GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 22nd, 2024

We started focusing on Iman Bank this week as the water is clearing up after the storm pushed in green water. This area holds a lot of bait, specifically small skipjacks and some schools of bulito. That said, these waters can also be infested with sharks on some days. We are catching small yellowfin tuna, though the skipjacks are winning most of the battles to the bait. Most of these tuna are small, averaging around 5 pounds, though some nicer, 30-50 pounders were spotted chasing the live sardines. The biggest tuna caught at Iman this week was close to 70 pounds. This was over an hour fight with 30# test.

There is also a good chance of landing a few dorado in this area, though nothing big at this time. We are using live sardines. The bait guys have been netting sardines towards Palmilla’s shoreline. A few nice wahoo were also hooked earlier in the morning while trolling rigged ballyhoo and XRaps at Iman and La Fortuna. Within the same area, a handful of sailfish were also landed, some of them pushing the 100-pound mark, good fight on light tackle.

This weekend, a group of 5-6 boats decided to specifically look for porpoise schools to target yellowfin tuna with live sardines. As they were headed out, they encountered a good school of them a few miles out from the Outer Gordo. They were successful as most of the boats landed their 5-tuna per license limit within the first couple hours. Most of these tuna were averaging around 20 pounds.

We are still hearing reports of Striped and Blue Marlin offshore on lures and rigged ballyhoo. A couple Black Marlin were also spotted in between the Outer and Iner Gordo. The boats that tried trolling live skipjacks had difficulty due to Sharks eating the bait as soon as they started trolling. On the days where the Sharks weren’t too bad, some boats were able to drift strips of skipjack for Dogtooth Snapper. A few of them were landed at the Inner Gordo.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 15th, 2024

Most boats were taken out of the marina Tuesday and Wednesday as we experienced Tropical Storm Ileana on Thursday and Friday. Winds were not too bad averaging around 30 mph. We did get a lot of rain in our area, which was much needed. We took advantage of this off week to detail and do some maintenance on the boats as we prep for our busy October/November season.

The port was reopened Saturday morning. The boats that fished this weekend reported catching some small yellowfin tuna, dorado, and marlin (blue and striped). All of these species were caught offshore while trolling lures looking for surface activity. This upcoming week, we will most likely focus on San Luis, Iman, and Gordo as many boats reported seeing big schools of bait this weekend.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 8th, 2024

We are closely monitoring weather conditions as we are seeing storm development in the Pacific. As of now, it is most likely that we will get a decent amount of rain and 20-30 kt winds for the following weekend, primarily Friday night and Saturday morning. If you are down in the Los Cabos area, please make sure you follow the forecast and take the necessary precautions.

The main highlight this week was more dorado action. Most of the boats going out, were able to catch their dorado limit (2 per license). The bite started towards the end of the week and seems to be spread out across, with most boats fishing Iman, Cardon, Gordo, Punta Gorda, and Palmilla. All these spots have been holding big schools of dorado, though most of them are on the smaller side, averaging around 8-10 pounds. This week, the bait guys were able to net some sardines throughout the shoreline from Palmilla to our marina; this has contributed significantly when finding the schools of dorado. We did see some bigger dorado offshore while targeting marlin on lures and ballyhoo.

Earlier this week, a few wahoo were caught in San Luis and Iman while trolling Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. A handful of wahoo were also caught offshore with marlin lures. The most popular lure colors for these wahoo seem to be red/orange/green/yellow. Most boats are starting their day closer to Gordo and continue their day trolling towards 1150 and Cabrillo. This week, we had many reports of big schools of small flying fish, though not a lot of activity around them.

The inner Gordo is showing good signs for the upcoming weeks. A few boats reported chumming sardines and strips of skipjacks and seeing dorado, tuna, and wahoo feed on the chum line. A few small tuna were also caught at the Gordo while trying to catch skipjacks for bait. While chumming strips of skippies, dogtooth and yellow snappers were also caught, though it was difficult to fish the bottom on some days due to the currents. This week, one of the local pangeros landed a 354-pound Black Marlin in between the inner and outer Gordo on a live skipjack.

This Saturday, we had some unexpected rain and wind, and most boats decided to fish closer to shore. A couple of our charters focused specifically on Punta Gorda, less than a mile from shore, and it was full of action. One of the boats caught 12 dorado (only kept their limit and released the rest), a couple Sierra, 1 Sailfish and lost a nice wahoo close to the boat.

Good Fishing, Brian