GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 10^th, 2024

We continue to see big crowds of spring breakers arriving in the Los Cabos area. The weather is slowly starting to take a turn as we are experiencing warmer mornings and earlier sunrises. This week, we experienced some high winds primarily from the North/North-west. These winds started earlier in the mornings, making it difficult for the fleet to make a run towards Iman and San Luis Banks.

The yellowfin tuna bite took a drastic turn of events throughout mid-week. We still had a good run throughout Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday were slow days as we did not see good numbers as compared to last week. To not get so beat up by the wind, most boats tried to get to Iman and La Fortuna earlier in the morning and then focused closer to shore and Punta Gorda for a chance at a few dorado, Sierra, and bottom species. Most boats were able to save the day with a couple nice dorado, grouper, and snapper for dinner.

We did have some tuna earlier in the week with live sardines. While cleaning up some of these tuna, the fillet crew noticed that their stomachs were full of red crabs. Many captains mentioned that the tuna would come up on the sardines but just wouldn’t bite. This weekend, a few boats stuck it out and ran all the way to San Luis where they found some good schools of tuna again. The wind forecast for next week looks good, so we are excited to explore more of San Luis Bank and see if the tuna bite will remain consistent once again.

Bottom action is showing good signs as we continue to see good numbers of grouper, snapper, triggerfish, and amberjack. This week, we also heard of the first few yellowtail caught in the area; some nice 20-30 pounders.  Most bottom activity is coming from sardines and jigs, though some big fish have been lost with live bonita/skipjacks and green jacks (cocineros). The fleet caught a nice 78-pound amberjack with a live bonita at Iman. The fleet continues to catch great numbers of white bonita while fishing for tuna. We also saw a few wahoo caught this week at Iman; most of them caught on live sardines by accident. The highlight was a nice 40 pounder caught on a jig! We heard of a couple nicer wahoo lost while trolling rigged ballyhoo and Rapalas earlier in the morning.

Since many boats focused closer to shore this week, we saw lots of Sierra at the fillet station and released many roosterfish. The roosterfish bite with live sardines at La Laguna has been full of action. Some boats reported catching and releasing double digit numbers. Most of these Roosters are averaging 10-15 pounds. While fishing the shoreline, we have also been able to catch Sierra and Jacks.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 2^nd, 2024

Springtime is just around the corner, a favorite time of year for locals and young spring breakers in Los Cabos. This was a beautiful week with perfect temperatures and slight winds. As unusual as it is for this time of year, we did see a good number of anglers and charters this week as the fishing continues to be hot. We are seeing many clients come from La Paz and Los Barriles as we continue to catch good numbers of nice-sized yellowfin.

Yellowfin tuna was the main target species this week, the best action still coming from Iman Bank. The fact that we continue to get good amounts of sardines in the monrings, has allowed us to efficiently target these tuna. A main point to highlight is that we did upgrade in size this week. The average tuna was closer to 30 pounds, though we did see many fish over 45 pounds. The biggest tuna weighed this week came in at 88 pounds. Many boats reported bigger fish breaking 40 and 50# test after long battles. Most of this activity came from live sardines, though we did hear of a few bigger tuna hooked on strips of squid.

While fishing for tuna, we have seen large numbers of white bonitas, almost not allowing us to fish for tuna on some days. Many boats reported releasing double digits of white bonitas. White bonita is good eating, so we also saw limits at the fillet station. Within the same area, we are still catching dorado, though the numbers and size haven’t been as good as previous weeks. We are seeing more of the smaller females and not many of the larger bulls. The marlin bite also slowed down significantly as compared to last week.

We continue to see wahoo at the fillet station almost daily. Most of these wahoo have been caught while fishing live sardines for tuna. A few bigger wahoo were also hooked on strips of squid and skipjack. A few nicer ones were also hooked on Rapalas earlier in the morning. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 52 pounds.

In terms of bottom fishing, we are seeing a good variety of snappers (bared, yellow, and red), triggerfish, amberjack, and grouper. Most of the snappers and groupers are caught on sardines while fishing the bottom or strips of skipjack. We did see a few big amberjack this week, the biggest one weighing 71 pounds. Towards the end of this week, many boats within the fleet were hooking big amberjacks with live white bonitas. Unfortunately, most of these hookups ended up breaking up in the rock structures. We are excited to see how this bottom action progresses throughout March.

Towards the end of this week, a few boats started scouting San Luis Bank as Iman was overcrowded by larger boats. San Luis is also showing good numbers of nice sized yellowfin. We will keep monitoring this bite throughout next week.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
February 25^th, 2024

Busier week than usual for this time of year as our fleet saw a few days with up to 10 charters. We had many families arriving in Los Cabos for President’s week. The weather was ideal as we were experiencing warmer temperatures with mornings in the low to mid 60s and sunny days in the mid-80s. The conditions were ideal for families wanting to experience great fishing and sunny warm days. Surprising to say, the fishing was as good, if not better than last week.

The main target species this week was yellowfin tuna. We continue to see nice schools of tuna at Iman and La Fortuna, the best action coming from Iman. The bait guys continue to net nice sized sardines in the mornings. The tuna bite has been consistent throughout most of the day. We have seen some days with better action earlier in the mornings and other days with more action in the afternoon/evening; hard to predict how the bite will be each day, though they are definitely around as we have seen great numbers throughout most of the week. The average tuna is around 20-30 pounds, though we were surprised to see bigger fish show by the end of this week. The fleet caught many tuna in the 50–90-pound range; definitely a tough fight on light tackle. Many of these bigger fish broke off after long fights due to light tackle. The biggest tuna brought in this week was close to 110 pounds; a 3-hour fight on 40# test.

Within the same Iman/La Fortuna area, we landed some big dorado. Even though we did see lower numbers of dorado this week, we saw better quality fish as most of the dorado were averaging 15-25 pounds. The biggest dorado caught this week was a 49 pounder while drifting live sardines for tuna.

Bottom fishing was a bit slower this week, but we did see some nice sized grouper, amberjack, and yellow snapper. Most of these bottom fish are being caught on live green jacks also known as “cocineros” or live sardines. We are also landing a few on jigs, though live bait seems to be more productive. While jigging, we are catching a significant amount of white bonita; a few boats that focused on jigging were able to catch upwards of 10 in a few hours. Though these bonita were not the targeted species, they are great to eat.

We also had great marlin action while fishing for tuna this week. Most of the marlin bites came on live sardines and cocineros. The fishing grounds of Iman and La Fortuna have been consistently productive, and we continue to be surprised every day as we see no signs of it stopping.

The most surprising bite this week was a wahoo bite at Punta Gorda on Thursday. It seems that this bite only lasted the morning of as many boats tried that same afternoon and Friday and came in empty handed. One of the boats that fished the area on Thursday morning was able to land 12 wahoo. Most of these fish were averaging 15-20 pounds, with a couple 30 pounders in the mix. Live sardines and Rapalas were the go-to. We are excited to see what the last week of February can produce.

Good Fishing, Brian