GORDO BANKS PANGAS
September 21st, 2025
As we head into the end of September, we are starting to see small crowds of anglers arrive into San Jose. Many of these anglers will stay in the area for 2-3 months, hoping for the fishing to remain hot. We consider this last week of September the start to our busy season.
We had a good productive week, focusing mostly on yellowfin tuna and dorado. We focused on the grounds of San Luis and Iman. San Luis produced more action throughout the week; however, sharks were a nuisance. Many captains reported losing over 10 tuna/skipjacks to these sharks on most days. Within the mix of sharks, a few captains reported seeing some massive tiger sharks. Most of these tuna are on the smaller side, averaging around 4-6 pounds. We saw a few tuna in the 30-50 pound range within the same area. Some boats also reported losing a few bigger ones after long fights as we are mostly using 30 and 40 pound test. Most of the bigger tuna came on strips of squid or dead sardines. While drifting or slow trolling live sardines, we have consistently seen a good mix of dorado as well. Most of these dorado continue to be on the smaller side, averaging 6-10 pounds.
To fight the heat, many boats focused on trolling Rapalas and ballyhoo as they looked for wahoo in the areas of La Fortuna and 25. Throughout the week, we saw 11 wahoo at our fillet station. Most of these wahoo averaged 20-25 pounds, though we did have a couple closer to 40 pounds. While fast trolling rigged ballyhoo, a few boats also reported hooking into striped marlin and sailfish.
Not much bottom action to report this week as current conditions were not ideal. Some boats tried jigging on the high spots of Iman and San Luis only to hook into skipjack and a few tuna.
We continue to catch small yellowfin and dorado at the Inner Gordo on sardines. If you are looking for bigger fish, then Gordo is the place to be at (Inner and Outer). As we look for big tuna or marlin, we are slow trolling live skipjack, bulito, and chiwilis, for a chance at that one good hook up. We are seeing plenty of bait in these areas. On Monday, a 250-pound tuna was caught at the Inner Gordo on a live bulito. This fish was hooked within 5 minutes of trolling the bulito on the high spot. On Wednesday, a private boat caught a 425-pound black marlin on a live skipjack at the Outer Gordo; this fish died after a 30-minute fight. On Friday, one of the local pangeros caught a 250-pound black marlin on a live chiwili.
Good Fishing, Brian
