GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 19th, 2025

Good week of fishing for our marina, especially our local fishermen. The big tournaments started this week. We had the Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore Tournament start on Wednesday (3-day tournament). A handful of local fishermen from our marina had a successful tournament. Congratulations to team BURRO with our captains Chame, Freddy, Pollo, Mauri, and Lalo on winning the Day 1 Dorado Jackpot with a 43-pound Bull Dorado. This Dorado made them $45,900. From our marina, team North Star with captain Romelio also took home $45,900 with the Day 2 Tuna Jackpot with a 185-pound yellowfin. Captain Eduardo (Copeche) landed a 247-pound tuna on Day 1; unfortunately, did not take home any money as a 294-pound tuna beat them on the daily jackpots. This was the biggest tuna of the tournament.

The highlight of the week was captain Chuy and angler Terry landing a 302-pound yellowfin tuna on Wednesday (not on the tournament). They hooked this fish early in the morning at the Outer Gordo before all the tournaments boats got there. This was a tough battle on 60# test; they were able to land this fish under 2 hours as it died, and tail wrapped after the first hour. This tuna was hooked on a live skipjack.

On Saturday, captain Daniel with angler Mark caught a 297 pounder at the Gordo. On Sunday, Captain Chucho lost a big tuna right at the gaff after a 2-hour fight. They hooked this fish on a chunk of skipjack. They estimated this fish to be between 250 and 300 pounds. A handful of 80–130-pound tuna were also caught at the Gordo this week using strips of squid, chunks of skipjack, and live bulito/small skipjack. There has been a lot of pressure on these waters, but there is definitely a chance of hooking into a monster. We are seeing 4-5 good hookups at the Gordo almost every day.

Towards San Luis and Iman, we saw good yellowfin action on live sardines and strips of squid. Most of these tuna were on the smaller side, averaging 5-10 pounds, though we did see many in the 40-80 pound range. Since we were fishing lighter tackle, many of the bigger ones ended up breaking off. A lot of skipjack in this same area. Live bait was a challenge Wednesday through Friday due to the tournament. We had a good supply of live sardines this weekend.

Many boats tried for wahoo this week, though we only saw 2 at the fillet tables all week. Not a lot of dorado to report either, only a handful of smaller ones (most of them were released). Currents were not ideal this week and it was challenging to try and get to the bottom with chunks of skipjack. We did see a few nice dogtooth, grouper, and amberjack on days where the current was manageable.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 12th, 2025

Unfortunately, we did not get many lines in the water this week as we were only able to fish on Friday due to bad weather.

The port closed down Sunday evening and reopened on Thursday due to Hurricane Priscilla making a presence. This hurricane was not a direct hit, though we did get big waves; not much wind or rain in our area as we were expecting. 85% of the boats in our panga area were taken out.

The port was closed again on Friday night as we experienced Tropical Depression Raymond throughout the weekend. Again, we were expecting much worse as we only got some light rain and winds averaging 20-30 mph. The port should reopen later today as we are seeing decent weather all next week.

This was one of our busiest weeks of the year. Our fleet missed out on 48 charters in the span of 6 days. We had 12 charters go out on Friday and it was quite an eventful day as most of the panga dock area was also out fishing this day. There was a long line at the fillet station.

Our fleet mostly focused on yellowfin tuna. Even though it was not a wide-open bite, we did see some big tuna brought in. We had 8 big tuna. 4 of these tuna were over 140 pounds. 1 of these was close to 250 pounds. The rest were in the range of 60 to 80 pounds. These tuna came mostly from San Luis and the Inner/Outer Gordo on squid and slow trolling live chiwili or bulito. We also saw a handful of smaller tuna in the 10–20-pound range.

A few boats were able to land some nice wahoo, 30-35 pounds while trolling ballyhoo and Rapalas in the areas of San Luis and Iman. We had 4 wahoo at the tables on Friday. Within the same areas, we also had a handful of small dorado, most of them caught on live sardines. A few lucky boats also landed some dogtooth snapper, amberjack, and grouper while drifting chunks of chiwili and skipjack.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 5th, 2025

We are expecting the side of Hurricane Priscilla this upcoming Tuesday. As of now, we are not expecting a direct hit, though we should be seeing strong winds, big waves, and some rain. Hurricane Priscilla is expected to increase its strength to a Category 2 Hurricane by Tuesday afternoon/evening. Tracking this storm has been challenging as it has been changing direction consistently and we have many trips lined up for Tuesday and Wednesday. We believe that the port will close down sometime Monday evening and possibly reopen Wednesday night. If the forecast remains the same, we should be back to our normal activities on Thursday.

This week, we started to see bigger tuna in the area of San Luis. Most of the tuna caught in that area were 100+ pounds. Not a wide-open bite, though there is a good chance of hooking into one. Some boats reported hooking up to 3 in one day (6-7 charter). Most of the tuna were hooked on strips of squid, a few on dead sardines. We are still seeing a few football tuna in the areas of San Luis and Iman, though the numbers are significantly down compared to the last few months. A few nice dorado were also caught while drifting dead sardines and squid for tuna. 

Live sardines have been an issue for the last 4-5 days. The bait guys have to transport dead sardines from the East Cape. We are expecting our live bait supply to be an issue for the next 5-6 weeks, at least. It is usually challenging to find live bait after storms as water becomes murky throughout the shorelines and rock piles. Then we have the tournaments coming up. There is a Marlini tournament starting on the 11th, the first Bisbee’s starting on the 15th, second Bisbee’s starts on the 22nd, and the Tuna Jackpot on November 6th. These big tournaments have negatively affected our live bait supply, especially in the last 2-3 years.

As the highlight of the week, we have seen a good wahoo bite in San Luis and Iman. On Saturday, one of our boats landed 4 of them, good size, averaging 25-30 pounds. On Sunday, this same boat landed another 4, while losing a few more after long runs. Most of the strikes came on rigged ballyhoo, a few others on XRaps and Nomad DTXs. Some boats tried trolling live chiwili for the bigger wahoo, though not many reported success. We only heard of 2 wahoo caught on live chiwili. Most bites came early in the morning.

On Saturday, Captain Chame landed a massive 308 pound yellowfin tuna. This fish was hooked on the outer Gordo on a live skipjack. This same day, they also landed a 180-200 pound blue marlin.

Good Fishing, Brian