GORDO BANKS PANGAS
August 3rd, 2025

We continue to get deeper into the tropical storm season now. We are experiencing very hot days in the low 90s that feel much hotter with high humidity and heat index levels. Up until now, we have had a series of storms passing just far enough off to the southwest that they have not made any major impact on Southern Baja. Light crowds of anglers as well, even though this past week the all-around fishing action was much improved.

The main highlight was the yellowfin tuna bite towards Iman. This bite remains consistent on live sardines and strips of squid. The sardine supply seems to remain consistent at this time as the bait guys have not reported many struggles netting them. Most of these tuna are averaging 20-25 pounds. A couple days out of the week, big schools of baby yellowfin and skipjack took over most of the area. These tuna were 2-5 pounds and had big schools of sharks, mostly pilots chasing them.

Some of the local pangeros reported nicer yellowfin tuna at Iman on strips of squid or slow trolling live bulito. The biggest tuna seen this week was 111 pounds, while other boats lost bigger fish after long 2-hour fights. A few locals also reported hooking into nicer tuna at the inner Gordo. They reported more issues with sharks at the Gordo though.

While drifting or slow trolling bait for tuna at Iman and Gordo, we saw a handful of small dorado in the mix. We also had 4 wahoo this week at the fillet table, all of them averaging 18-25 pounds. A couple of these were landed on live sardines, on circle hooks. The other 2 were hooked at 25 trolling XRaps. These wahoo came later in the day.

We also had 2 dogtooth snapper while drifting strips of skipjack at Iman. One of these was close to 50 pounds. Hard to fish the bottom most days as currents were not ideal. Even though we had strong south winds today, averaging 13-15 knots, most boats were able to make it to Iman and still land a handful of nice tuna and dorado.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 27th, 2025

We had more activity at the marina this week as the tuna bite got hot, drawing in big crowds of anglers. Many anglers from Southern California took the short flight to get in on the action.

Surprisingly, the bite was consistent throughout most of the week. It was a bit slower this weekend, though we were still able to bring these tuna up to the surface. On most days, our pangas were able to catch their limit within the first hours of the morning. These tuna are averaging 15-20 pounds, with a handful of 30-40 pounders in the mix. On Wednesday, one of the cruisers landed a 110-pound tuna on a dead sardine. This fight took almost 2 hours on 40#test/#40fluoro. We have also seen some small dorado schools (5-12 pounds) and sailfish chase the sardines along with the tuna and skipjack. We are using live sardines that the bait guys are netting along the jetty structures of our marina. Bait guys reported a lower sardine supply this weekend. We will see how this affects the tuna bite in the upcoming days.

After catching enough tuna for dinner, many of the boats decided to troll lures a bit offshore, surrounding the areas of Vinorama, San Luis, all the way to the inner/outer Gordo. Many of these boats hooked into blue and striped marlin. These blue marlin are all on the smaller side, averaging 160- 250 pounds. No reports of big blues or blacks at this time. We have the Bisbee’s East Cape tournament coming up on July 30th; we are confident we will see some big marlin as water conditions are ideal. Most of our top captains will be participating in this tournament.

Not much bottom action to report at this time. We did have a few boats try jigging this week at Vinorama, San Luis, and Iman. Only a few small red snapper were caught this weekend on the jigs. The boats that tried jigging at Vinorama and San Luis reported hooking into tuna and skipjacks. We had 2 dogtooth snapper on Friday while drifting strips of squid at Iman.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 20th, 2025

Another slow week for us. Not many charters or activity at our marina. Throughout our high spots (Iman, San Luis, and Vinorama), we saw clear blue water averaging 84 to 86 degrees for most of the week. Earlier in the week, water temp at San Luis and Vinorama was 81-82.

Monday was the most productive day of the week for us as we saw a handful of red snapper, amberjack, and tuna at our fillet table. Most of these came on jigs, even a 65-pound  tuna, which put up a great fight on 30# test. A couple of tuna were also landed on strips of squid. This tuna bite remained slow, as well as the bottom bite. Many of the boats that put in the time on jigs only reported a couple strikes all morning.

Trolling lures, Rapalas, and ballyhoo throughout our high spots did not show good results. We only accounted 3 small female dorado in between all pangas.

We continue to see nice size Roosters along our shorelines. The best action continues to be at La Laguna, Zacaton, and Hotel Zone (trailer park to La Bocana). The bigger Roosters seems to be at San Luis (inshore). The Sierra bite slowed down at Palmilla and Cerro Colorado this week. Only a few boats reported catching one or two on small Rapalas. Many of these boats also tried jigging at Palmilla, though most of them came in empty.

The main highlight this week was a porpoise school 7-8 miles out from Vinorama on Thursday that held nice size tuna. Only 3 boats fished this school as not many charters went out this day. One of our pangas landed 4 tuna, one of them weighing 106 pounds; the other 3 were 60-80 pounds.

Towards the ends of the week, the bait guys were able to net some live sardines throughout the jetty structures of the marina. These were medium size for the most part; we are hoping to see them grow a bit more for our busy Fall months.

Good Fishing, Brian