GORDO BANKS PANGAS
December 3rd, 2023
Lighter crowds now in Los Cabos after the passing of Thanksgiving. We expect for tourist activity to increase within the next week as many families arrive for the Holidays. Great weather is expected to greet these crowds as we are continuing to enjoy sunny days with high temperatures in the mid-80s and cool mornings in the low 60s. We did have patterns of north winds through much of this weekend, expected to extend towards mid next week, but anglers are doing well fishing closer to shore in the more protected calmer waters.
Action was consistent throughout all week. The main target species continues to be wahoo and dorado, more specifically the elusive wahoo. The most popular and productive fishing grounds are now Punta Gorda, Cardon, Fortuna and Iman Bank. The fleet usually starts of at Iman or Fortuna and make their way back to Punta Gorda in an effort to cover as much ground as possible. Most boats are starting their early mornings by trolling a combination of Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. The goal is to cover as much ground as possible within the first hour or two of their day in hope that they can hook a couple of quality fish. After fast trolling in the early morning, they are switching to slow trolling live caballitos, chiwili and dead ballyhoo. Caballitos that you can purchase at the marina have been a reliable bait source that you can count on most mornings.
The bigger wahoo seem to be more interested in the chiwili. Some boats have been going straight to the inner Gordo to catch these chiwili and then head back to the wahoo grounds. These chiwili can be finicky some days as you might only be able to catch a couple. For some anglers, this might not be the best plan as it can lead to a big waste of your day if you cannot catch enough to run back to look for wahoo. However, if you are lucky to catch a few, they have shown their worth as we have seen some big wahoo caught this week on them. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 78.8 pounds on a live chiwili, while another one of similar size was lost by the same boat near the boat. We also had another big wahoo at 57 pounds and many in the 40-pound range.
Within these same grounds, anglers have been finding good numbers of nice sized dorado. We did continue to see some big dorado this week, a few of them in the 30 lb. range. Many of the boats were able to catch their 2 dorado per license limit. Keep in mind that it is important to release the smaller females, especially if you have already met your license limit. The goal is to continue to see nicer sized dorado as they are the fastest growing fish in the ocean, we just have to give them a chance. Dorado can grow to an estimated 0.5 to 1.0 inch in length per week while gaining two to three pounds per month.
At the Gordo, the tuna bite is still on, though the numbers are not great. On average, around 20 boats are fishing in this area on a per day basis and some days we are only able to see 3-5 fish hooked. These fish continue to be of quality size; our fleet’s biggest yellowfin this week came in at 102 pounds. We did see one of the personal boats catch a 185 pounder, meaning that there are definitely some cows still around. The boats that are targeting tuna are using a variety of baits, from live chiwili and sardines, to strips of squid and dead sardines. It seems that the favorite choice this week was sardinas and live chiwili.
Bottom action was slow this week as we only saw a handful of small grouper and snappers caught while drifting for tuna at the inner Gordo.
Good Fishing, Brian
