GORDO BANKS PANGAS
July 14th, 2024

Another hot and humid week in Southern Baja. We continue to see light crowds of anglers and slow activity in our marina. We had some cloud coverage with light showers throughout this weekend, which helped cool off the areas throughout parts of the day. For live bait, Caballito and sardines remain the main bait source from the local bait guys. We continue to rely heavily on frozen ballyhoo for our current marlin, wahoo, and dorado bite.

The main target species this week was striped marlin. Best action was found 12-15 miles from our marina while looking for surface activity. Most of the bites came on rigged ballyhoo, a few on live caballito. We continue to hear of a few small blue marlin and sailfish hooked in the same surrounding areas. Many of the local boats are focusing on the surrounding areas of the inner and outer Gordo’s. Small skipjacks and bulito schools are concentrating in these areas.

Throughout the same areas, a few nice wahoo were landed. Most of these wahoo were quality size, over 35 pounds. Many captains reported these wahoo coming up to the lures and ballyhoo multiple times before getting a hook set in. The bigger wahoo were landed on rigged ballyhoo and live caballito. The live caballito were thrown back after the first couple strikes on the lures/ballyhoo. We are also starting to see more quality size dorado, more in the 20–25-pound range. We are catching these dorado in the same areas we are finding marlin.

Bottom fishing was tough to perform this week due to the heavy currents, though we did see some nice catches for yellow snapper, red snapper, grouper, and amberjack. Bottom action seems to be decreasing as we get more into our peak summer season.

Porpoise and yellowfin schools continue to be spotted anywhere from 30-50 miles out. Many of the local pangeros are putting in long days to chase after these tuna. Closer to shore, we are still seeing a few jacks and roosters, though it seems the rooster bite is coming to an end soon.

Good Fishing, Brian