GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 10th, 2024

The Tuna Jackpot tournament on the 7^th and 8^th was a very exciting one.  There were many tuna in the 140–220-pound range. According to captain reports, all the big fish were caught while looking for porpoise schools, anywhere from 25-55 miles offshore from Cabo. These reports indicate that the bigger fish were either hooked on live skipjacks or strips of squid. We also saw a good number of wahoo at the scales, biggest one weighing 70 lbs. Two of our captains participated in this tournament and focused strictly on wahoo. They landed 9 wahoo in the 2 days, unfortunately, none of them were over the 40-pound mark. These fish were caught at San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman on live skipjacks, rigged ballyhoo, and X-Raps/Nomads DTXs.

The main highlight this week was this wahoo bite in the first few hours of the day. Our charters landed a good number of wahoo this weekend. Most of these fish were landed in the first couple hours of the day. The main spots were Vinorama, Iman, and 25. These fish are nice size, averaging 25-30 pounds. We saw more dorado this week while trolling ballyhoo. Most of these dorado are on the smaller side, though we did see a handful of 15 pounders in the mix. An occasional striped marlin or sailfish will also pop up in the spread.

We continue to catch small yellowfin tuna at Vinorama and Iman. Some days, the prefer small strips of squid, other days live/dead sardines. You will get a good workout on most days as skipjacks are a nuisance. If the current allows it, there is still a good chance of picking a nice dogtooth snapper from the bottom. The current has been tough on most days.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 3rd, 2024

The main highlight this week was looking for tuna offshore with porpoise. Most of these tuna were on the big side, as we saw many of them over the 100-pound mark. One of our boats tried this fishing on Friday and Saturday. Overall, they caught 9 yellowfin, 4 fish over 100 pounds, with the biggest one weighing 124 lbs. The others were nice sized as well, anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds. These smaller ones were caught on poppers and squid. The bigger ones were hooked on lures. This fishing can be challenging on a small panga with one engine; most of the boats looking for porpoise offshore are private boats with 2 to 4 engines that can get there within 45 minutes. The porpoise schools were spotted close to Cabrillo, anywhere from 32 to 45 miles out. The biggest tuna seen this week was around 180 pounds caught on a strip of squid. The Tuna Jackpot Tournament should be interesting next week.

Towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman, we are still catching the small yellowfin tuna. We are finally starting to see some 30-70 pounders in the mix more consistently.  Most of the action is coming on live/dead sardines and strips of squid. Live sardines have been limited on some mornings. A handful of tuna were also hooked on jigs. The best action came from Vinorama this week.

Within the areas of Vinorama to La Fortuna, we have caught a handful of nice wahoo, though the bite remains spotty. Most of the bites are coming early in the morning. We are trolling XRaps, Nomads, and rigged ballyhoo. A few small dorado were also caught this way. A couple boats reported landing smaller wahoo (15-20 pounds) at Palmilla Point and Cerro Colorado this weekend on Rápalas.

When the current allowed it, there was a good chance at a dogtooth snapper, grouper, or amberjack on the bottom. Best bottom action came from inner Gordo, though Iman has been decent as well. While drifting strips of skipjack at the Gordo, one of the boats caught a wahoo on a surface jig as well.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 27th, 2024

The 2024 Bisbee’s Black and Blue tournament ended last Friday, and it was one for the books. With 15 Black and 108 Blue Marlin, there were 13 fish that came in over the 300-pound mark. Captain Chame and Freddy on the “Burro” team brought in another Black Marlin (320 lbs.), not as big as their first one (387 lbs.). The most impressive catch was a 634-pound Black Marlin that was hooked at 8:30 am and landed at 7:57 pm; almost a 12-hour fight on a 33ft boat. They made it to the scales at 8:40 pm, right before they closed at 9. Big Congratulations to all the winners as there were many captains from our local marina that landed huge checks.

Our marina was not as busy as the Bisbee’s in Cabo took over most of the tourists for the week. On our end, we are noticing cooler morning temperatures in the low 70s and high 60s. Most of our boats fished towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman. These areas continue to show the small yellowfin tuna, with most productivity coming from Iman. It has been a bit tricky to catch these tuna on some days as the skipjacks are beating them to the bait. For bait, we are using live/dead sardines and strips of squid. We saw a few more dorado this weekend while drifting and trolling for these tuna, though nothing big. A handful of sailfish were also caught and released in the same area with live sardines.

A few nice wahoo were caught at Vinorama and Iman. Most of these wahoo were caught trolling XRaps/Nomads/Ballyhoo, though a couple were caught slow trolling small skipjacks (live). The bigger Wahoo preferred the live bait. The wahoo bite was spotty throughout the week as we only saw them on a couple days. This weekend, many boats pounded the area and did not have much to show for.

While drifting for tuna at Iman, some of the boats were also drifting strips of skipjack for a dogtooth on the bottom. We did see many snapper this week, a few close to 50 pounds. Some boats also caught these snapper at the Inner Gordo. Our captains reported more action throughout the early morning.

Good Fishing, Brian