GORDO BANKS PANGAS
January 21st, 2024
As we progress further into the winter season, we are seeing the typical tourist flow mainly from North America as they try to escape the cold and snow for a week or two. Weather patterns have not disappointed as we continue to have clear sunny skies, lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s. Ocean conditions have been nice for the most part; variable wind predominantly from the north has been picking up later in the day, though still allowing us to fish our go-to grounds.
The main highlight this week continues to be the tuna and marlin bite. For tuna, the fleet focused at the Punta Gorda point and Zacatitos, less than a mile from shore. The bite was more productive earlier in the week. As the week progressed, the bite started to slow down, continuing to experience better action later in the day. Many of the local pangeros fished this area in the afternoon/evening as they were catching 10+ fish within a couple of hours. Most of these tuna are ranging 15-30 pounds, with an occasional 50-70 pounder in the mix. These larger fish, if hooked, have been tough to land as we are mostly using 30# fluoro.
The sardina supply has been consistent as the bait guys continue to net sardines in good quantities and decent size. Within the same area, we are still catching good numbers of nice sized dorado. We did notice some large bulls caught this week, many in the 30-40 pound class.
Within the same Punta Gorda and Zacatitos area, a few boats were able to land a couple wahoo earlier in the day, before all boats arrived to target the yellowfin tuna. Only a couple wahoo were landed, but we did see one that weighed 50 pounds by one of our locals. These wahoo were caught by trolling Xraps and Nomads early in the morning.
The marlin bite continues to be hot as close as 4 miles from our marina. Most of the boats targeting marlin are starting 4-5 miles straight out from our marina and cover the grounds towards Cerro Colorado, The Westin, or towards Punta Gorda and the inner/outer Gordos. We have seen best action by trolling rigged ballyhoo or live cocineros, though we are still hooking plenty on lures. Some boats have reported catching up to 10 in a day. Using the same technique, a few of the boats have been able to hook some big bulls.
This week, we did see some better bottom action with the sardinas. The fleet was able to catch good numbers of quality sized yellow snapper and leopard groupers. We saw a few more sierra in the fish counts, along with bonito, and triggerfish. Also, a few roosterfish up to 15 lb. were landed and released along the local sandy beach stretches.
Good Fishing, Brian
