GORDO BANKS PANGAS

January 14th, 2024

Tourist activity has significantly decreased throughout these last 2 weeks. We continue to have really nice weather with colder mornings than usual. Perfect temperatures throughout the day for fishing and beach activities.

The main target species this week was tuna, dorado, and marlin.

The fleet continues to catch nice sized tuna at Iman and Punta Gorda, though not as many as compared to last week. Most of these fish are in the 20–30-pound range, with some nicer ones in the mix of up to 60-70 pounds. Best action for these fish has been later in the day usually closer to noon. The tuna bite seems to be slowing down quite a bit as we have not seen great numbers in the last 3-4 days. We are using live sardines for these tuna, though the sardine supply was limited this week. The bait guys continue to net sardines towards Cabo Real and head back towards the marina to supply our boats before they head out. 

Dorado action continues to be consistent. We are finding best action while drifting and trolling live sardines. These dorado tend to swim in big schools, so there is a good chance of hooking more than one at a time. Most of these dorado are nice sized and we continue to see big bulls in the mix of up to 40 pounds.

We did not see many wahoo this week. The few that were caught were on the smaller size. The boats that put in the time were lucky to get one or two bites all day. These wahoo strikes were on Rapalas, Nomads, and ballyhoo. Best action was between La Fortuna and Cardón. We did get word of a couple 50+ pounders that were lost near the boat.

The main highlight this week was the Striped Marlin bite. Most of the boats targeting marlin are starting 4-5 miles out from our marina and covering the grounds towards Chileno and Cerro Colorado. We have been able to flip live bait at them as we are seeing many of them on the surface. Most of these marlin are hitting ballyhoo and lures.

The Sierra bite was also good this week throughout most of our shoreline. Most of these Sierra are caught with live sardines, shiny jigs, or small Rapalas. We have also been picking up a few smaller groupers and snapper throughout the shore.

Whale watching has been incredible as we are spotting them less than a mile from shore. On some days, we can spot them from our fillet station.

As a reminder, we are giving away a full day fishing charter for up to 3 people (26 ft. super panga). We will decide through a draw who the winner is when we hit 250 reviews on Trip Advisor! To enter this give away, we are kindly asking for a Trip Advisor or Google review to help expand our presence. It would be great if you could include pictures of your latest or previous fishing trips with us.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

January 7th, 2024

We have seen fewer anglers arrive after the Holidays. Temperatures have been colder than usual as we are experiencing a cold front. We are seeing mornings in the mid 50s and days in the low 70s. To add to the mix, we also had some windy days this week, most coming from the northeast and northwest, with a couple days of 15-20 mph gusts. Even though it has been windy on most days, the fishing continues to be hot and full of action.

The main highlight this week was yellowfin tuna and dorado, with many striped marlin in the mix. Earlier in the week, the fleet focused on the inner Gordo as the tuna bite from the previous week at Cabeza de Ballena disappeared. Lots of bait at the Gordo. At times, it was difficult to have a bait in the water as the skipjacks would come up in big schools. If you had plenty of sardines, you were able to bring up some nice sized tuna and have a good chance of hooking a couple. We did see a few fish pushing the 100-pound mark. These bigger fish were hooked on strips of squid and skipjack. The smaller 30–50-pound tuna were hooked on live sardines.

Within the same area, it is common to run into the big schools of dorado. We continue to see big bulls in the mix.

Throughout mid-week, the bite at the Gordo seemed to slow down as many boats were fishing the area. The fleet started motoring to Iman Bank to scout out the area and they were successful. The tuna and dorado bite was great right off the bat. There are a few nice sized tuna hooked at Iman too, with the average being around 30 pounds. We have seen a few 60-70 pounders in the same area and heard of many bigger ones lost. For these fish, we are mostly using #40 fluoro; hooking one of those 70 pounders on this setup puts up a great fight.

We are also seeing good numbers of striped marlin from Iman to the Gordo. Many of the boats targeting marlin have seen great action between the inner and outer Gordos. These fish have been hooked on live skipjacks, fast trolling ballyhoo, a combination of lures, and also live sardines if they are hungry.

Sierra action has been decent throughout the shore closer to Palmilla point. Not a lot of bottom action at this time. The wahoo bite has been slower than usual. A few boats were able to pick a few wahoo throughout the week by trolling some Rapalas, most of them being caught at Iman.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

December 31st, 2023

Last day of the year and most of the boats at the panga dock are out fishing; great way to say goodbye to 2023. This week, we experienced some colder temperatures with mornings in the high 50s and beautiful sunny days in the mid 70s. These mornings are considered very chilly for us locals.

This has been one of our most productive weeks of the year so far. The main target species this week was yellowfin tuna. The Cabo and San José fleets found nice sized yellowfin tuna, most of them averaging around 30 pounds. These fish were found heading towards Cabo, at Cabeza de Ballena; most of these fish are 13-15 miles from our marina and around 1/2 a mile from the shore. Most reports claimed the best action was found at around 140-160 feet. These fish are mostly caught with live sardinas. We had plenty of nice sized sardina supply this week. The local bait guys have been focusing on netting sardines within the Cabo Real area.

Most of the boats fishing for these tuna have been able to catch their limit within a few hours. Due to the hot bite, this area has been hit hard by both Cabo and San José fleets. On most days, we are estimating around 80-100 boats. The main concern with the high volume and boat proximity are the tangles. Many boats within the fleet reported losing many fish due to other hooked tuna tangling their line or boats cutting their lines. 

Within this same area, we heard of some boats hooking some tuna with small lures and feathers, though not too many as with sardines. Some nice sized dorado are also being caught while drifting for these tuna. Using the same technique and bait, we have also seen a few wahoo accidentally caught, though nothing over 15 pounds. 

For the boats going towards Gordo it has also been good. The local pangeros are finding bigger tuna at the inner Gordo with live and dead sardinas. The best time for these fish is definitely the afternoon. At certain times they can be all over the boat but are a bit finicky and hard to hook. Most of the fish landed are anywhere from 50-100 pounds. A few of the panngeros caught on average 3 per day. Within that same area, we are still seeing some big bulls caught. 

We expect to have a great day of fishing for the last one of the year. The Gordo Banks Pangas crew wishes you a Happy New Year. 

Good Fishing, Brian