GORDO BANKS PANGAS,
Sept 24th, 2023
This week has been a good indication on how a normal September, going into October fishing should look like. The days continue to be extremely humid with high temperatures in the mid 90s and mornings are starting to show a light and cool breeze. Going into the last week of September, we are expecting a lighter crowd and only a few trips per day. Beginning October, that will not be the case as we have quite a full schedule until the end of November.
This week, we started to see bigger tuna at the Gordo, which is a great indication for tournaments to come in October and November. Most of the fish caught were over 70 lbs. We did weigh many fish in the 100-pound club, the biggest one weighing in at 142. These fish are bit finicky this time a year; they seem to only bite for a short time either early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Most of these fish are hitting on strips of squid or slow trolling live skipjacks or bonito that you can catch on the fishing grounds. An occasional black marlin has been caught while slow trolling these live bait, though nothing huge to report at this time. These marlin are ranging from 250-300 lbs.
According to the weather and bait conditions, we are confident that we will slowly start to see the famous cows. The locals use the term cows for tuna over 200 pounds. Many teams have started scouting out the different areas for big marlin and tuna. We have the Bisbee’s tournaments coming up in October and the Cabo Tuna Jackpot the first week of November, which should be exciting if we continue to see similar conditions.
More dorado and wahoo have been caught this week compared to the last two. You can target most of these by fast trolling ballyhoo, rapalas, and lures. As it has been extremely hot, some boats are trolling on the way back to the marina to alleviate some sun and heat exposure. This is a great way to cover some ground and find these schools of dorado.
Off the bottom there were more triggerfish than anything else, with an occasional red snapper or amberjack in the mix. We are also continuing to see a few dogtooth snappers at the Gordo.
Good Fishing, Brian