GORDO BANKS PANGAS

December 3rd, 2023

Lighter crowds now in Los Cabos after the passing of Thanksgiving. We expect for tourist activity to increase within the next week as many families arrive for the Holidays. Great weather is expected to greet these crowds as we are continuing to enjoy sunny days with high temperatures in the mid-80s and cool mornings in the low 60s. We did have patterns of north winds through much of this weekend, expected to extend towards mid next week, but anglers are doing well fishing closer to shore in the more protected calmer waters.

Action was consistent throughout all week. The main target species continues to be wahoo and dorado, more specifically the elusive wahoo. The most popular and productive fishing grounds are now Punta Gorda, Cardon, Fortuna and Iman Bank. The fleet usually starts of at Iman or Fortuna and make their way back to Punta Gorda in an effort to cover as much ground as possible. Most boats are starting their early mornings by trolling a combination of Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. The goal is to cover as much ground as possible within the first hour or two of their day in hope that they can hook a couple of quality fish. After fast trolling in the early morning, they are switching to slow trolling live caballitos, chiwili and dead ballyhoo. Caballitos that you can purchase at the marina have been a reliable bait source that you can count on most mornings.

The bigger wahoo seem to be more interested in the chiwili. Some boats have been going straight to the inner Gordo to catch these chiwili and then head back to the wahoo grounds. These chiwili can be finicky some days as you might only be able to catch a couple. For some anglers, this might not be the best plan as it can lead to a big waste of your day if you cannot catch enough to run back to look for wahoo. However, if you are lucky to catch a few, they have shown their worth as we have seen some big wahoo caught this week on them. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 78.8 pounds on a live chiwili, while another one of similar size was lost by the same boat near the boat. We also had another big wahoo at 57 pounds and many in the 40-pound range.

Within these same grounds, anglers have been finding good numbers of nice sized dorado. We did continue to see some big dorado this week, a few of them in the 30 lb. range. Many of the boats were able to catch their 2 dorado per license limit. Keep in mind that it is important to release the smaller females, especially if you have already met your license limit. The goal is to continue to see nicer sized dorado as they are the fastest growing fish in the ocean, we just have to give them a chance. Dorado can grow to an estimated 0.5 to 1.0 inch in length per week while gaining two to three pounds per month.

At the Gordo, the tuna bite is still on, though the numbers are not great. On average, around 20 boats are fishing in this area on a per day basis and some days we are only able to see 3-5 fish hooked. These fish continue to be of quality size; our fleet’s biggest yellowfin this week came in at 102 pounds. We did see one of the personal boats catch a 185 pounder, meaning that there are definitely some cows still around. The boats that are targeting tuna are using a variety of baits, from live chiwili and sardines, to strips of squid and dead sardines. It seems that the favorite choice this week was sardinas and live chiwili.

Bottom action was slow this week as we only saw a handful of small grouper and snappers caught while drifting for tuna at the inner Gordo.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 26th, 2023

With the passing of Thanksgiving, we are now marking the end of our busy season. It usually settles down for a couple of weeks and then we start to see new crowds arrive for Christmas break.

This week was very productive even though we had a few windy days at the beginning of the week. This made it difficult to reach the Vinorama bank to look for the smaller sized tuna. Our fleet focused mainly on Iman, Fortuna, Cardon, Punta Gorda, and both Inner and Outer Gordos. Some of our boats also continued fishing off Palmilla Point. Even though Palmilla Point has produced some decent wahoo and dorado action, the bigger wahoo are being caught off Iman and Fortuna.

Overall, the wahoo bite has been on and off this week, but they are definitely around. Most of the boats are targeting wahoo and dorado on the daily with different techniques. On average, it seems that you can count with 1-2 wahoo strikes per day if you cover enough ground and put in the time. The most productive plan has been trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo throughout the early morning and switching to slow trolling live bait/ballyhoo later in the day. The biggest wahoo weighed this week came in at 51 pounds.

