GORDO BANKS PANGAS
March 8th, 2026
We had more tourist activity this week; it most likely has to do with the proximity to Spring Break. Water conditions remained similar to the previous week, though we did notice North winds making a presence since the early morning around mid-week. Looking at the forecast, we should be expecting a few windy days next week as well. This will limit our options as it will most likely be a challenge to focus on further ground such as Vinorama and San Luis.
The tuna bite at Vinorama this week was spotty, though most boats did decent. On the slower days, boats were landing 2-3 yellowfin tuna on average; on the good days, we saw 5-8 tuna per boat. Most of these tuna were on the smaller side, averaging 5 to 15 pounds. The sardine supply was inconsistent this week; some days there were not enough to supply all pangas going out. Many captains mixed it up by buying a couple kilos of squid, which came in handy and worked quite well. Within the same area of Vinorama, we also saw decent size dorado on live/dead sardines while slow trolling/drifting for tuna.
On the slower days, many boats decided to focus on the San Luis area and jig for white Bonita and a possible chance for a nice bottom fish. The Bonita bite was good all week and saved the day for many boats. While jigging for Bonita, we also saw a handful of amberjack, grouper, and small snapper, mostly yellow and red snapper. On Sunday, a handful of boats reported seeing nicer size tuna (40 to 60 pounds) feeding at San Luis, though they wouldn’t bite much. We did see 6 or 7 these nicer tuna come into the fillet tables this Sunday.
This weekend, many captains also reported seeing small tuna at 25 later in the morning. Some captains were able to land a handful of tuna in this area. While looking for tuna at 25, these boats also caught nice sierra and white skipjack.
The highlight of this week were good size tuna schools running with the porpoise, not far from our regular fishing grounds. We heard about these porpoise schools 3 days out of the week, spotted 5-8 miles offshore from Vinorama. Many boats decided to make the run after hearing good reports on the radio, and most of them were successful. Some of these boats landed up to a15 tuna in a couple of hours. These tuna were good size, most of them in the range of 40 to 60 pounds. These areas were tough on the smaller pangas as it did get windy.
Good Fishing, Brian
