GORDO BANKS PANGAS
November 23rd, 2025
We are now winding down the busy fall season. As we head into Thanksgiving week, we are seeing more families get out on the water as they try to add some fresh fish to their dinner menu and get a glimpse of whales and their babies. Typically, after Thanksgiving we see a lull in tourist activity, as people begin planning for the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. This week, the weather allowed for good fishing conditions, though the wind forecast was unpredictable for most of the week. Ocean swells were minimal, though we did see North winds creeping in later in the mornings. This did not affect our fishing plan much as we were still able to focus on our go-to fishing grounds.
We had a decent yellowfin tuna bite at the Inner Gordo this week. Not all boats were able to capitalize on this bite as the tuna were a bit finicky. Many captains reported having big tuna boil right next to the boat, though would not bite. Some of these captains even tried going down to 30# test and had no bites. Bait preference varied by day; some days it was live sardines, some others dead sardines or squid worked better. Most of the tuna caught at the Inner were nice size in the range of 40 to 90 pounds. We did see more production early in the week as some boats were coming in with 2 to 5 nice sized tuna. We also saw bigger tuna while slow trolling live chiwilis, small skipjacks, and bulitos. The biggest tuna caught this week on a live chiwili by our fleet was 166 pounds. One sailfish and a handful of striped marlin were also caught while slow trolling live chiwilis and skipjacks.
The highlight of the week was tuna action less than 5 miles from our marina. This bite was consistent throughout the week, seeing more action earlier in the mornings. Most boats found these tuna closer to shore (around half a mile, some days 1/4 of a mile). These boats focused in the areas of La Laguna and in front of Puerto Los Cabos homes. We even saw them closer to Secrets and Marriott Hotel some days. These tuna preferred live sardines. Many boats tried dead sardines and squid in this area and would not get a bite. The average size tuna in this area was 15-18 pounds, though we did see many of them in the 35–40-pound range. Within this same area, we also saw good dorado numbers. Similar to Gordo, we saw more production early in the week as many boats were able to get their limit within the first hours of the day. The bite slowed down towards the end of the week, much having to do with not having enough live bait to chum.
The bait guys continue to net sardines towards the Hilton/Cabo Real area. The sardina supply has been inconsistent. Some days, the sardine supply was not enough to supply all boats. We had a very low supply this weekend. Since we are getting live sardines later in the morning (around 7:00-7:30 am), many boats are not waiting for them and going straight to the Gordo with dead sardines and squid, hoping that the chiwili will come up. Chiwilis were tough all week; many boats were not able to find them at all.
The wahoo bite remained spotty for most part of the week. Friday was a good day for wahoo within the fishing grounds of Iman, La Fortuna, and 25. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we saw more wahoo activity in the Punta Gorda and Inner Gordo area. Most of these wahoo were caught on chiwili, some on Rapalas and rigged ballyhoo. The biggest wahoo this week came in at 67 pounds.
Good Fishing, Brian
