GORDO BANKS PANGAS
August 11th, 2024

On Tuesday, we had a side of a storm pass through our area. We were not expecting so much rain, but it did come down for most part of the morning and afternoon.  The port was closed on Tuesday and was reopened on Wednesday morning. 

Fishing was very similar to the previous week. Most boats were trying to pick up a few bottom fish from the Gordo early in the morning before heading offshore with lures. The main catch at the inner Gordo were some dogtooth snapper and a couple of yellowtail, most coming from strips of skipjack and some on live caballito. Skipjacks were a bit difficult to catch this week. Sharks were a nuisance on some days; some boats reported catching double digits as they were trying to drift bait towards the bottom.

The main highlight were the porpoise schools getting closer to our area. On Saturday, 2 big porpoise schools were spotted 1 mile East from the inner Gordo. The first boats to get there were able to land a handful within the first hour of chasing them. Most of these fish were nice sized, with the biggest one weighing closer to 170 pounds. Most of them were hooked on marlin lures, a few on live caballito. Another big tuna was lost (120-140 pounds) right at the leader after almost an hour-long fight. One of our local captains reported a big yellowfin strike at the outer Gordo while trolling a big skipjack for a black marlin. They were not able to set the hook on this fish, though they were able to see it boil behind the boat; nice fish close to 200 pounds. The captain also spotted a few other yellowfin eat on the surface.

Within the surrounding areas of the Gordo, we are hooking into striped and blue marlin. One of our charters specifically focused on marlin fishing this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and were able to catch 3 small blue marlin (all under 200 pounds), 6 striped Marlin, 1 sailfish, and 1 big 40-pound dorado. We also heard of a couple wahoo strikes on the marlin lures, though only one was landed.

We had a bit more bottom action towards San Luis and Vinorama. A few local boats were able to land a handful of red snapper and amberjack while jigging through different rock structures earlier in the morning. A few smaller dorado also came along while trolling live caballito and ballyhoo.

A few jacks and small roosters are still being caught throughout our shoreline, with most bites coming at La Laguna.

Good Fishing, Brian