GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 14th, 2024

Another hot and humid week in Southern Baja. We continue to see light crowds of anglers and slow activity in our marina. We had some cloud coverage with light showers throughout this weekend, which helped cool off the areas throughout parts of the day. For live bait, Caballito and sardines remain the main bait source from the local bait guys. We continue to rely heavily on frozen ballyhoo for our current marlin, wahoo, and dorado bite.

The main target species this week was striped marlin. Best action was found 12-15 miles from our marina while looking for surface activity. Most of the bites came on rigged ballyhoo, a few on live caballito. We continue to hear of a few small blue marlin and sailfish hooked in the same surrounding areas. Many of the local boats are focusing on the surrounding areas of the inner and outer Gordo’s. Small skipjacks and bulito schools are concentrating in these areas.

Throughout the same areas, a few nice wahoo were landed. Most of these wahoo were quality size, over 35 pounds. Many captains reported these wahoo coming up to the lures and ballyhoo multiple times before getting a hook set in. The bigger wahoo were landed on rigged ballyhoo and live caballito. The live caballito were thrown back after the first couple strikes on the lures/ballyhoo. We are also starting to see more quality size dorado, more in the 20–25-pound range. We are catching these dorado in the same areas we are finding marlin.

Bottom fishing was tough to perform this week due to the heavy currents, though we did see some nice catches for yellow snapper, red snapper, grouper, and amberjack. Bottom action seems to be decreasing as we get more into our peak summer season.

Porpoise and yellowfin schools continue to be spotted anywhere from 30-50 miles out. Many of the local pangeros are putting in long days to chase after these tuna. Closer to shore, we are still seeing a few jacks and roosters, though it seems the rooster bite is coming to an end soon.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 7th, 2024

We are now in the heat of the summer and starting to feel the high humidity. Distance tropical storms and hurricanes are increasing the humidity and overall heat index in the area. Light crowds of anglers now, though there are quite a few families at local resorts as they celebrated the 4th of July in Los Cabos. We experienced slight ocean swells and a few windy days this week. Most of the week, the North wind started picking up around midday and transitioned into South wind later in the afternoon, which gave us a nice breeze throughout the hot days.

Overall, fishing action was decent on most days. Live bait supplies consisted mainly of caballito, mullet, live sardines, and some moonfish. Most of the boats took frozen ballyhoo as they came in handy to target striped marlin, dorado, and wahoo. 

We saw some nice bottom action, though it was difficult on some days due to the high currents. The best bottom action came from San Luis and Vinorama Banks where some boats were able to land quality amberjack, grouper, and a variety of snapper (red, yellow, bared, dogtooth). The bigger ones were landed on live bait, mostly caballito and mullet; most of the red snapper and amberjack were hooked on jigs earlier in the morning. A few other boats started fishing inner Gordo’s rock structure. Though there are still many sharks in the area, a few quality fish were landed while drifting live baits on the bottom, such as yellowtail, amberjack, and grouper.

A few wahoo were landed at Vinorama while fast trolling rigged ballyhoo. On Thursday, one of the private boats landed 2 wahoo, one weighing 89.6 pounds and the other one around 40 pounds. Other boats reported losing a few others strikes that same day. Other than that, we did not hear of anymore wahoo throughout the week.

Heading further offshore, anywhere from 5 to 20 miles out, anglers were finding fair chances at hooking into striped marlin and dorado. Some of the bigger boats reported hooking into a few small blue marlin as well, most of them under 200 pounds. Some scattered dorado on these same grounds, most of these were small juveniles under 8 pounds, though we did see some nicer ones closer to 15-18 pounds.

On most days, some of the local pangeros are targeting yellowfin tuna while looking for porpoise, anywhere from 30-45 miles out. This has been hit or miss, a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Some of these pangas, if lucky, were able to land double digits with most of these fish averaging 20-40 pounds. We did hear of a 200 pounder landed on Friday within the same porpoise schools.

Closer to shore, we are still catching quality size roosterfish and big jack crevalle.

Good Fishing, Brian 

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
June 23rd, 2024

Summer season has officially begun, and we are starting to see more vacationing families arrive in Los Cabos. This week, we experienced cooler temperatures with mornings in the low 70s and low 80s throughout the day. We also had some rain on Friday and scattered clouds throughout the weekend. A few windy days, predominantly from the South.

The main highlight this week was the Roosterfish bite along our shorelines. Some nicer fish were caught this week, a few in the 50–60-pound range. The bigger Roosters seem to be coming from in between La Laguna and Zacaton grounds. We are using live mullet, caballito, and sardines. A few boats reported picking up a couple on poppers earlier in the mornings after throwing handfuls of live sardines. While trolling live baits, a few boats hooked into some nice groupers and snappers. A handful of Sierra were landed on the live sardines as well.

Bottom actions was good for the first half of the week. Most of the boats focused on the grounds from San Luis to Cardon, with San Luis being the most productive for bigger amberjack and grouper. The biggest amberjack caught this week was 92 pounds, landed on a live caballito on the bottom. We also had a handful of grouper over 40 pounds, hooked on live caballito and mullet. Some smaller amberjack and a few bonita were landed on the jigs. Cardon is still producing good numbers of yellow snapper and pompano with live and dead sardines. Palmilla is also producing good numbers of smaller snapper, grouper, and pompano.

We only saw a couple dorado this week. These were caught while looking for marlin offshore on rigged ballyhoo. The striped marlin bite continues to be spotty, though there is a good chance of landing a couple if you put in the time. Many boats targeting marlin, are concentrating on the surrounding areas of both Gordos as there is good bait concentration there. Most of the marlin bites were reported 12-16 miles out while looking for warmer, blue water. The preferred bait was ballyhoo and live caballitos. A handful were landed on lures.

Good Fishing, Brian.