GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 19th, 2024

The yellowfin tuna bite picked up again! Compared to the beginning of the month, our marina’s foot traffic has increased significantly, and we now have a full schedule for the remainder of the month. These big tunas tend to attract many of the locals and tourists as the word spreads fast. We are now starting to feel great heat throughout the days as we are seeing temperatures in the low 90s creep in.

The tuna bite was consistent throughout most of the week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the best days as we saw many fish in the 100–150-pound club. The biggest tuna caught this week was just shy of 200 pounds. This fish was hooked on 50# test, taking the team almost 3 hours to land. Most of the tuna action is coming from live and dead sardines at Iman and San Luis Banks. A few tuna have been hooked on strips of squid.

Many of our captains reported seeing more wahoo activity. One of the boats within the fleet had 5 strikes on Wednesday at Iman Bank while trolling Rapalas first thing in the morning. They only managed to land one. Some other boats reported a few hookups at Vinorama.

We continue to see a good variety of bottom fish from different rock structures at Cardon. Mostly using sardines, we have been able to catch yellow snapper, grouper, amberjack, sierra, and African pompano. A few grouper and amberjack were landed on jigs as well. The handful of dorado that we caught this week, came from inshore while fishing for Roosterfish. Small schools of dorado have been spotted closer to shore, most of them averaging around 10-12 pounds.

Bigger Roosterfish have been spotted throughout our shorelines as we are starting to see more mullet. Most of these fish are averaging 15-20 pounds, though we have seen a few over 30-40 pounds.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 12th, 2024

The weather and temperatures remain ideal for beach activities, slight winds and hot sunny days. Our slow season is starting to reflect at our marina as we are seeing limited charters per day. Many of the local captains are using their spare time to fish themselves and scout different areas.

Our target species continues to be the yellowfin tuna. Even though the bite slowed down, we continue to see them every day. We have been focusing on Iman Bank where we have seen most of the activity. Many of the pangeros have been scouting different areas such as San Luis and Vinorama but have come back empty handed. Most of the tuna have been hooked on live and dead sardines, though there have been a couple nicer ones that preferred the strip of squid. The biggest yellowfin we saw this week was slightly over 100 pounds. It was a difficult and long fight on 40# test. We saw more action this weekend as a few boats were able to catch 2 or 3 earlier in the morning.

When the tuna bite slows down, many of the boats are heading closer to shore to look for rock structures. Cardon seems to be the go-to spot as we are seeing a variety of great eating species such as yellow snapper, bared pargo, pompano, grouper, and spanish mackerel. We have also seen schools of dorado while fishing 20-30ft of water.

Throughout most of our shoreline we are starting to see more Roosterfish activity. We are seeing quality size fish as we are now starting to get mullets from the bait guys. Best areas for Roosterfish seem to be La Laguna, El Zacaton, and Secrets/Marriot Hotel.

Good Fishing, Brian

GORDO BANKS PANGAS
May 5th, 2024

Despite ideal weather conditions and a good variety of fish species on our local grounds, we have seen limited numbers of anglers now visiting. We are starting to experience hotter sunny days as we are now seeing temperatures in the high 80s. We should be in the low 90s in no time.

Our yellowfin tuna bite slowed down significantly this week. The best days for tuna were Monday and Tuesday. Most of the fish caught were medium sized, averaging around 30-40 pounds, though there are still some nicer ones in the mix. The biggest one caught this week was 125 pounds coming from Iman Bank. Most of this action came from live and dead sardines. A few boats started using strips of squid and we did hear of a couple boats hooking into nicer fish this way. Throughout mid-week and this weekend, we only saw a few tuna per day.

Due to the slow tuna bite, most of the boats focused on bottom and inshore action. The best action seemed to be coming from rock structures at Cardon. We continue to see good numbers of yellow snapper, leopard grouper, amberjack, and triggerfish. We are mostly using live sardines to fish the bottom, though we have caught a few nicer groupers on jigs.

Closer to shore, we continue catching Spanish mackerel (Sierra), Jacks, and Roosterfish. We are now starting to see bigger Roosters in the area. A couple captains reported a few 30-40 pounders caught and released.

This was a slow week for Dorado and Wahoo as well as we only saw a handful caught throughout the week. Most of the wahoo caught are coming from Iman while fishing for tuna with live sardines. The best chance for a dorado was closer to shore.

Good Fishing, Brian