GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 2nd, 2025

The tuna bite took a significant turn this week as we only saw a handful of them at our fillet table. Looking at the previous week, our expectation was for the tuna bite to get hotter, though water conditions did not help our cause. Water is cold, averaging around 66-67 degrees on most of our high spots. The few tuna that were caught were mostly bigger ones, averaging 80-110 pounds, a few footballs in the mix. These fish were hooked drifting live/dead sardines, strips of squid, live caballito, and live mackerel. The few tuna that were caught were reported at San Luis and Iman. Between our whole panga area, there were only 1 or 2 tuna caught per day. The bait guys were able to find nice sized live sardines throughout most of the week. They were netting them along the jetties of our marina.

We continue to catch white bonita limits on the jigs every day. We are catching bonita at Vinorama, San Luis, and Iman, though we saw a lot more action at Iman. While jigging, we also saw a handful of amberjack, grouper, and yellowtail. Drifting sardines and strips of skipjack towards the bottom, we also saw yellow snapper.

Closer to shore throughout rock structures at La Fortuna and Cardon, we saw a good variety of snappers, grouper, sierra, and triggerfish on dead/live sardines. We saw similar action towards The Hilton Hotel, The Westin, and Palmilla Point. Some Roosters and Jacks were reported trolling live sardines and caballitos throughout our shorelines, most activity coming from La Laguna and Zacaton.

Later in the week, a few local boats reported the small red crabs coming to the surface at the Inner and Outer Gordo. The boats that came across these crabs were able to net hundreds of them. These boats kept them in the live well and made their way towards 25 and La Fortuna. They were able to catch red snapper limits quickly.

More yellowtail and amberjack action was reported this week at Palmilla Point on jigs. Most of these bites were earlier in the morning from 6:30 to 8:00 am. These yellowtail are averaging 20-30 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
February 23rd, 2025

The most productive week of the year so far. We had a busy schedule, almost fully booked every day of this week. As many families were down in Cabo for president’s week to vacation, many anglers were also trying to get their hands on the tuna action.

We had a good tuna bite at Iman throughout the week. Most of these tuna continue to be on the smaller side, averaging 6-10 pounds. However, there is a great chance of hooking into a 100 lb. + fish in the same area. For that reason, we try to go no lighter than 40# test. Most boats are catching at least a couple of these small tunas every day. Some boats were been able to catch their tuna limits as well. We continue to catch white bonita limits on the jigs and sardines almost every day. A few bait guys were able to come up with live sardines this week, however it was not enough to supply all boats; only a handful of boats got their hands on the live dines. We did have plenty of dead sardines. The bait guys are having to net sardines towards the east cape in the afternoons. The bigger tuna this week were caught on live and dead sardines (mostly dead), strips of squid, and strips of skipjack. The best day this week was Thursday as we had 5 big tuna at our fillet table. The biggest tuna came in at 187 pounds, the rest were in the range of 95 to 125 pounds. A couple more big tuna were lost that day after long hour battles.

Later in the week, boats from Cabo got word of this bite and it made Iman crowded. On Friday, there were close to 50 boats in the small area of Iman. This did not help much as the bite slowed down significantly throughout the weekend. Many boats were forced to head closer to shore to look for bottom fish, sierra, and roosterfish. Close to shore, throughout different rock structures of La Fortuna and Cardon, we were able to catch good numbers and variety of bottom fish. We had grouper, snapper, pompano, triggerfish, amberjack, sierra, and a few yellowtail. Most of this mix was caught drifting dead sardines. A few bigger sierra were caught casting jigs on the surface.

Throughout the shoreline of La Laguna and Zacaton, a few boats reported catching nice roosterfish, some of them around 20-25 pounds. Big Jacks were also caught in the same area. These Roosters and Jacks were caught on live caballitos, some on live sardines if available.

Not much activity was reported at the Inner or Outer Gordos this week, a few sharks and striped marlin.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
February 16th, 2025

We had a busy week at the marina due to President’s week as most schools are taking a full week off. Next week will be the busiest one of this early year so far. A much more productive week as we started seeing more yellowfin at the fillet tables. Right on time for a busy week ahead!

The main highlight was the yellowfin tuna bite at Iman. The bite was a lot more consistent towards the end of the week. Most of the boats were able to land at least a couple tuna, most of them small (averaging around 5-10 pounds). This Saturday, we had 6 big yellowfin at our table. The smallest tuna out of these 6 was 84 pounds, the biggest came in at 135 pounds. Most of these tuna came on dead sardines. Quite a fight as most of these fish were hooked on 40# test. We did have a few good strikes on strips of squid; however, we continue to struggle finding slabs of squid at our grocery markets. Some of our captains and clients were able to find some slabs in the Cabo San Lucas area (Fresko grocery stores).  Our bait guys continue to provide bags of dead sardines every morning. They continue to struggle finding live sardines in the mornings. Some of the bait guys are even bringing sardines all the way from the La Paz area.

Some morning, we will also see live mackerel available. On Wednesday, a 100-pound tuna was caught on a live mackerel, though that was the only one we heard of on mackerel all week.

While drifting for tuna, we continue to catch limits of white bonita on jigs. On most days, each boat will have 10-20 bonita. There is also a good chance of landing an amberjack, snapper, or grouper while jigging in the same area. Earlier this week, Captain Chame landed a big amberjack, pushing 100 pounds on a small jig. We also had 3 nice yellowtail on jigs in the same area,

Closer to shore, we are also finding good rock structures that hold nice yellow snapper, grouper, and Sierra. Most of this mix is caught on dead sardines, though there is a good chance of hooking a nice sierra casting a jig on the surface. A good area to focus on this mix is La Fortuna, Cardon, and Zacaton. If live caballitos are available, we have also hooked some nice Jacks and Roosterfish.

Not many reports coming from Palmilla/ Cerro Colorado area as most of our fleet was in the hunt for tuna and bonita.

Good fishing, Brian