GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 3rd, 2024

The main highlight this week was looking for tuna offshore with porpoise. Most of these tuna were on the big side, as we saw many of them over the 100-pound mark. One of our boats tried this fishing on Friday and Saturday. Overall, they caught 9 yellowfin, 4 fish over 100 pounds, with the biggest one weighing 124 lbs. The others were nice sized as well, anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds. These smaller ones were caught on poppers and squid. The bigger ones were hooked on lures. This fishing can be challenging on a small panga with one engine; most of the boats looking for porpoise offshore are private boats with 2 to 4 engines that can get there within 45 minutes. The porpoise schools were spotted close to Cabrillo, anywhere from 32 to 45 miles out. The biggest tuna seen this week was around 180 pounds caught on a strip of squid. The Tuna Jackpot Tournament should be interesting next week.

Towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman, we are still catching the small yellowfin tuna. We are finally starting to see some 30-70 pounders in the mix more consistently.  Most of the action is coming on live/dead sardines and strips of squid. Live sardines have been limited on some mornings. A handful of tuna were also hooked on jigs. The best action came from Vinorama this week.

Within the areas of Vinorama to La Fortuna, we have caught a handful of nice wahoo, though the bite remains spotty. Most of the bites are coming early in the morning. We are trolling XRaps, Nomads, and rigged ballyhoo. A few small dorado were also caught this way. A couple boats reported landing smaller wahoo (15-20 pounds) at Palmilla Point and Cerro Colorado this weekend on Rápalas.

When the current allowed it, there was a good chance at a dogtooth snapper, grouper, or amberjack on the bottom. Best bottom action came from inner Gordo, though Iman has been decent as well. While drifting strips of skipjack at the Gordo, one of the boats caught a wahoo on a surface jig as well.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 27th, 2024

The 2024 Bisbee’s Black and Blue tournament ended last Friday, and it was one for the books. With 15 Black and 108 Blue Marlin, there were 13 fish that came in over the 300-pound mark. Captain Chame and Freddy on the “Burro” team brought in another Black Marlin (320 lbs.), not as big as their first one (387 lbs.). The most impressive catch was a 634-pound Black Marlin that was hooked at 8:30 am and landed at 7:57 pm; almost a 12-hour fight on a 33ft boat. They made it to the scales at 8:40 pm, right before they closed at 9. Big Congratulations to all the winners as there were many captains from our local marina that landed huge checks.

Our marina was not as busy as the Bisbee’s in Cabo took over most of the tourists for the week. On our end, we are noticing cooler morning temperatures in the low 70s and high 60s. Most of our boats fished towards San Luis, Vinorama, and Iman. These areas continue to show the small yellowfin tuna, with most productivity coming from Iman. It has been a bit tricky to catch these tuna on some days as the skipjacks are beating them to the bait. For bait, we are using live/dead sardines and strips of squid. We saw a few more dorado this weekend while drifting and trolling for these tuna, though nothing big. A handful of sailfish were also caught and released in the same area with live sardines.

A few nice wahoo were caught at Vinorama and Iman. Most of these wahoo were caught trolling XRaps/Nomads/Ballyhoo, though a couple were caught slow trolling small skipjacks (live). The bigger Wahoo preferred the live bait. The wahoo bite was spotty throughout the week as we only saw them on a couple days. This weekend, many boats pounded the area and did not have much to show for.

While drifting for tuna at Iman, some of the boats were also drifting strips of skipjack for a dogtooth on the bottom. We did see many snapper this week, a few close to 50 pounds. Some boats also caught these snapper at the Inner Gordo. Our captains reported more action throughout the early morning.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
October 20th, 2024

Busy week at both marinas, especially in Cabo San Lucas. The Bisbee’s Los Cabos Offshore tournament was from the 16^th to the 18^th, 3 days of intense fishing. Most of our top captains participated in this tournament. Big congratulations to team “Burro” with Captain Chame, Freddy, Pollo, Lalo, and Maury. They landed a 387-pound Black Marlin on the 3^rd day of fishing, winning a total payout of $518,500. They are ready for the next Bisbee’s tournament starting on the 23^rd of this month.

A day after the tournament (October 19^th), Captain Chuy decided to go out solo as he had a late-notice cancellation the day before. Chuy hooked a 450-pound Black Marlin at around 10 am at the Outer Gordo in between many big boats preparing for the next tournaments. He hooked this fish on a small live skipjack on only 80# fluoro as he was looking for tuna. After a long and tiring fight, he was able to land this fish at around 4:00 pm. His younger brother Gerardo was able to hop on his boat to help finish the battle. This fish would have gotten 2^nd place at the Bisbee’s. The biggest marlin at Bisbee’s was 467 pounds.

On our end, the highlight this week was a wahoo bite towards Vinorama and Iman. On Friday, captain Tony was able to land 4 nice wahoo. He had 7 strikes, most of them on X-Raps and Nomads DTXs, one bite came on a rigged ballyhoo. We also saw a decent bite on Thursday as Captain Chuy landed 2 nice ones on ballyhoo. Most of these wahoo are nice sized, averaging around 25-30 pounds. We did see a couple wahoo over 40 pounds this week. This bite remained spotty throughout the weekend as we only saw a few more landed throughout all of the fillet stations.

At Iman, we are also starting to see nicer yellowfin tuna in between the small footballs. This week, we saw 3 tuna in the 60–70-pound club. These tuna were caught on light gear (30# and 40# test) as the average tuna was 5-6 pounds. Most of these tuna were caught on strips of squid since live bait was hard to get. Most of the Bisbee’s boats got priority on the live sardines. There is plenty of bait throughout our shoreline, with most of the concentration towards Palmilla Point. As the big boats were buying $200-$300 worth of sardines, it left the smaller pangas with only a handful of sardines. We still continue to catch small yellowfin towards Cabeza de Ballena and Cerro Colorado, though the bite has been mainly early in the mornings when the boat count is low. Trolling Rapalas, ballyhoo, and lures in that area has also produced some wahoo and dorado stikes. Most of the dorado we are seeing are on the smaller side, averaging around 8-12 pounds.

Earlier this week before the tournament started, a few boats were able to fish the bottom at the Inner Gordo successfully. There was plenty of action drifting with strips of skipjack for dogtooth snapper. One of the boats within the fleet was able to land 4 nice dogtooth, while losing a few other in the rocks.

Good Fishing, Brian