Although we are mainly looking for the elusive wahoo, this type of fishing is producing good dorado action. For some reason, we are seeing some big bulls come in on the daily. On Thanksgiving Day, our fleet caught 6 bulls over 25 pounds, the biggest one weighing in at 40 pounds. We weighed a couple more at 33 and 38 pounds. We noticed that these dorado are large but thin. Some of these large sized dorado were caught with live sardines. The majority of them were caught while fast/slow trolling ballyhoo. A few sailfish were caught in the mix while slow trolling live/dead bait on the same grounds. We always encourage the safe release of smaller dorado (especially small females) and sailfish/striped marlin to support their growth and our livelihood as fishermen. These species are unique as they are great contributors to the beauty of Sportfishing.

The tuna bite at the Gordo has been on and off for the last week. Due to the consistent dorado bite, not many boats are targeting these nice sized tuna, even though they are definitely still there. This week, our fleet caught 3 nice sized yellowfins, with the biggest one weighing in at 93 pounds. All 3 were caught with strips of squid. On Saturday (yesterday), a few boats looked for these tuna in the afternoon; they were successful as most of them caught one or two 70+pound tuna.

We are now starting to fish off Punta Gorda, most specifically on days where the wind picks up later in the day. Punta Gorda has produced nice dorado action with an occasional wahoo in the mix. We have also seen a few Sierra while fishing this area.

We are also starting to target different reefs and rock structures at Fortuna, Cardon, and the inner Gordo. We are mainly using live/dead sardinas and strips of skipjack; there is also a good chance of hooking something on the jig. Some species caught have been yellow snapper, grouper, bared snapper, and dogtooth snapper. It seems that bottom action is more consistent throughout the early morning.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 19th, 2023

We are now heading into the last couple weeks of November and the weather continues to be nice and warm. We had a few days this week with temperatures in the high 80s. Early morning at the marina are nice enough to continue wearing shorts and sandals.

The main target species has changed this week. We have been focusing more on Wahoo and Dorado, but most specifically Wahoo. We have seen quite a few caught this week, best action so far was Saturday; we had one boat come in with 4 nice 25–30-pound Wahoo while losing a couple more. Most of these wahoo are nice sized, with some 40+ pounders in the mix. One of our charters caught a 57-pound Wahoo on Saturday. This has been the biggest Wahoo seen so far this year at out panga area.

Most of these Wahoo have been caught with a variety of deep diving Rapalas earlier in the morning. It has been beneficial to put in a couple of hours early in the morning towards fast trolling Rapalas and ballyhoo. We are shifting to live/dead bait later in the day. The bigger Wahoo have been hooked on live chiwili. The main hot areas for Wahoo have been Palmilla, Iman, Fortuna, and Vinorama. Many of the boats have been focusing on looking for big wahoo as we have a local wahoo tournament today. That said, the boats have been catching chiwili at the inner Gordo and then spreading out to Palmilla or Iman to cover as much ground as possible. Most of the bigger wahoo have been spotted at Iman.

Using the same technique, many boats have been catching their limit count for dorado with some nicer ones in the mix. A few Sailfish and Striped Marlin have also been hooked while slow trolling live bait. While slow trolling, it has been productive to cast some flashy jigs on the surface. Some nice Sierra and Wahoo have been hooked with this technique as well.

There are still big Tuna at the Gordos. There is a good chance of hooking a nice yellowfin while drifting strips of squid or slow trolling some chiwili or small skipjacks that you can catch on the same grounds. The biggest tuna weighed in this week was at 103 pounds, caught on a live chiwili. We had another yellowfin estimated at around 110 that we were not able to weigh as the anglers arrived later in the evening.

At the inner Gordo, there is a good chance of hooking a few dogtooth snappers and bared pargo. Most of these were hooked with a strip of skipjack.

Some smaller Tuna (20-40 pounds) have been spotted at Iman and Vinorama banks. A few boats were able to catch a couple with some live and dead sardinas. This bait has mainly been early in the morning and dies off at around 9 am. The sardina supply has remained consistent for the last few weeks, though these baits are not the best size, too small even for the smallest hooks we are using.

We are excited to see what the biggest wahoo will be throughout our local wahoo tournament today. Many of our captains will be participating in this tournament and we are hoping to see some big fish at the scale.

Good Fishing, Brian