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

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 12th, 2023

As we are approaching mid-November, the weather continues to be favorable for groups of anglers arriving in Cabo, specifically to fish. We are starting to see a few windy days, nonetheless the days are enjoyable with morning temperatures in the high 60s and sunny days in the mid 80s.

Due to north winds creeping in the last couple days, many fleets were forced to try different areas, closer to our marina and inshore. Many boats started fishing a few miles off Palmilla point targeting dorado. Nice schools of dorado were found while fast trolling lures/feathers, Rapalas, and ballyhoos. These dorado are averaging 10-15 pounds on most days, with a few 20 pounders in the mix.  There were a few days were boats were able to catch their limit and still release many; other days, just a couple per boat if lucky. While targeting dorado, a few of our charters were able to hook a couple of wahoo, though nothing big, 10-15 pounds. Many of these wahoo were lost on the first run due to their smaller size.

This past week, our fleet hosted a 17 boat group tournament organized by Cass Tours. This “Wahoo Rumble” was a 3-day tournament specifically targeting large wahoo. Throughout the 3 days of fishing, we were only able to weigh in 4 wahoo, the biggest one weighing in at 38 pounds and the smallest at 9 pounds. The biggest wahoo was caught while slow trolling a live caballito, the other smaller ones on Rapalas. Not the wahoo action we were expecting, but the scarcity definitely added emotion to this tournament. We had lots of fun and did see many nice sized dorado and tuna.

The tuna bite is still good at the Vinorama bank, if you are able to make it there. This week, not many boats tried going that far due to unexpected winds creeping in. The boats that did try, were able to catch a few of the 20-40 pounders while drifting strips of squid and live/dead sardinas. We continue to have a decent supply of live sardinas in the morning, though their size is not the most favorable. These sardinas are small and are mostly used to chum.

The main talk has been the inner and outer Gordos as they have been producing big yellowfin tuna. The biggest one weighed in by our fleet this week came in at 106, with many others in the 70 to 90 pound club. A few boats hooked some cows that almost spooled them a few times and were not able to slow them down. Unfortunately, some of these fish were lost after long 1-2 hour battles. Most of these yellowfin were hooked while drifting strips of squid, a few on strips of skipjacks. We are excited to see what the Gordo will deliver next week, as many boats are specifically targeting the big cows due to the great activity we saw this week.

Not a lot to report off the bottom at this time. We had one dogtooth snapper at the Gordo that hit on a strip of skipjack. A few nice 30-40 pound amberjack were also caught in the same area while jigging. Inshore, we also saw some of the first Sierra. Most of these Sierra were nice sized, some of them 5-7 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS

November 5th, 2023

The annual largest tournaments are now over, though the busy fall season continues. We are seeing large crowds of anglers arriving to take advantage of great opportunities now available. We have been experiencing great conditions with mornings in the low 70s/high 60s and sunny days in the mid-80s.

We are consistently starting to see schools of sardinas every morning now. A combination of sardinas and slabs of squid has been the go-to and most recommended. There are some days where the tuna prefer one over the other and you will be thankful you have both. There are limited supplies of caballito certain mornings.

Overall, this week produced great fishing action. The main action was yellowfin tuna in the 20–40-pound range. Most boats targeting tuna can experience great action, double/triple hookups and reach their limit on most days. Of course, there are some days that are slower than others, but the fish are definitely there. These were caught while drifting strips of squid and sardinas. Using a small weight to target mid-water activity was also very successful. Our boats concentrated mostly at the Vinorama bank. Others that tried out Iman experienced a slower tuna bite.

Covering the grounds of Vinorama, Iman, and La Fortuna, there is a good chance of coming across a small school of dorado and wahoo. A few more wahoo are starting to show day by day. You can target these by covering as much ground as possible trolling rapalas, ballyhoo, and lures. One of our boats reported catching a smaller wahoo while slow trolling a caballito. A few wahoo were also hooked and lost while drifting live sardinas on the tuna grounds.

Not a lot of marlin action spotted on our side of Cabo. One of our boats did catch a nice 300 pound Black Marlin a couple days after the Bisbee’s while targeting yellowfin tuna at the inner Gordo. This fish was caught and released on 50lb test and 60lb leader. A tough fight, but quite the experience.

Nice sized tuna still hanging at the Inner and Outer Gordo. Many of our local fishermen reported seeing many fish over the 200-pound mark while fishing the Tuna Jackpot tournament, though they did not want to bite. Many tuna averaging 70-100 pounds were landed throughout this tournament. Congratulations to captain Chame and Team Castros for landing 3^rd place with a 95-pound yellowfin.

Not much bottom action this week, though we did have a nice dogtooth snapper at the Gordo while drifting for tuna. Not a lot of action along the shoreline either; a few boats did catch a few sierra while slow trolling live sardines. If sardines continue to show up, we should see better inshore action throughout the next few weeks.

First pods of whales are now arriving back into local waters after having migrated north to their summer feeding grounds.

Good Fishing, Brian