GORDO BANKS PANGAS

Dec. 10th, 2023

Weathers conditions continue to be ideal for anglers and families arriving for the Holiday season. We are enjoying a few cooler mornings in the low 60s and beautiful sunny days in the mid 80s.

Action throughout this week remained consistent and similar to last week. The main target continues to be dorado and wahoo. It seems that the wahoo bite has slowed down a bit. This week, it was hard to catch a the chiwili at the Gordo. The boats that looked for them were lucky if they caught 2-3 bait fish in almost 2 hours. While fishing for chiwili, boats were mostly catching green jacks, also known as cocinero. Even though not the favorite bait to troll with, the cocineros did catch several nice wahoo this week. Not many strikes fast trolling Rapalas or rigged ballyhoo. A few of the smaller 10-15 pound wahoo were caught while casting shinny jigs on the surface, most strikes coming closer to the boat.

The dorado bite was the main highlight this week. Many anglers mentioned that they couldn’t focus on the wahoo as the dorado were taking most of their bait. Most boats have been able to load up on their dorado limit with nice sized fish. We are continuing to see big bulls, with many in the 30–40-pound range. As many of the boats are catching their limit, they are also releasing multiple nice ones on the daily, which makes for a great catch and release experience. 

Best fishing grounds this week for wahoo have been La Fortuna, Cardón, and Punta Gorda. The dorado are scattered throughout La Fortuna all the way to Palmilla, with some bigger ones caught at La Fortuna and inner Gordo. We have also heard that the dorado bite is wide open on the Cabo Pacific side. A few striped marlin and sailfish have also been hooked while fishing for dorado and wahoo.

The tuna bite at the Gordo remains slow. We did hear of a few bigger fish hooked later in the afternoon, with one weighing in at 197 pounds. Again, out of 10-15 boats, only a couple have been able to hook up. These occasional tunas have been hooked on strips of squid, live/dead sardinas, and live chiwili.

Not a lot of bottom action at this time. We have seen a couple of snappers caught (red snapper and bared pargo) while jigging on different structures. A few sierra and rooster fish were also caught while slow trolling live bait closer to the shore.

Good Fishing, Brian

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