Most boats were taken out of the marina Tuesday and Wednesday as we experienced Tropical Storm Ileana on Thursday and Friday. Winds were not too bad averaging around 30 mph. We did get a lot of rain in our area, which was much needed. We took advantage of this off week to detail and do some maintenance on the boats as we prep for our busy October/November season.
The port was reopened Saturday morning. The boats that fished this weekend reported catching some small yellowfin tuna, dorado, and marlin (blue and striped). All of these species were caught offshore while trolling lures looking for surface activity. This upcoming week, we will most likely focus on San Luis, Iman, and Gordo as many boats reported seeing big schools of bait this weekend.
We are closely monitoring weather conditions as we are seeing storm development in the Pacific. As of now, it is most likely that we will get a decent amount of rain and 20-30 kt winds for the following weekend, primarily Friday night and Saturday morning. If you are down in the Los Cabos area, please make sure you follow the forecast and take the necessary precautions.
The main highlight this week was more dorado action. Most of the boats going out, were able to catch their dorado limit (2 per license). The bite started towards the end of the week and seems to be spread out across, with most boats fishing Iman, Cardon, Gordo, Punta Gorda, and Palmilla. All these spots have been holding big schools of dorado, though most of them are on the smaller side, averaging around 8-10 pounds. This week, the bait guys were able to net some sardines throughout the shoreline from Palmilla to our marina; this has contributed significantly when finding the schools of dorado. We did see some bigger dorado offshore while targeting marlin on lures and ballyhoo.
Earlier this week, a few wahoo were caught in San Luis and Iman while trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. A handful of wahoo were also caught offshore with marlin lures. The most popular lure colors for these wahoo seem to be red/orange/green/yellow. Most boats are starting their day closer to Gordo and continue their day trolling towards 1150 and Cabrillo. This week, we had many reports of big schools of small flying fish, though not a lot of activity around them.
The inner Gordo is showing good signs for the upcoming weeks. A few boats reported chumming sardines and strips of skipjacks and seeing dorado, tuna, and wahoo feed on the chum line. A few small tuna were also caught at the Gordo while trying to catch skipjacks for bait. While chumming strips of skippies, dogtooth and yellow snappers were also caught, though it was difficult to fish the bottom on some days due to the currents. This week, one of the local pangeros landed a 354-pound Black Marlin in between the inner and outer Gordo on a live skipjack.
This Saturday, we had some unexpected rain and wind, and most boats decided to fish closer to shore. A couple of our charters focused specifically on Punta Gorda, less than a mile from shore, and it was full of action. One of the boats caught 12 dorado (only kept their limit and released the rest), a couple Sierra, 1 Sailfish and lost a nice wahoo close to the boat.
This Friday August 30th marked one year of my father, Eric Brictson’s passing. We thank you all for your continued loyalty and support to Gordo Banks Pangas throughout this difficult year. We are committed to continuing his legacy of honest and accurate fishing reports and sportfishing charters. We are writing a shorter than usual report this week and will be back next Sunday, September 7th with our routine weekly report. Enjoy a few pictures from this week below.
We continue to catch yellowfin tuna offshore with porpoise schools. Most of these schools were found closer to Cabrillo this week. This weekend, we saw a handful of fish over the 100-pound mark, the biggest one around 160-170 pounds.
Spotty wahoo bite at San Luis and Iman. Most of the strikes came on XRaps (greenish color) and rigged ballyhoo/live caballito. On Thursday, captain Tony on the Hooker was able to land 4 nice wahoo, while losing a couple more. The bite remained spotty throughout the weekend.
More dorado and marlin (striped and blue) were caught closer to shore, anywhere from 10-12 miles out from our marina. Good areas to start were towards Palmilla point heading towards Gordo Banks or viceversa.
