GORDO BANKS PANGAS
February 4th, 2024

There appeared to be more tourists arriving this week into the Los Cabos area as we were pretty booked throughout most of the week. We did experience a few colder mornings and windy afternoons, though we had a hot bite with some great variety overall.

We continue to have a hot tuna and dorado bite at Iman and La Fortuna. These fish are nice sized, with most tuna averaging 25-30 pounds and dorado over 12-15 pounds. We are occasionally seeing a 60+ pound tuna and a 30+ pound dorado in the same mix. Most of this action has been on live sardinas. Surprisingly, the sardina supply has remained consistent throughout the last few months. This has increased our chances of getting the big schools of dorado and tuna excited. Tuna seemed to bite better either early in the morning or closer to noon. 

We did see a good number of wahoo caught this week, with some nice ones in the 30-40 pound range. The fleet has seen these wahoo feeding off sardines within the same dorado and tuna schools. That said, most of the wahoo caught, were hooked with live sardines. Some boats were lucky enough to catch a couple with circle hooks, many others lost most of the strikes right away. Some boats did hook some wahoo earlier in the morning while trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. 

Bottom action was decent as we saw a good variety of species. Again, sardines has been the go to bait. While drifting for tuna, the fleet has been dropping a few sardines to the bottom. We have seen some nice groupers, a variety of snappers, and a couple amberjack. The main bottom highlight this week was a 50-pound grouper. While drifting for tuna, we are also catching a few Sierras and Bonitas, some of them on the bigger side. The biggest Sierra this week was 9.7 pounds.

Throughout this weekend, we started to see again more signs of striped Marlin 4-5 miles out from our marina. Some boats have been able to get a few mackerel, which has been the favorite bait option for these marlin. Some other boats are trolling lures, cocineros, and ballyhoo and have been successful.

Whale action has been unreal as we have seen them daily from our fillet station. These whales are putting on a big show for our clients.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
January 28th, 2024

Even though we did not have a big number of boats go out this week, the fishing continues to be consistent and productive. Crowds of tourists arriving continue to enjoy the great weather now prevailing in the Los Cabos area. Locally, we are starting to feel the first signs of springtime, not quite as cool early in the mornings and scattered cloud cover throughout the day with average highs of about 80 degrees. We did have a few windy days this week with a mix of north and south air currents. Nonetheless, we were able to fish our go to spots.

Most of the fishing this week was concentrated at the Iman Bank. Due to great supplies of sardines, the fleet was able to be very productive as we saw a better mix of species. The main target continues to be yellowfin tuna. The tuna bite was consistent throughout the whole week, though we did see better action later in the day. Many of the local guys fished in the afternoons and were able to catch their limit within a few hours. We are using live sardines with 40# fluoro. We do not recommend going any lower than that as we saw bigger fish this week. The average tuna at Iman is around 20-40 pounds, though we did see a few ones over 70. The biggest one caught by the fleet this week was an 85 pounder. Tough fight with 30# line and 40# fluoro.

Within the same area, we continue to catch great numbers of dorado. As experienced throughout the last few months, these dorado continue to be nice sized, with many overpassing the 20-pound mark.

We did see more bottom action this week. Most of the boats that focused on the bottom, were able to catch good numbers of groupers, snappers, and amberjack while using live sardines and strips of skipjacks. The most unexpected catch this week was a 120-130 pound grouper. We were not able to weight this fish but many of the local fishermen estimated between 55-60 kilos. This fish was hooked on a strip of skipjack while looking for tuna. The fight was a bit unusual; according to the captain, they thought it was a nice size tuna throughout most of the fight.

The marlin bite did slow down a bit but they are definitely still out there. Many of the boats that specifically targeted marlin, were able to hook on average 3-5 fish a day, with some days being better than others.

Whale action has been incredible. We have been able to see them almost daily from our fillet station.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
January 21st, 2024

As we progress further into the winter season, we are seeing the typical tourist flow mainly from North America as they try to escape the cold and snow for a week or two. Weather patterns have not disappointed as we continue to have clear sunny skies, lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s. Ocean conditions have been nice for the most part; variable wind predominantly from the north has been picking up later in the day, though still allowing us to fish our go-to grounds.

The main highlight this week continues to be the tuna and marlin bite. For tuna, the fleet focused at the Punta Gorda point and Zacatitos, less than a mile from shore. The bite was more productive earlier in the week. As the week progressed, the bite started to slow down, continuing to experience better action later in the day. Many of the local pangeros fished this area in the afternoon/evening as they were catching 10+ fish within a couple of hours. Most of these tuna are ranging 15-30 pounds, with an occasional 50-70 pounder in the mix. These larger fish, if hooked, have been tough to land as we are mostly using 30# fluoro.

The sardina supply has been consistent as the bait guys continue to net sardines in good quantities and decent size. Within the same area, we are still catching good numbers of nice sized dorado. We did notice some large bulls caught this week, many in the 30-40 pound class.

Within the same Punta Gorda and Zacatitos area, a few boats were able to land a couple wahoo earlier in the day, before all boats arrived to target the yellowfin tuna. Only a couple wahoo were landed, but we did see one that weighed 50 pounds by one of our locals. These wahoo were caught by trolling Xraps and Nomads early in the morning.

The marlin bite continues to be hot as close as 4 miles from our marina. Most of the boats targeting marlin are starting 4-5 miles straight out from our marina and cover the grounds towards Cerro Colorado, The Westin, or towards Punta Gorda and the inner/outer Gordos. We have seen best action by trolling rigged ballyhoo or live cocineros, though we are still hooking plenty on lures. Some boats have reported catching up to 10 in a day. Using the same technique, a few of the boats have been able to hook some big bulls.

This week, we did see some better bottom action with the sardinas. The fleet was able to catch good numbers of quality sized yellow snapper and leopard groupers. We saw a few more sierra in the fish counts, along with bonito, and triggerfish. Also, a few roosterfish up to 15 lb. were landed and released along the local sandy beach stretches.

Good Fishing, Brian