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
