GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 14th, 2025

Most of our boats focused in the areas of San Luis, Iman, 25, and La Fortuna. Our main focus was yellowfin tuna and dorado, though the numbers were hit or miss throughout the week. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were good tuna days. Most of the tuna were caught at Iman and San Luis on live sardines and strips of squid. The nicer 20–40-pound tuna came on squid, though we did not see many in this size range. It was mostly the smaller tuna (5-10 pounds) on live sardines. We also had a handful of dorado in the same area. Most of these dorado were small, averaging 6-8 pounds, a few 10-12 pounders in the mix. This weekend, most boats reported having issues with sharks at San Luis and Iman.

The highlight this week was a decent wahoo bite throughout the areas of La Fortuna, 25, and Iman. On Friday, one of our boats focused specifically on wahoo and they were able to land 3, while losing 3 more. Throughout the week, we saw other boats that had 1-3 wahoo in the same areas. Most strikes came on X-Raps and Nomad DTXs. The average wahoo size was around 25 pounds. We did see a few 40-45 pounders as well. While trolling for wahoo, some boats also caught dorado, striped marlin, and sailfish (on rigged ballyhoo and lures). This wahoo bite was scattered throughout morning times as some boats caught them as early as 6:30 and others landing a few after 11:00 am. We have not trolled live caballitos and chiwilis in these areas yet. Some of the boats saw schools of chiwilis come up while drifting bait at Iman. We will most likely be focusing on trolling live baits in the upcoming weeks.

To add to the mix, we had good bottom action throughout these areas. Many of our guys focused on bottom this week and tried multiple spots, from San Luis, 25, La Fortuna, and Inner Gordo. We had a good mix of snapper (barred, yellow, dogtooth, and mullet), grouper, and amberjack. We had one grouper come in at 80 pounds. Most of these were caught on chunks and strips of skipjack. We are catching skipjack on the fishing grounds with jigs and sardines. A couple of grouper and 1 amberjack were reported on jigs. One 15-pound rainbow runner was caught while drifting bait.

A 250-pound tuna was landed at the outer Gordo on Thursday while trolling a big skipjack in the hunt for a big marlin. They had 100#mono and #300 leader, allowing them to put extra drag. They landed this fish in less than an hour. On Saturday, one of the bigger private sportfishers landed a massive black marlin a few miles out from Iman on a live skipjack. They hooked this marlin within 5 minutes of slow trolling. This fish ended up dying throughout the 3-hour fight, estimated at around 750 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 7th, 2025

We did not get much of a chance to efficiently fish this week due to Hurricane Lorena’s pathway leaving 3-4 days of heavy rain in our area; much needed rain. It is no surprise that Los Cabos infrastructure cannot handle these rains. Drainage systems are not built for flows of water coming from storms and Hurricanes. That said, most of our neighborhoods and streets were severely damaged as many of them are not paved yet. They have worked hard to clean up this mess in the last 3 days and it has made a great impact. Surprisingly, we did not lose our power throughout these rains, only our water for 3 days. We are seeing another storm possibly develop out in the Pacific at this time; we are hoping it opens up and heads west.

This week, we only fished Monday, Saturday, and Sunday. A few boats tried fishing on Tuesday, though conditions were rough as wind started picking up early in the morning and we started getting the first showers around 11:00 am. 

Saturday and Sunday were challenging as we did not have any live bait available at the marina. Bait guys tried, though the water was very dirty and full of debris. We had to resort to frozen squid, skipjacks that we caught out on the grounds, jigs, and lures.

We only had a couple charters this weekend. On Saturday, we had a handful of nice groupers, one snapper, and one tuna, all at Iman Bank. These groupers all came on strips of skipjack, including the snapper. One small tuna was caught on squid. That same day, 3 big tuna were reported in the same area on squid. Biggest tuna was around 140 lbs., the other 2 were around 100-110. 

On Sunday, bottom action at Iman was much slower. The boat that tried at Iman only had one yellow snapper on squid. They had one 20-pound tuna on a jig, and a handful of triggerfish. They also had a big 45–50-pound Rooster that hit on a chunk of skipjack, they initially thought it was a grouper as it hit towards the bottom. Other boats tried the inner Gordo for marlin and tuna, though there was not much action. One of our boats did land 1 nice amberjack, 1 small tuna, and 4 groupers (star-studded) at the Inner Gordo.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
August 31st, 2025

The bite was hit or miss for most of the week. We did see some good days at Iman and the Inner/Outer Gordo. Iman produced nicer size yellowfin earlier in the week, from 5 pounders to 50/60 pounders. We even had a couple tuna from Iman come in at 88 and 165 pounds. The bigger tuna came on strips of squid. The smaller tuna and a handful of dorado came on live sardines. Some captains reported catching some chiwili at Iman and slow trolling them, though no strikes were reported. One boat reported a big wahoo come up to their chum line and taking the strip of squid, cutting the line immediately. A lot of sharks at Iman this week. On Saturday, you could barely fish Iman due to the sharks waiting for anglers to hook tuna. Surprisingly, not many sharks were reported this Sunday. This Sunday, some of the boats were able to catch their tuna limits at Iman, most of them smaller size.

This Sunday, while drifting for tuna, one boat landed a couple of dog tooth snapper on chunks of skipjack, one of them around 35 pounds. They also had one barred pargo and reported many triggerfish on the high spot. This same boat landed 2 nice roosters (around 25-30 pounds) on live sardines while drifting for tuna, very unexpected in 120-150 feet of water. The current has not been ideal to focus on bottom structure. On days were current was not too strong, a few boats reported hooking into nice fish while drifting with skipjack.

We still continue to catch small yellowfin at the inner Gordo, though the numbers have significantly decreased. A lot of skipjack in the area. Plenty of bait at both Gordos: skipjack, bulito, green jacks, and chiwili. Many of the big boats from Cabo have been focusing in these areas as they prepare for the upcoming Bisbee’s tournaments in October. A 250-pound yellowfin was caught on Friday while slow trolling a live bulito. This same day, a 400-pound black was caught while drifting a dead bulito towards the bottom. Sadly, this fish died after a 2-hour fight.

On Friday/Saturday, captain Copeche lost a massive Black Marlin on his 22ft panga. This fish was hooked at the Outer Gordo on a live skipjack on Friday at around 1:00 pm. The fight lasted almost 13 hours as they lost it at around 2:00 am on Saturday. At around 8:00 pm, a bigger boat went out there with extra guys to help fight the fish. They also provided extra light, gas, and water/food. At one point in the night, the fight was handed back and forth between 5-6 guys. This fish broke the line around 30 feet from the boat (the reel was almost full of line). It broke off right on top of the swivel and leader when it decided to take a wild turn and hit it with the tail. Many experienced captains that night estimated the fish to be well over 800 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian