety over the last week. With similar weather and water conditions ahead, we expect for fishing to remain consistent and more species to show.

Good Fishing, Brian

August 27, 2023

This week local weather did stabilize, after the close call last week with Hurricane Hilary, presently there are a couple of tropical depressions developing off of the Southern Mexican coast, though we are not expecting them to impact the Southern Baja region. Weather has been hot and humid as is normal for this time of year, early morning there is a slight cooling trend, but minimal and hardly noticeable.

Light crowds of visiting anglers, though quite a few locals are taking advantage of the good tuna action which has been going on off of Vinorama. Yellowfin tuna ranging in sizes from small footballs up to 80 lb. are schooling on these grounds. Striking best while drift fishing with strips of squid. Early in the day has been the better bite, though some days they are striking at different hours, as well as later in the afternoon for the few that tried that time frame.

Currents and water clarity have been a factor as well, as has been boat pressure on this relatively small area. This has been the one spot where the fishing area has been more productive, boats are arriving from various directions to work these grounds.

Average catches per boat for these yellowfins were ranging from one or two fish, up to five or six. An occasional wahoo was hooked into and same with dorado, a few in the mix as well, but most were small juvenile sized fish. Not much billfish action reported either, as most anglers have been targeting the tuna bite.

Off the bottom there were more triggerfish than anything else, though surprisingly there were some of the normally colder water species, white bonito be hooked into, as well as a few leopard grouper, snapper and the highlight off the rock piles were a couple of dogtooth snapper up to 30 lb. We heard reports of some commercial activity from local pangas on the Gordo Banks that accounted for a couple of nice home guard yellowtail, they supposedly dealt with shark action as well.

Nothing to report along the beach stretches now and this time of year that action fades out.

Good Fishing, Eric